Dead Or American - Thaumaturgy
Recorded at Godcity Studios with Converge guitarist / production guru Kurt Ballou, Scottish quartet Dead Or American...
Posted Tuesday, 20 January 2009 in ,
Rating: 8
Recorded at Godcity Studios with
Converge guitarist / production guru
Kurt Ballou, Scottish quartet
Dead Or American’s second album is a brilliantly adventurous affair. It’s frequently caustic and delightfully discordant (‘Creep Eastward’, ‘Shibboleth’), but not without more melodic, tempered moments, such as ‘A Border Crossing’, a track that would grace any
Interpol album. When they are tearing it up, they know how to pen a great tune too – a chief example being ‘Ne Plus Ultra’. There are great moments throughout, with ‘Hot Shapes For Autumn’ – an excellently bleak song full of intriguing arrangements that creep around the central vocal – being a wonderful highlight. Accomplished, intelligent, and thoroughly entertaining stuff.
Tim Newbound