Deadend In Venice

Album Title: 
A View From Above
Release Date: 
Friday, October 25, 2013
Label: 
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

Deadend In Venice were formed in 2008. After two demos, which were pretty well received in, especially, their home country Germany (in that period, the band performed live on stage in support of acts like Finntroll and Tristania, which strengthened their upcoming ‘popularity’), the band was able to record their debut full length with Disillusion’s Andy Schmidt (Kick The Flame Studio) (title: See You On The Ground; label: Casket Music). It eventually gave Deadend In Venice the opportunity to play live outside Germany too (for example Metal Camp in Slovenia). At the end of 2012, the band (nowadays a sextet), started working on the sophomore full length, which is entitled A View From Above (duration: forty minutes).

This eleven-tracker starts with a sweet intro (including female vocals), before evolving into the core of Deadend In Venice’s existence: rhythmic and melodic modern Gothic Metal with both female vocals and male grunts. It lacks of originality, by joining traditional Gothic Metal in the vein of the early nineties (very generally seen, I’d like to refer to the scenes from Germany, Holland, Belgium and Austria), mixed with American-sounding Metalcore and Thrash-edged Swedeath. Despite a certain pseudo-emotional would-be identity, most songs are pretty heavy, and there is not a stupid overload on ballads or semi-acoustic nonsense with a radio hit potential. Besides, the heavier parts sometimes sound enormously epic and overwhelming, and that might be a surplus. Yet still it sounds enormously catchy and from time to time way too superficial too.

A mixture of In Flames, Soilwork, Evanescence, earlier Nightwish, Deadlock etc.

71/100