Deadwood - Sheolic [Cold Spring Records - 2014]Sheolic is Deadwoods final part of the Deadwood trilogy, beginning with 8 19 in 2005, followed by Ramblack in 2008. Deadwood is the one man project that began in 2002 under the name Deadwood Murder. Swedish artists Daniel Jannson is the man behind the music, he is also a member of Culted, Keplers Odd, The Ritual Inclusion of Code and past member of Blodulv. Going by the press release for Sheloic, Deadwood states that “it is influenced by the downfall of mankind and the men and women that willingly embrace it; from religious cults to those who choose to act on their own.” What we hear is a marvelously dark and disturbing elegy to mankind’s demise.
For those who have never heard Deadwood it’s a chilling black ambient and industrial affair. Seven songs make up Sheolic, each brimming with harsh noise, ambient hums, jarring rhythms, whispered or screamed vocals (mostly buried under the din) and bubbling static. Each song stays true to theme by creating sweeping tones that convey hostile anger, numbing desolation and submission to defeat. However that’s not to say there is not a feeling of delicious pleasure in all this ruin. To say there is a sense of a devilish grin behind all this would be to put it mildly. Any decency and virtue has descended into sweeping sound scapes of haunting vocals and dissipating din. This is a meticulous mix of dark ambient and industrial, much to Jannson’s credit; truly a must for fans of projects such as Aderlating and Raison d’être. Researching Deadwood, descriptions like black industrial kept popping up, but this is a bit of a stretch as some would lump that into the category of bands like Mysticum, Aborym and BlackLodge, which Deadwood does not fall into. For all its worth, Deadwood have created a hymn to bleak and decaying atmospheres.    Viktorya Kaufholz
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