The Deathtrip — Deep Drone Master

I’m going to come out and say it – there isn’t much good about The Deathtrip’s debut album. From the strange goth album cover to the atrocious vocals to the terrible pacing, the album is one mistake after another. This is apparent from the onset of the intro, where Aldrahn and co thought that didgeridoo plus chickens clucking would be a good way to kick off an album. And it really doesn’t get much better than that.

When your main claim to fame is that you have Aldrahn (of Dødheimsgard mainly) performing vocal duties you’d expect the vocals to be something to brag about. They aren’t. It’s painfully obvious that Aldrahn’s well past his prime as both vocalist and lyricist. I’ve never been the biggest fan of his shouted rasps and barks but I’ve been able to tolerate them until now. The vocals are pushed to the forefront of the mix and they just dominate the rest of the music. The minimal distortion and general slow pace allow Aldrahn to ramble aimlessly and unchecked like a sore-throated homeless man with Tourette’s – unthreatening but most of all annoying. And even worse, he even tries to sing a couple times! These attempts remind me of CoO’s vocals occasionally but without any of the endearing quirkiness that comes with CoO’s material.

Our instrumentalists Host and Mullins don’t make matters any better. Host’s guitar playing is perfectly competent, I’ll give him that. It’s just that he’s content to play support to Aldrahn’s ego-trip and faff around playing at atmospheric work. Even when he nuts up and breaks into the rare tremolo picked riff there’s no bite due to the lack of distortion and rhythm guitars. Mullins’ half-assed drum work is the icing on the cake here. Acting like a half-baked timekeeper most of the time, he drags everything down to a painful crawl making a 40 minute album seem like 60+. I don’t even want to mention his limp-wristed half blast beats.

The album isn’t a total stinker (but it’s close) though – “A Foot in Each Hell” isn’t bad at all. Some passable kit work from Mullins, some solid riffs from  Host, and a hellish scream from Aldrahn drag the album up from the muck to a level approaching mediocrity, but all hopes are dashed when “Syndebukken” rolls around, featuring more of the same old trudge. Other than “A Foot in Each Hell” there isn’t anything worth seeing here. Heralded as a return to black metal’s true roots and a breath of fresh air, Deep Drone Master is none of that. Instead, the album serves up a lukewarm attempt at slow, hypnotic black metal without an ounce of passion or malice. Bargain bin material if I’ve ever heard it.