Do you know where you will be 30 years down the line? That murky gap in time is cavernous, nearly imperceptible to visible comprehension – unless you manage to consult a perceptive fortune teller. Hell, three decades is longer than a lived lifetime for some of us fresh-faced Zoomers.
Rock and metal reunions after long periods of absence are not uncommon these days, ranging from indie cult favorites like Duster to sludge legends such as Acid Bath. Years of accumulated experience injected into a once-finished group, however, does not always result in a continuity of quality; it is even easier to tepidly replay the hits and avoid new material altogether.
After releasing their first (and, previously, only) album in 1995, metalcore pioneers Deadguy have recently assembled again for Near-Death Travel Services. The project picks up precisely where Fixation On A Co-Worker left off, an impressive feat which mostly surmounts the tempered expectations one should bring to any getting-the-band-back-together amalgamation.
Fixation On A Co-Worker, for all of its math-y digressions, is insistent enough to make its structures feel familiar; technical, but never to a detriment, inspiring successors like Converge and Botch. On Near-Death Travel Services, Deadguy strike the same balance, stuffing it with bludgeoning breakdowns and corrosive guitar playing. “Knife Sharpener”, for instance, is calculated without becoming overly complex in its articulation. While the LP’s production adds a dash of updated refinement – making for a record that is slightly less caustic than its noise rock-informed predecessor –Deadguy’s stylistic hallmarks are performed recognizably in the present nonetheless.
“Kill Fee” jumps straight into action with Tim Singer’s roaring vocals. His voice, rather than sounding aged, retains its declarative penchant for hardcore. The piercing lyrics (largely first-person, replete with rhetorical questions) are confrontational across the album when audible, belting “What’s so funny?” beneath blast beats. Although their precise meaning is occasionally murky and interpretable, Deadguy intersplice some of their straightforward beliefs: “We dare to believe / That empathy is more than a nice idea,” they rage on the aforementioned track; “War with Strangers” features an incessant manifesto to the tune of “No more gods, no more countries / No more lines in the sand / No more blood, no more blood / No more blood on our hands,” a recognizable yet timely message.
Across the album, the band momentarily let up and make room for sinister spoken word sections. “New Best Friend” utilizes its simmering guitar riffs like a warning siren, preceding the churning, apocalyptic reentrance of the full band. Eerie, atmospheric tension found on “The Long Search for Perfect Timing” likewise bridges the song’s conclusion. Beyond their chops showing little wear and tear, the bass playing is rejuvenated on select moments like the rotund rattling of back-end numbers “The Alarmist” and “Wax Princess”.
Near-Death Travel Services, then, is hardly a career pivot in its front-to-back experience. Its inner contents, however, include enough subtle shifts to feel fresh. For a comeback that revisits where their legend once ended, Deadguy hardly seemed to slow down in between.
