THE DEAD WORD

Devon Graves has been one of the most active musicians around in the progressive metal field ever since the first Psychotic Waltz album. Psychotic Waltz was a highly regarded cult band thriving on the workaholic Graves. After Psychotic Waltz died just as silently as they appeared on the scene, Graves dropped his alter ego Buddy Lackey and started a new band under the moniker Dead Soul Tribe.

'The Dead Word' is already the third effort of this American/Austrian band and I must say that after their opus 'A Murder of Crows', everything went downhill. Their previous record 'The January Tree' was still pretty good, but with this new effort they really missed the opportunity to make their sound progress. Instead of progressing, Dead Soul Tribe decided to add new sounds to their music. Next to their trademark dark and brooding sound, they implemented a more bleak sound with twists of electronic music. The once great poetic lyrics have been reduced to a somewhat lighter version of his best poetic work. The album itself never seems to keep me chained to my sound system as this disc has the habbit of wandering off to musical melting pots of too many attempts at originality. The songs are not cohesive enough too make for an exciting album which you want to play over and over again.

That being said, this is still a pleasant album that will do well when you're in a mood of melancholy. For the fans of progressive music, I'd advise you to check out the second album of Dead Soul Tribe, 'A Murder of Crows'.