THE JANUARY TREE

Having been tepidly appreciative of Deadsoul Tribe's sophomore effort, A Murder of Crows, I decided to pick up their junior release, The January Tree a few days ago and that was a great move if I do say so myself.

For me Deadsoul Tribe's strength is that they remind me of Tool, one of my favorite bands. They have a dark morose sound and lyrics, a similar disjointed, syncopated style, a heavy stop and go drum and guitar beat with unusual melodies, somewhat de- emphasizing the vocals for the sake of the strong instrumentation. That's not to say that, as a singer, Graves doesn't have his moments. He has a pleasant mid to high pitched voice and a decent style that together, with echo chambers and dual tracks, happens to compliment the music.

For those familiar with Tool, you know that the music is all but impossible to describe except in generalities, as is Deadsoul Tribe. The first six tracks from "Spiders And Flies" to "Toy Rockets" have a feel strongly reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan, either Tool or A Perfect Circle, except track five "The Coldest Day of Winter". "Spiders And Flies" and "The Love of Hate" feature heavy bass drums and a crunchy guitar throughout. "Sirens" starts with a little jazzy guitar intro, then settles in but finishes with a slow ethereal ending, on "Why" we have more crunchy guitars and heavy drums but it slows down in the middle and Graves is accompanied by an acoustic guitar building to a cresendo.

"Wings of Faith", my personal favorite, has a snappy medium fast beat but is sung at half speed. It also features at least one or two female background singers, a nice touch. "Toy Rockets" is similar to most of the songs except it features a flute, another nice touch.

While I'm not yet quite ready to describe, The January Tree as 'sensational', after only a few listens, it is nonetheless, a very strong effort, warranting a five star rating.

If you have never heard of these guys or know little of them, I suspect that is about to change!

Devon Graves formally known as Buddy Lachey from PSYCHOTIC WALTZ is such an incredible talent, lyrics are very important to him and he actually wrote the lyrics to this album first, then created the music to go with them.

This record reminded me a little of the "Mosquito" record from PSYCHOTIC WALTZ, I really like the heavy bass and guitars especially on the first song "Spiders And Flies", this is heavy duty ! "Sirens" doesn't disappoint either and has a catchy chorus.

"Why" features some great riffs and a nice solo as well. More beautiful guitar and bass on "Wings Of Faith" another favourite. We finally have some flute on "Toy Rockets". "Waiting For The Answer" features a dark and heavy undercurrent, and is slower paced. "Just Like A Timepiece" is an old Buddy Lachey song that Devon reworked, it features piano and flute and is the longest song on the record.

This is a powerful record that I highly recommend.

Third album for Deadsoul Tribe in an equal amount of years. There are few bands with such continuously flowing output. It's a good thing for the fans but slightly frustrating for critical nitpickers like myself. Deadsoul Tribe revolves around the powerful voice of Devon Graves but lacks the creativity and musicality to keep such a huge output interesting.

The album starts interesting enough with Spiders and Flies, heavily in dept to Tool but with far more accomplished vocals, both in expression and in melodic feel. The opening bars of Sirens even bring Psychotic Waltz back, but after 30 seconds, we're back to unremarkable and slowly plodding Sabbath/Tool riffs, the vocal melody saves the song though. With the next couple of songs, The Love of Hate and Why?, the mid-paced monotony of the material creates a weary mood and the lack of character makes the songs dwindle in anonymity. The Coldest Days of Winter is a charming little song, Wings of Faith tries to add an industrial angle but remains flat and dull. Toy Rockets and Waiting for the Answer are two more mediocre and faceless songs. Just Like a Timepiece is a rather ordinary ballad that brings Devon's Jethro Tull influences to the fore. Lady of the Rain ends the album with more balladry

Deadsoul Tribe is basically a one man project and not a real band, Devon Graves is an excellent vocalist but I'm not much impressed with his rudimentary guitar playing and song writing. He is only accompanied by Adel Moustafa, a deserving drummer but he approaches all songs too much in the same way. With hardly 15 minutes of great material and 35 dreary mediocrity 2 stars seem more appropriate then 3 but I'll round up for the nice artwork.

"The January Tree" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Austrian/US progressive metal act Deadsoul Tribe. The album was released through InsideOut Music in August 2004. While the band´s preceding album release "A Murder of Crows (2003)" was recorded by a full lineup, band leader Devon Graves opted to record "The January Tree" almost entirely by himself. He plays and sings everything except for the drums on the album, which are recorded by Adel Moustafa. So the two other members of the band are reduced to touring members. A concept Graves would also use on the next two Deadsoul Tribe albums.

The music on the album continues the predominantly vers/chorus structured progressive metal style of it´s two predecessors and doesn´t add much new to the band´s discography in the way of innovation. It´s an album were it very much feels like Deadsoul Tribe had found a music style they were comfortable with and therefore didn´t feel the need to develop upon. As a result "The January Tree" is a solid release but it´s also a very "safe" release.

Musically we´re treated to heavy distorted riffs, some acoustic sections, lead harmony melodies, rhythmic drumming, and Devon Graves distinct sounding vocals on top. The material is relatively well written, but few tracks stand out. I´d mention "The Coldest Days of Winter" and "Wings of Faith" as some of the highlights, but overall it´s more a solid release than an outstanding one.

The slightly flat impression I get when listening to "The January Tree" also has a lot to do with the way the album is produced. Considering how often Devon Graves (who acts as producer on this album) has spoken of his love for organic sounding artists like Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and Jethro Tull, it´s odd how artificial this production sounds. The drums are clicky and flat sounding, and the rest of the instruments and the vocals has a digital tone to them, which isn´t very suiting.

So upon conclusion "The January Tree" is an album which leaves me a bit biased, because objectively it´s a solid release featuring a professional sound production, decent songwriting, and strong musicianship, but it´s like the sum of the parts, just don´t add up to an album that´s extraordinary. Less will do though, and "The January Tree" is overall a decent release by Deadsoul Tribe and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still warranted.