Noise albums are usually not the first thing I reach for, although I do enjoy some works that mix in a Noise influence from time to time. Dead Times consist of Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit) and Steven Vallot (Muslin). If you have heard any of those bands you might have an inkling of what Dead Times sound like. This self titled release is decidedly mood based, as it makes use of droning beats and looping synths that sound like calm organ-led melodies to evoke a facsimile of Devotional music. The droning beats vary in their intensity and distortion, the goal being to create a sense of calm and harsh texture that trade blows and eventually intertwine. The first four track go through variations of this, with opener “Rosewater” featuring a church choir before assaulting the senses with some Harsh Noise, putting the price of admission up front. “Their teeth are spears and Indian Swords” meanwhile, lingers on a synth led melody with a pulsing beat before “Psyche Surprises Love” ups the Noise with lingering uncomfortable shouts. Finally, “Black Paintings” merges the two approaches with soft synth sounds, a sampled church bell and pulsing distorted beats. Most of the songs go through iterations of these same ideas, making it hard to describe the individual songs properly.
Dead Times is a very textural album and many of the songs iterate on the same idea. It is a mood based piece of 33 minutes that will not appeal to everyone. I have been stuck with how relaxing I find the sounds even though there is some distortion happening up front and normally I would bemoan the slight lack of variety on a release such as this. But I realize that it really is up to how well the mood of the piece catches you. The drones affect me in a way as to sit comfortably with the music each time. The songs can get a bit long winded eventually but Dead Times often find a way to tweak the music each time it starts to drag, introducing a nice organ led song in “Be Glad” and some pulsating Industrial in closer “METAXU”. I am reminded a bit of my favorite Industrial band, Skinny Puppy, as the vocalist sounds particularly close to ohGr and his style and timbre of vocals. The spacious songs make for a release I keep coming back to since it released in October, and this particular mix of genres has me impressed as Industrial and Noise usually are not genres I associate with relaxation. Nevertheless, if you are on the lookout for an album mixing soothing loops and harsher textures, you cannot go wrong trying this.
