There's this little place in your mind...way, way deep in your mind...that music sometimes travels. There's a place in your mind that, as blissful sounds pass through, snakelike tentacles grasp onto them, holding them in place. There's a place in your mind that, as these blissful sounds shimmer and radiate, a hallucinogenic metamorphosis takes place, like a caterpillar to a moth, forming its wings to fly and flutter. And when this happens...when this orgasmic audio feeling rests gently inside our thoughts, there's a transcendence which cannot be duplicated by anything. There's a transcendence that becomes your whole soul, your entire being. And it takes over, and moves you in a way that no fucking other music can. And this is rare, mind you. This is so unequivocally rare that not an ounce of any other music can compare to. This, my friends, is DEAD REGISTER and their new album "Alive".
The bass, my God, the bass that opens first track 'Alive', throbs in our brains with throttling force. Mr Chvasta's almost sixties vocal-vibe sways and swoons. The guitars pulse like eerie radio frequencies signaling a distant, bleak warning. "It's all that keeps me alive. You're all that keeps me alive". Lyrics that reverberate a smidgen of hope. Second track 'Let Me In' is atmosphere. It's mood. It's freeing inhibitions. And damn, there's so much passion in his voice, oozing and melting into the pores of our very emotions. 'Circle Of Lies', another cranking bass intro to the song...the guitars slither and ripple, the drums plank and plod, the voice smoothly withers and swirls. This is around the time mentioned above where you really start to feel the total experience taking control of you, bringing you into that esoteric world only few experience.
Avril Che's on top of things and doesn't let go. 'In Between' is an almost post-punk delivery concerning turning emotions off and dealing with shit our own way. And then there's 'Jaded Love'. If you thought earlier album "Fiber" was something to cry your eyes out to with all the mindbending energy it released, then you'll be overthrown with this new one. Sixth track 'Two Silhouettes' whispers a little of The Cure in it's guitars, which is a damn fine thing, I must say. But it goes its own way...takes its own path...into new and mesmerizing dimensions. DEAD REGISTER are a drug into their own, and likely more addictive. Randy Garcia plays his drumming heart out at the beginning of 'Longest Day' as Avril and Mr Chvasta sing their lungs out respectively. Here's a band at the top of their form. And just when the album couldn't yank your fucking insides out any more than they already have, 'Old Flame' ends the album with a blunt lead pipe to the back of the skull.
And when the music eventually fades, when your mind comes back down from it's postulous journey, you realize you're no longer the same fucking peon that you previously were. There's a new sense of being. A new sense of self that radiates and intensifies. And without putting any more thought to it, you simply press the Start button again and immerse yourself in the amorphous spirit-filled aural transformation that will inevitably take you away from the real world and change you forever.
-David Simonton
Check out Dead Register live this Saturday, June 4th at Bogg's in Atlanta !