DEAD LORD
“IN IGNORANCE WE TRUST”
Album Review By Mike Hackenschmidt
8/10
First, let me say it brings me great pleasure to formally review my first Century Media album. CM carried me through the 90’s, especially the early 90’s when things were looking fairly grim for metal. Metallica went for shit, Helloween just came off 2 absolute WTF?! albums and Ozzy was serenading his mommy. Whether it was with their now iconic Identity samplers or just the insert they stuck in their CD’s enabling us to find and purchase new and exciting music, Century media (along with a few others) kept me from becoming one of those misinformed twats that claims metal died in the 80’s – all-the-while making sure that it would never become true.
Dead Lord, however, is not your run of the mill Century Media act. In fact, I was a little surprised when I realized who was carrying Dead Lord. Out of Stockholm, Sweden, Dead Lord is more of a rock band. But they’re not just any rock band. Not at all. In fact they have a timeless sound that I’m going to do my best to describe in the coming paragraphs. In Ignorance We Trust is Dead Lord’s third album and I’ll bet you’ve never heard of them. They don’t even have an English Wikipedia page at the time of this writing.
The cover of In Ignorance We Trust seems very simple. It’s a burning apple. The blue background at the bottom, fades to black at the top. There’s a white Border spilt at the top centre by the band’s name with the album title below. I can see at least a couple metaphors here. First, the burning apple represents the dumbing down of society, where the apple is the fruit of knowledge. However, I think the fire has double meaning. See fire also represents knowledge, so I believe they’re saying that certain knowledge, or technology, is being used to destroy another. The fade to black is light disappearing where again, light represents knowledge. I also notice the flames are threatening to roast the band. So what appears to be a very simple cover, at least in my mind, represents a lot more.
The opening track, Ignorance, begins with an off-speed guitar excerpt of Pomp and Circumstance, best known as the song played at most graduations. Curiously, also used for Randy “Macho Man” Savages entrance music, but this isn’t relevant. It’s just what I Googled to get the title of Pomp and Circumstance. Anyway, there’s some speaking before the actual song starts that I wish was clear because I can’t figure out what they’re saying. Once the actual song starts, we get very 70’s sounding rock and roll. The band has made it clear that they don’t want to be viewed as a throwback band. Instead, they intend to be timeless. They don’t use any special recording techniques. Instead it’s just straight up rock and roll and is meant to sound as close to their live music as possible. Ignorance is the track that hooked me into writing this review.
They quickly follow up with Too Late. I don’t know much about rock so I have no idea who to compare these guys to. I will say there’s a solo here that reeks of 80’s Maiden. I feel like the pressure to describe is slightly off here as you can instead watch the video and hear what they have to offer.
Reruns makes me think a bit of Zepplin and is followed up by the much slower Leave Me Be. The Glitch is next and again I’m struggling to find anyone to compare these guys to. I don’t think this is an original sound, it’s just so far out of my comfort zone to describe. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact a little bit of variety is very welcome, especially when it’s well done.
A song called Kill Them All might conjure up sounds in our minds of early Metallica. This is not the case. Instead Dead Lord give us something very different. A feel good rock ditty with “Kill them all” sung in backing vocals and then a killer solo. So glad there’s a video here to save me from slaughtering the description.
Track 8, Part of Me, is undoubtable Neil Young worship. The slow pace and harmonica remind me so much of his solo work. Not to mention, Hakim Krim seems to be trying to match Young’s vocal tone. He does a pretty good job too. Part of Me is slowest track on the album, but it’s also the best.
Two bonus tracks close out In Ignorance We Trust including an inspired cover of Motorhead’s Stone Dead Forever. But before these is Darker Times. Lyrically speaking, this is the strongest song on the album which is littered with cleverly written verses. Darker Times has a bit of a punk flare about it in the verbiage that I can’t help but enjoy. I’m not going to give away what it’s about. If you want to know, go buy the album. I will say, though that this is really the title track (as opposed to track 1 entitled Ignorance).
In closing, In Ignorance We Trust is an unexpectedly enjoyable album in a genre I generally don’t care for. Rock can be so hit and miss and since it’s largely popular there’s room for a lot of garbage. Thankfully, Dead Lord is a top quality act on a top quality label with a very bright future.
TRACKLIST
Ignorance
Too Late
Reruns
Leave Me Be
The Glitch
Kill Them All
Never Die
Part of Me
They!
Darker Times
The Indifferent
Stone Dead Forever
Released: 25th August 2017 via Century Media Records.
http://www.deadlord.com/
http://www.centurymedia.com/artist.aspx?IdArtist=838
https://www.facebook.com/deadlordswe/
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