Dead Days Beyond Help comprises Alex Ward on Guitar, piano & vocals, and Jem Doulton on drums, who formed in 2006. This, their first studio album comprises of material written between 2006 and 2007. Why it's taken so long for a release, God only knows, because this is rather good.
The majority of tracks are improvisational instrumentals, but the style is very post punk in a lot of ways. In fact it was difficult to review this without being reminded of several landmark bands.
Opener 'Access Denied!', an instrumental, has got spiky guitar lines and pounding drums which immediately made me think of early Pere Ubu tracks like 'ËœHeart of Darkness' and '30 Seconds Over Tokyo.'
'ËœNervous Disposition', which follows is paranoid and edgy with a melody that wouldn't have seemed out of place on The Fall's first album 'Live at the Witch Trials' and contains broodingly dark lyrical material:
"Don't worry about me I'm ok, It's just my nerves, my nerves, are very bad right now. I don't know why, And it's been going on so long."
'Covert Surveillance Program', another instrumental that weighs in at just over six minutes, follows a stop/start, slow/fast rhythm which is very new wave circa 1978 and is reminiscent of 'ËœNews at Ten' by The Vapors (all right, I know 'News at Ten' came out in 1980!)
The quality dips very slightly on the next couple of tracks with 'Sack' being a welter of noise, but not an unpleasant one, with a gruff screamed vocal, which is virtually indecipherable. '180 Miles' is another instrumental with chiming guitars, but also featuring Hannah Laurens on violins and Hannah Marshall on cellos. These are used very effectively to add to the melody; sounding not unlike PiL in their early days, but running to nearly eight minutes is slightly overlong. 'ËœNightbus Tourette's is a much shorter instrumental which is loud and aggressive.
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'ËœSlowly Strangled' is an excellent track with clear-cut memorable lyrics that have an almost gothic slant:
"Something starts to take its toll And strips away my self-control/ I clutch the table for support/ I want to run but I've been caught."Â
This is a painful love song where the singer is being slowly strangled by his desire, and is, for me, the centrepiece of the album.
The last two tracks, 'Cowards Wriggle' and 'Doomed Forestaller' (both instrumentals) show no drop in quality, in fact 'Doomed Forestaller' is a muscular slice of indie rock reminiscent at times of 'Riddler' by ËœThe Fall which is certainly no bad thing.
Overall, a good album, and excellent debut. I personally would have preferred fewer instrumentals, but if their next offering can match lyrics like 'Slowly Strangled' to some good melodies, then they can only go from strength to strength.
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