If the title suggests dark and aggressive, then the opening track, the delicate, gentle instrumental 'From the Deepest Well' suggests very much other wise. It's a deliberate wrong-footer, though, as it segues into the sullen 'Darksider', a slow, power chord drone the likes of which Earth have been spinning out over their later albums. But that's something of a red herring, too, as Deutrom immediately leads the listener on a winding sonic journey, on which the big riff-outs are only one element.
Just as Melvins are as noteworthy for their eclecticism and capacity to launch unexpected sonic curveballs as for their grinding riffery, Mark Deutrom demonstrates that he, too, is about taking his music down different avenues. The results aren't always on the button, but that's not a mjor detraction. You've got to admire a musician who tests themselves – and the listener. Sure, you may investigate this album wanting heavyweight guitars – and on that front Deutrom doesn't disappoint – but it's also good to hear something different, and to know that he's capable of more. From the scratchy sample-laden atmospherics of cut-up mash-up 'Au Printemps' to the slowed-down stoner rock of 'Buried in the Jewel' which comes on like Queens of the Stone Age on a mega downer, 'The Value of Decay' isn't experimental, but it is exploratory. There's insane soloing on 'Cities of Gold', and 'Perish the Thought' is almost Sunn O))) -like in its heavy drone guitar tones. Given that Deutrom's played with the masters of heviosity as a touring band member, this shouldn't come as a surprise.
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When the big riffs come, as they do on the eight-minute monster 'Making a Killing', they hit like a landslide; slow, deliberate, crushing – as you would naturally expect from a man who spent some years playing bass with Melvins, surely the undisputed kings of slow metal and sludge riffery.
Earth again provide a worthy comparison on the majestic, slow-burning closer 'Empire Sands,' which is a song to truly get lost in – and just as you're doing so, it drifts into a slow, drifting violin-led piece that's truly beautiful.
When all is said and done, 'The Value of Decay' is an expansive and ambitious album, that succeeds far more than it fails, and with so any disparate elements squeezed together, reveals new depths with each listen.
Mark Deutrom Online
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