DEADSPACE – UNVEILING THE PALEST TRUTH

(Andy Synn unveils his thoughts about the recently-released return from Deadspace)

Our relationship – and I should be clear that by our I also mean my – with the band known as Deadspace has been a long and rewarding one.

Over the years we’ve seen (and heard) them grow from their disconsolate, DSBM-inspired roots to adopt a darker and more symphonic-laced sound, and then an altogether more aggressive approach, culminating in the release of A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars, arguably their best, and seemingly final, album in 2020.

I say “seemingly” because although, at the time, it did appear that …Portrait… would be the group’s last work – and we were, to be certain, saddened to hear this – it turns out that rumours of the band’s demise were greatly exaggerated, with the release of the Within Haunted Chambers EP (which contained three significantly heavier reworkings/re-recordings of earlier songs) being the first sign that Deadspace were definitely not as dead as they had seemed.

And now, finally, we get to find out exactly what it is that brought them back to life.

While the best of the band’s pre-hiatus material – the moodily malevolent Dirge, the blood-pumping bombast of The Grand Disillusionment, the doomier, gloomier strains of A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars – attempted to incorporate the last remaining threads of DSBM influence into the group’s increasingly intense and dynamic delivery, the material that makes up Unveiling the Palest Truth takes the bold step of renouncing this aspect of Deadspace‘s sound entirely, in favour of an altogether darker and undeniably heavier sound.

That’s not to say that their latest record (which, in the group’s own words, “sits somewhere between the length of a long EP and short album”) sounds like a completely different band – Gebauer‘s soul-scarring vocals remain as blisteringly raw, and instantly-recognisable as ever, for one thing – but there’s no denying that the Deadspace of 2023 is an altogether more vicious and visceral entity than ever before.

Take “Within His Wretched Tomb”, for example, which wraps its writhing riffs and storming drum work (with sticksman Herb Bennetts putting in a career-best performance behind the kit) in a suffocating shroud of sinister synths and oppressive atmospherics without sacrificing an ounce of intensity or impact along the way, while the punishing percussion and piercing melodies of “Dwell in Desdemona” combine to create a compelling counterpoint between devastating heaviness and dramatic (dis)harmony.

The blend of doom-laden darkness and blast-driven fury which makes up the tumultuous title-track then takes yet another step towards defining what this new (re)incarnation of Deadspace actually stands for, displaying an even more blistering and riff-based approach which allows for even more dynamic variety – weaving together simmering, slow-burn sonic sadism and ecstatic audio extremity in equal measure – within the band’s increasingly stripped-down and straight-for-the-threat songwriting.

Concluding with the crushingly claustrophobic “A Feast for the Rats”, there’s no question that Unveiling the Palest Truth is Deadspace distilled down to their most primal and essential essence, and although the record’s all-too-brief run-time may leave your blackened appetites feeling a little unsatisfied – less may be more in some cases, but not always – it’s also very likely to leave you hungry, if not absolutely ravenous, for more.