Goth kids rejoice! This is some earth-mother-folding-in-on-all-of-humanity gloom and doom par excellance! This album swoops to you like a blood-soaked albatross, lovingly caressing your sorry head till it's crushing it into its chest and sucking out your brain matter. I wouldn't kid you, folks. Plus, this is a band that has their own sound, by god! How often does that happen?
Someone suggested this group has been influenced by the considerably more menacing starkrock of Xiu Xiu. This could be true, for all I know, but the two bands really sound nothing like each other. They share the same merits, such as letting their songs breathe and crawl to achieve intensity, rather than just going the typical quiet-loud-quiet-loud route. Both groups are dismal, but grounded and complex enough with their fine sense of composition so as not to be your standard downer rock. But unlike Xiu Xiu, there's an air of fantasy to The Dead Science. They'll better suit your Eyes Wide Shut party with some considerably more tinted windows to arresting emotional mania.
This band makes great music for spirited hair-raising (the goosebump-inducing snow drift of "Black Stockings" is a fine example), even if this time around they tend to rock out a little less. At first I was disappointed by this development. Their last release, Submariner, had these kinds of tunes, but stuck in between were these propulsive screamers that kept the vocals back a little more in the mix. This worked well, since the group's sound is so innately collaborative. The upright bass, guitar, and drums never sound staid. The spotlight is always shared, so that no one instrument dominates for long. On Frost Giant, Sam Mickens' overwrought vocals stick out like a sore thumb. I'm into it right now, but yesterday I felt inescapably drawn to poke fun.
Since the songs are altogether more sparse and languid, Mickens seems to get a little carried away with his theatrical coos and orgasmic hiccups. No doubt this guy is a bit of a drama queen, and it can get a bit ridiculous if you're in an inappropriate frame of mind. This maudlin indulgence was certainly present on Submariner, which is only a better release because of its variety. This one nearly approaches the Meantime curse of feeling like one long song. But it's a fantastically chilling, mesmeric song if you let it gnaw on your brains for a while. The abrupt ending is bizarre but appropriate, since "Lead to Gold in the Hour of Chaos" is probably the least structured track on here.
Aside from maybe bringing back the noise a little more, my only suggestion would be to let me have a crack at the next album title. The existing two are (I don't know how else to put this) misleadingly dumb. The band, namesake and all, is too cool to have such dopey album monikers. Other than that, goths, pseudo-goths, and not-at-all-goths-but-love-classic-horror-flicks-and-still-get-excited-about-halloween (that's me!) should bag up this instant-death-crawl-winter's-vigil-anti-matter. (Shhh, you will regret nothing.)
1. Last Return
2. In the Hospital
3. Drrrty Magneto
4. Sam Micken's Dream
5. The Future, Forever (Until You Die)
6. Blood Tuning
7. Black Stockings
8. Lil' Half Dead
9. Lead to Gold in the Hour of Chaos