When The Deadbolt Breaks - The Last Day Of Sun

When The Deadbolt Breaks began back in the middle part of the last decade and released their debut "In The Ruins, No Light Will Shine" in May 2006. That debut album was a onslaught of great riffs and a sonic desire to destroy everything in its path. Towards the end of that year a line-up change was made and the band released a split CD with NY sludge metal gods Negative Reaction. In mid 2007 the band started work on this album called "The Last Day Of Sun" with the intention of recording one of the most sonically charged sludge/doom albums ever. That leads us up to now and the band is still out promoting the album but still are waiting for the album to get the distribution and recognition it deserves. You could say this album is 2 years in the making but when you see what a massive piece of work this album is, then it becomes obvious why they believe in it so much. Its a mammoth release, 2 discs and 11 songs providing the heaviest and most diverse work the band has ever done. It breaks new ground not only for When The Deadbolt Breaks but also for the entire sludge/doom genre. Disc one starts off in chaotic fashion with "A Million Miles Of Trouble Ahead", sounding like a hybrid of sludge, doom and thrash, this track will floor you with its sonic intent. The punishing drumming, shredding riffs, screaming lead breaks, join forces with bellowing tortured vocal gymnastics and lower than low bass guitar frequencies. Next up is "Just Before Twilight" and the mood is relaxed for a while at least. A soothing melodic atmospheric intro begins the song and it induces imagery of floating down some swampy river alone and scared. That silence is soon shattered by a bombastic yell only to pick you up and take you a melodic psychedelic journey for a short breather, this section of the song is given a beautiful but almost eerie touch by adding some mesmerizing back-up female vocals. Just when you are feeling the effects of melancholy, the track takes some twists and turns between sludge grooves and a almost progressive rock epic approach. The song descends down to traditional doom for the last couple of minutes, winding down a monster track that will leave you almost euphoric. "Hope, Love, Solitude, Murder" brings things back to pure heavy sludge driven chaos, the ever rolling, twisting guitar work is stunning and the fast sections in the second half of the track are nothing short of intense. Track four is a 16 minute doom masterpiece titled "Story Of A Dead River" the extremely distorted, fuzzy guitar work threatens to collapse under its own weight at times as it crawls along but with a subtle lead guitar melody that gives it a atmosphere of dread. At around 10 minutes and beyond the soaring lead takes the track higher and into a almost drug-induced comatose state and then the track finally comes to its screeching, feed-backing demise. Next up is "As Flies For Flesh" which features some additional vocals by JJ from Maegashira" and this is about as harsh and threatening as doom can get. Down tuned dirge of a riff coupled by the ever present bellowing, growling screams, this always works in a doom track but here they almost make a new blueprint for how it should be done. Disc one is completed by "Sever The Wound Culture", another lengthy dose of doom that provides one of the heaviest riffs on disc one. Its a plodding track that doesn't change much expect for a almost jazz rock inspired guitar part at around 6 minutes but then the drumming turns chaotic again verging on grind at times. Varied and diverse, the first disc will leave you battered and exhausted but wait there is a second disc!

Disc two kicks off with "In Their Blood" and its more apocalyptic sludge that opens the song before it slows down and provides the vocals to take a more ambient approach, not that it stays that way for long. The last half of the song returns the sound to one of psychedelic doom with a menacing arrangement. A cascading riff concludes the song in the style of classic epic doom metal. "Amidst Heartache And Bloodshed" begins with one of the most devastating riffs ever recorded, down-tuned enough to give whales a headache, this track also features a more ambient vocal sound. This track is also epic in its richness and diversity and is full of emotion but still retains a huge level of sonic ambiance, this is the strangest track on "The Last Day Of Sun" and also one of the most psychedelic driven tracks. The devastating riff work returns to finish up the song. If you think you have heard it all, you are wrong because next is the 17 minute "Sprawled In Seamless Time". Like the title suggests it is a sprawling track and with more clear, ambient vocals. Do you see a pattern emerging here on the second disc, it is different to the first disc from the point of view of vocals but that only gives this 2 disc set some real musical depth. There is more female vocal in the background to add extra ambiance and feeling and the track doesn't lose the droning, psychedelic vibe for the entire length of the song. This might be the weakest track on the album only because of the way the track doesn't have the surprising changes that are contained in other tracks on the album. At 17 minutes it takes a bit of effort to sit through but given the right mood, the track is very effective at inducing a hypnotic cosmic feeling especially if your brain has had some mind-altering drugs that day. Track 4 on disc 2 is "Of Fallen Grace" with starts with a fairly tame intro but it slowly builds and builds to a earth shattering level with some incredibly harsh sounds. Filthy, dirty and crawling, its a exercise in how heavy you can go while still keeping a sense of melody and purpose. The sound is very abrasive but its combined with more soaring guitar work that at times squeals and screams out at you. The final track on this monster is "Spinal Carve" and is the shortest track at 3 minutes so its also the hardest to remember. Its pure sonic sludge metal that attacks with ferocious drumming and more insane bellowing vocal growls. Before you know what happened the song comes to a abrupt halt and its 2 hours and some minutes later, you have made it through one of the most well thoughtful, adventurous doom/sludge recordings ever made. The band must be real proud of "The Last Day Of Sun" as it is so musically diverse for a band in this genre of music. While its diverse, it is also produced and recorded very well with a incredibly full, thick sound. The work that has gone into this is nothing short of prolific, out of the 2 plus hours of the 2 disc's, there is only maybe 10 minutes where it wanders a little and that is a achievement considering how long this recording is. I would suggest every sludge/doom maniac will want to own this and play it forever, if your speakers can take the sheer weight of the sound anyway. You might not be able to listen to both disc's back to back, i know i couldn't. The first disc had me mesmerized for over a week before really getting to know disc two. Having done that now though, i have to say this is a essential purchase, send the band a message about the album and get ready to fall in love with this album. 9.5/10



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