Wigan, Greater Manchester is probably better known for its Rugby League than its contributions to music but it did give us the short lived The Verve and Limahl, member of pop group Kajagoogoo and singer of "Never Ending Story", so that's gotta count for something hasn't it? Hoping to add their names to Wigan's not so extensive list of celebrities are Deepshade a trio of hairy Wiganites consisting of David Rybka (guitar/vocals/keys), Tom Doherty (bass) and Adam Owens (drums), the band have been knocking around in one form or another since 2015 and in that time have released two full albums and are about to unleash onto the world a new EP entitled "Gloaming", a release that heralds in a whole new approach to their art.
There is a touch of Spinal Tap about the way Deepshade go through drummers, the bands current drummer Adam Owens is the latest in a long line who have sat behind the traps, Owens has so far managed to avoid spontaneous combustion, bizarre gardening accidents or chocking on vomit from an unknown source but who knows what the future may hold for him. Owens plays on only two of the tracks on "Gloaming" with previous (hopefully still surviving) drummer Paul Barlow providing the beats on the other three.
"Eat My Dust" kicks things in fine style, its crunching hard rock/stoner groove is buoyed by a guest contribution from saxophonist Christian Berg whose various honks, trills and screams bring an almost soulful quality to proceedings. Rybka's vocals are not quite as soulful but have a clean grittiness totally in keeping with the equally gritty fuzz drenched riffs emanating from his guitar. "Mountain" follows and finds the band mixing the Seattle-like grunginess of their previous albums with some exotic eastern flavoured heavy psych Although "Mountain" shows traces of Deepshade's newer musical direction it is on "Life Is Beauty (Explicit)" that you really get to experience how much this band have moved on musically, the songs psychotic mix of jangly lysergic headiness and thrumming heavy metal riffage has an almost West Coast of America flavour in places. Its back to the riff'n'roll for "The Wolf" a hard driven rock song that boasts one of those vocal melodies that once heard is damn hard to forget. Deepshade sign off their new EP with title track "Gloaming" an enthralling and delicious Doors flavoured opus made even more Doors-like and delicious by Rybka's spot-on Lizard King vocal, Doherty's deep liquid bass, Owens mix of tight and loose drumming and the contributions of Francis Lydiatt on keyboards and Christian Berg on sax.
When fellow Doom Charts contributor Marc-Eric Gagnon reached out to Desert Psychlist and suggested we check out Deepshade's new EP, with a view to giving it a write up, we were a little bit dubious as up until hearing "Gloaming" we had regarded Deepshade as more of an alt-rock combo with Nirvana-esque leanings, however on hearing the bands latest offering that opinion has drastically altered. "Gloaming" is a stunning opus packed full of interesting twists and turns, the band have found their own identity with this release, granted those grungy textures still exist in their music, and probably always will, but now they are blending those textures with elements gleaned from a broader musical palette and its a move that perfectly suits them.
Check 'em out .....
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© 2022 Frazer Jones
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