In the great annals of the underrated, there has to be a special place reserved for When the Deadbolt Breaks. True, the Connecticut-based doomers haven’t exactly toured the pants off the Eastern Seaboard, but even so, the simple fact that they’ll so willingly move from grueling, lurching riffs into what’s essentially grindcore before dropping to a minimalism crawl of guitar and maybe some drum thud is astounding in itself, let alone the smoothness with which they execute those turns and the mangled grace with which they build back up afterward. I’ve been listening to this band for over a decade, and I still can’t think of anyone else who conjures the same kind of atmospheric malevolence, live or on record. Yeah, they’re kind of underproduced, but this is doom — everybody’s underproduced! This site is underproduced. Seriously. I’ve had the same theme since 2009! The point I’m making is that for a band whose first album dropped in 2006 and whose guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter Aaron Lewis (also a noted fetish photographer) has seen lineups come and go — currently working with Mike Parkyn and Randy Dumas as he has for a couple years — they don’t even have a proper bio on their Thee Facebooks page.

Well, I’m gonna fix that.

I don’t know if Deadbolt will use it or not, but it’s here and at least I can say I tried. Lewis, with whom I’ve been in touch a long, long time, and I have not talked about this prior, but it’s something I’m doing and if he wants it, fine, and if not, fine. Not gonna hurt my feelings either way.

The original point of this post was 13-minute album opener and longest track (immediate points) “Centering Through Isolation,” the legit-disturbing video for which you can see premiering below. It’s made in honor of the vinyl release of their ellipse-laden latest album, Angels are Weeping… God Has Abandoned…, through Desert Records. A CD version is also available through Sliptrick Records. Okay, here we go with the bio:

For more than a decade, When the Deadbolt Breaks have carved a niche for themselves within the interplay of extreme genres. They are no less at home in grind than they are in pummeling sludge or ambient soundscaping, casting forth triumphant riffs or proffering murder-dirge nods at a volume level that can only be considered violent. Led by guitarist/vocalist Aaron Lewis, their four to-date full-lengths read as a chronicle of threat that even unto the Connecticut-based outfit’s moniker tells of some lurking danger in the dark. Whether spanning a massive sprawl on 2016’s 2CD, Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth, or casting a grim psychedelia on album number four, Angels are Weeping… God Has Abandoned…, When the Deadbolt Breaks are immediately recognizable in style and malice, and they continue to push forward into a filth and emotional disaffection of their own making.

Joined on Angels are Weeping… God Has Abandoned… by bassist/backing vocalist Mike Parkyn and drummer Randall Dumas, Lewis brings the three-piece through a cacophony of wretched cinematography. In the dug-in growls of “Sky Will Fall” or the victorious push of “Bloodborn,” Deadbolt make their home in a bleak, murky space that is as much atmosphere as it is impact. In the stretches of “Floyd’s Machine” or the deranged epilogue of closer “Color the Sun,” they expand on the scope set out at the beginning of the record on “Centering Through Isolation,” and the question isn’t so much how are you going to listen, but whether or not your turntable is going to survive the vibrating low end when you do.

As the latest installment of When the Deadbolt Breaks’ ongoing narrative, Angels are Weeping… God Has Abandoned… takes them to new depths and new heights, but by no means does it sound like they’re finished or relying on past laurels. Instead, expect them to keep growing and changing, because like that threat somewhere out in the woods at night, their shape is only ever what serves to terrify most at the moment.

Or something like that. Enjoy the video:

When the Deadbolt Breaks, “Centering Through Isolation” official video premiere

Aaron Lewis on “Centering Through Isolation”:

The song was inspired by some old school horror flicks I was watching. It’s pretty much a song about horror. A story about being chased down, not knowing what’s gonna come next, being trapped in the woods in the middle of the night with somebody stalking you. That’s why the pulsing bass is there. Like the old-school movies, where somebody’s trapped in the woods, it’s too dark to see, but as the viewer, all you hear is that pulsing bass and you can just sense their panic. writing the video part it was easy. The ideas seem to fit perfectly together with the song and the actors were spot on. It’s the third video that I’ve written and directed. But this is the first time that I did most of the cinematography as well as editing myself. Charlie Sad-Eyes filmed all of the live shots, and I filmed the story part of it.

When the Deadbolt Breaks live:
Nov 17 33 Golden New London CT
Dec 1 The Rough Draft Hamden CT

When The Deadbolt Breaks are:
Aaron Lewis – Guitars/Vocals | Mike Parkyn – Bass/Backing vocals | Randall Dumas – Drums

When the Deadbolt Breaks, Angels are Weeping… God Has Abandoned… (2018)

When the Deadbolt Breaks on Thee Facebooks

When the Deadbolt Breaks on Bandcamp

When the Deadbolt Breaks on YouTube

Desert Records on Thee Facebooks

Sliptrick Records on Thee Facebooks

Tags: Angels are Weeping God Has Abandoned, Connecticut, Desert Records, Sliptrick Records, When the Deadbolt Breaks, When the Deadbolt Breaks Angels are Weeping God Has Abandoned

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018 at 8:34 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.