While the hard data tells us that Vancouver is located in British Columbia, tucked neatly on the northern side of the US/Canada border along the Pacific Coast, you might be forgiven for watching/listening to Dead Quiet‘s “Of Sound and Fury” and assuming the band is Swedish. The five-piece issued their third long-player, Truth and Ruin (discussed here), on the tail end of last year’s lost summer, and if they’re looking to remind listeners of the record’s sundry strengths — the Scandi-esque fluidity with which they bring together classic heavy rock sounds and modern production and tonality among them, as heard here — “Of Sound and Fury” is a righteous place to start.

Maybe it’s the organ, or the subtle underpinning of precision in delivery that tips hand to the players’ roots in more aggressive fare, but these two are elements working decidedly in favor of “Of Sound and Fury” and Dead Quiet more generally across Truth and Ruin‘s seven component tracks, weaving in and out of classic metal and various other microgenres en route to the sweeping nine-minute capper “Cold Grey Death,” dropping earworm hooks all the while that bring substance as much as style behind them. Hey kid, you like rock and roll? Here’s some. And they got t-shirts.

I say this as someone who’s had “Of Sound and Fury” on repeat in my stuck-in-my-head mental jukebox for the last couple days: no regrets. The song is honestly enough of a sell in itself, but you’ll see too in the video the five-piece seem to arm up with various weaponry, and I think they might be enacting socialist revolution? One of the dudes they take down looks like Grover Cleveland and the other looks like not-Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, and the back-room dealings of capitalism would seem to be what’s being conveyed as they play games with people’s lives. Legit. Their Jeff Bezos lookalike must have been in space that day, lest we forget our modern-day robber barons.

In any case, the best part is when they’re all standing around at the end and it’s just a second or so, but they’re like, “Okay, now what?” Indeed, gentlemen. With sincerity in my heart, I wish the members of Dead Quiet good luck in forming a new provisional representative government. My understanding is that shit gets tricky.

Enjoy the clip:

Dead Quiet, “Of Sound and Fury” video premiere

Forming in 2014, Dead Quiet established themselves quickly with the release of their debut self titled record in 2015. By the time writing commenced for their follow up record, Grand Rites in 2017, Dead Quiet had found their perfect line up in Kevin Keegan (Barn Burner), Brock MacInnes (Anciients), Mike Grossnickle (Hashteroid) and Jason Dana. The release of Grand Rites on Toronto’s Artoffact Records was followed by two European tours, one of which being direct support for John Garcia (Kyuss), as well as numerous festival appearances including Desertfest Belgium and Into the Void (NL), further cementing the band as one to watch out for.

After a rigorous year of touring, the band had no intention of slowing down and swiftly entered the studio to record their third record: Truth and Ruin. Again teaming up with Artoffact, Truth and Ruin saw the addition of Mike Rosen to the band and further broadened the already keyboard laden sound they’d established on previous efforts. Truth and Ruin proves that work ethic and chemistry can truly refine a band’s sound to what they had always been striving for: heavy instrumentation combined with rich melody and uniquely personal lyricism, making Dead Quiet one of the hottest, must-see bands on the Canadian landscape.

Lineup:
Kevin Keegan – vocals, guitar
Brock MacInnes – guitar
Mike Grossnickle – bass
Mike Rosen – keyboards, backing vocals
Jason Dana – drums

Dead Quiet, Truth and Ruin (2020)

Dead Quiet on Thee Facebooks

Dead Quiet on Bandcamp

Dead Quiet on Spotify

Artoffact Records on Bandcamp

Artoffact Records on Instagram

Artoffact Records website

I’m going to admit at the outset that the post-metal thing has left me pretty cold lately. Between all the Amenra and Cult of Luna worshipers in Europe and the Neurosis/Isis school in the US — not to mention the hordes of acts from everywhere who count that one section of blastbeats as enough to make them “blackened” — it’s a style in need of some strong individualist presence, and that is the vibe I’m getting from Kauan.

Sure, songs of the sea are familiar enough, but to listen to the eight-minute “Raivo,” it’s striking how much Kauan aren’t just doing loud/quiet/loud again changes. The transitions are textured and purposeful, and the atmosphere — cold enough to represent a record called Ice Fleet — also has breadth and malleability.

Ice Fleet is Kauan‘s eighth record and this is the first I’ve heard of them, so I guess I’m once more late to the party, but the point is even if you’re over the idea of post-metal on its face, this might still be worth a shot. Plus you can preorder a tabletop RPG with it! That’s immersion.

Here’s PR wire info and the song. Would love to know what you think if you’ve got time to drop a comment:

KAUAN: Artoffact Records to release Russian post-metal visionaries’ eighth album “Ice Fleet”; new track streaming

Artoffact Records announces the April 9th release of Ice Fleet, the spectacular new album by Russian post-metal visionaries Kauan.

Stream new track “Raivo” and pre-order the album, here:
https://kauan.bandcamp.com/album/ice-fleet

Opening with the haunting sounds of a creaking ship, Ice Fleet is based on the true story of an unidentified fleet discovered in 1930 in northernmost Russia, completely frozen under the permafrost with crew and passengers’ bodies grotesquely preserved.

To tell the tale of this unsolved mystery, Kauan has composed an epic seven-song concept album built upon frigid atmospheres, post-rock melancholy, synth-laden rapture and metallic triumph. Sparse vocals, sung in Finnish, range from the pensive to the blackened to the operatic.

A full immersion, Ice Fleet is the pinnacle of this great band’s career thus far. Supremely evocative, the music puts the listener right there amidst the ice. Flowing from delicate lulls to walls of sound, the album unfolds perfectly – a masterwork of pacing and dynamics.

To accompany the music and enhance the experience, the band has created a 40-page tabletop role-playing game, available now for pre-order along with the LP, CD, and other merch.

–––––––

Kauan mastermind Anton Belov began making music in 2005 as a teenager in his home of Chelyabinsk, nearly 1,000 miles east of Moscow. His early work was inspired by the landscapes of the region – the Ural Mountains and vast plains. Seeking a language that would be undecipherable to most people (and honoring some of his favorite metal bands), he chose to write lyrics in Finnish and he named his project with the Finnish word “Kauan,” meaning “for a long time.” By the age of 16, he had written Kauan’s debut LP, Lumikuuro, establishing his unique ability to combine crushing metal and quiet introspection in seamless ways.

Over eight albums, Belov and his collaborators, now based in Tallinn, Estonia, have carved a special path through the underground. 2015 saw the release of Sorni Nai, arguably Kauan’s most ambitious work up to that point, chronicling the Dyatlov Pass Incident, an expedition of nine doomed hikers who mysteriously died in a blizzard in the Ural Mountains. The album received extensive critical acclaim, including this high praise from Stereogum: “Kauan blend elements of folk and metal better than perhaps any other band today, clouding doom in a lush and weary atmosphere… The band captures a sad sense of loss — not maudlin but nostalgic.” 2017’s Kaiho saw Kauan step away from its metal origins in favor of atmospheric rock, featuring lyrics written by the great Finnish folk singer Marja Mattlar. In 2021, Kauan has returned with a new label, Toronto-based Artoffact Records, to release the band’s most ambitious album to date: Ice Fleet.

Tracklist:
1) Enne
2) Taistelu
3) Maanpako
4) Kutsu
5) Raivo
6) Ote
7) Hauta

Lineup:
Anton Belov – guitar, vocals
Alina Belova – keyboards, vocals
Alexander Vynogradoff – bass
Anatoly Gavrylov – viola
Anton Skrynnik – drums

Discography:
Lumikuuro (2007, BadMoodMan Music)
Tietäjän Laulu (2008, BadMoodMan Music)
Aava Tuulen Maa (2009, BadMoodMan Music)
Kuu.. (2011, Avantgarde Music)
Pirut (2013, Blood Music)
Sorni Nai (2015, Blood Music)
Kaiho (2017, kauanmusic)
Ice Fleet (2021, Artoffact Records)

https://www.facebook.com/kauanmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/kauanmusic/
https://kauan.bandcamp.com/
http://www.kauanmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/artoffact
https://www.instagram.com/artoffact_records/
https://artoffact.com/

Kauan, Ice Fleet (2021)

Vancouver’s Dead Quiet will release their third full-length, Truth and Ruin, on Sept. 11 through Artoffact Records. With the advent of “Truth and Ruin,” the title-track of the album, premiering in the video/lyric video below — it’s like a regular video, but also lyrics! — there are now three songs public from the upcoming offering, and they each present some different personality facet of what shape the record might take. To wit, “Forever Unsung” offers organ-laced heavy blues met with post-hardcore crush and a sneaks-into-your-brain hook before they Iron Maiden-out a solo section in classic dual-guitar fashion and turn back skillfully to the verse/chorus to finish. Clever track, and it uses every second of its 4:50 runtime to make its point.

Later in the proceedings comes the six-and-a-half-minute “The Sign of a Sealed Fate”; more spacious in its initial verse, but with an underlying rhythmic tension — double-time hi-hat, and so on — that teases the volume push to come. And of course it does come, followed by a surprising keyboardy prog break and huge-sounding, shout-topped, organ-laced shove that leads to a finish of residual guitar and far-back vocals that finish. I’m not sure I’d call it patient since it’s still plenty brash, but there’s a definite loosing of the structural reins happening.

That brings us around to “Truth and Ruin” itself, which again offers a broader beginning, but has a more melancholy feel. The accompanying video takes us through a day in the life of a werewolf as lyrics like “To be alone is to be myself” highlight the alienated impression presented by the visuals. As outwardly arrogant as Dead Quiet might seem at times with Kevin Keegan‘s vocals up front, Truth and Ruin‘s title-cut effectively flips that on its head, shifting with Solace-like efficiency into a thrashier chug and thrust after some quick shouts, tearing into one and then another solos before returning to the hook. So maybe a bit of each of the other two tracks come together in Truth and Ruin, plus metal, plus a bit of downer vibing offset by instrumental triumph. It ends, of course, with a touch of violin, as it would.

Keegan, formerly of Barn Burner, says in the PR wire quote below that he loves a good hook. That affinity serves him and the band well on Truth and Ruin if what they’ve shown off thus far is anything to go by.

Video and more info follows here. Preorders are of course available.

Please enjoy:

Dead Quiet, “Truth and Ruin” lyric video premiere

DEAD QUIET – Truth And Ruin
Title track of Dead Quiet’s third full length album, on Artoffact Records.
Available everywhere September 11, 2020.
Preorder here: https://deadquiet.bandcamp.com/album/truth-and-ruin

From Vancouver, Canada, comes Dead Quiet. The third full-length album, Truth and Ruin, shows the band at its peak, delivering its arena-ready, proto-metal bacchanal with power and flair. Dead Quiet’s dramatic, organ-heavy songs are saturated with respect for the hard rock and heavy metal titans of the late ’70s and early ’80s – there are traces of blazing Deep Purple jams and hellbent Judas Priest bangers – but the band rocks with a prowess all its own. Dead Quiet respects its elders while fully owning its own craft. It is a fine balance, which brings to mind Ghost, among others.

Of new album Truth and Ruin, frontman Kevin Keegan states: “We just wanted to make a record that was relentless. On Grand Rites we took our time and meandered quite a bit but with Truth and Ruin it was more about ‘point and shoot,’ always keeping us and the listener on their toes. I love a good hook. I like the idea of a song that rips but also gets stuck in your head like a good pop song.”

Truth and Ruin was engineered and mixed by Jesse Gander (Japandroids, White Lung) at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver, BC. It was mastered by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Chelsea Wolfe) at West West Side Music in Hudson Valley, NY.

Tracklist:
1) Atoned Deaf
2) Forever Unsung
3) Of Sound and Fury
4) Truth and Ruin
5) Partial Darkness
6) The Sign of a Sealed Fate
7) Cold Grey Death

Lineup:
Kevin Keegan – vocals, guitar
Brock MacInnes – guitar
Mike Grossnickle – bass
Mike Rosen – keyboards, backing vocals
Jason Dana – drums

Dead Quiet, Truth and Ruin (2020)

Dead Quiet on Thee Facebooks

Dead Quiet on Bandcamp

Storming the Base website

Artoffact Records