Deadenstereo - Demo

There are moments in Deadenstereo's music where there's a brief hint of a decent LP to come. This demo proves the band can cover a fair range of musical territory, but ultimately suffers from too much restraint. Trust the Tale never fully reaches the energy level it could with vocals failing to match the heavily riffing guitars, and the more epically styled Smooth Stones doesn't hold enough attention to fully prepare the built up, distorted breakdown or sustain its length. Occasionally, songs become bogged down in that heavy mid-ranged mud that plagues a number of bands relying too much on their distortion to drive a song. However, there is enough melodic potential in the background that might make these Edinburgh based musicians worth checking out live. [Jon Mercer]