Modern Rock for me is a hit and miss affair, it can ‘sound’ great but if you value your melody above all else sometimes it can feel a bit like eating a doughnut only to find there’s no jam in the middle. At other times albums that are proclaimed ‘ground-breaking’ and refreshingly modern almost always aren’t.
DeeVer is modern Metal-tinged Indie Rock and their debut is full of energy, is nicely produced and at times gets it just right. However whilst some reviewers claim that the band is breaking new ground and not seeking to recycle sounds of the past, that’s not true at all, its just that the past that they are seeking to recreate is distinctly more modern, it’s not new sonic territory, Rock and Roll after all is and always will be theft.
For Rock fans of a certain sensibility the point of interest here will be that this band is fronted by ex-Inglorious guitarist Wil Taylor who left the band in 2016 to pursue something more contemporary. His vaguely gritty voice suits this stylized kind of rock without any huge power or presence, though admittedly that isn’t really required with this type of music.
Opening up with previously released singles ‘Fire at Will’ and ‘All Come Running’ (‘Only Enemy’ comes later) its not a bad start,’All Come Running’ to me is the better of the two – more expansive and sonically interesting but its still modern Rock so there’s lots of hard guitars and soft vocals and plenty of word stretching and ‘woah ohs’ and suchlike.
‘Alright’ that follows is just that, it’s OK, nothing to write home about, but ‘Back Down’ is better, gentler, built for radio with a nice build and decent hook. ‘Waves’ is less inspired, though still a nice song, falling back on the age old ‘heavy riff set against frenetic verses and smooth soaring choruses template’ (plenty more ‘oh, ohs’ here too). Essentially Pop-Punk.
Sadly it gets less interesting and more focused on getting the ‘kids’ onboard after this. Seriously every generation thinks their version of ‘Indie Rock’ is cooler and of more substance than anyone else’s but one thing Ive found over the years is that most of it is style over substance. ‘Parachute’ is just the sort of Indie Rock I don’t like and have heard a few million times before. It’s just dull with lyrics that I’m sure will have the outsiders of 2019 feeling all the more individual and special.
‘We Are’ is heavy guitar, Pop chorus on repeat (OK I can imagine the kids singing along to that one) and ‘Jim’ is just that old staple Pop Rock recycled again with a pinch of faux-Punk for good measure. The album closes with ‘I am The Cavalry’ possibly the best take on the Pop Punk song here, but still strikingly unoriginal.
The problem with albums like this is that the kids who wear the right T-Shirts will flock to it claiming stunning originality, vision, scope, genre-bending and blending, belief, passion and any other emotive yet meaningless word you care to throw at it. This isn’t a bad album, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day it’s just a collection of songs aimed at kids with no attention spans – 10 ‘singles’ for the easily bored modern youth with playlists on continuous shuffle.
I suspect that the kids will love this as it’s essentially an Indie Pop Punk album with a lathering of loud guitar. Hell at least it has guitar!
Track Listing: Fire At Will |All Come Running |Alright |Back Down |Waves |Parachute |Only Enemy |We Are |Jim |I Am The Cavalry
