ALBUM REVIEW: As Hope Valley Burns – When The Deadbolt Breaks

WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS return with their signature sludge laden doom with new record As Hope Valley Burns. This is their sixth studio record, exemplifying their gritty and confident style. Will it be what fans are expecting?

The Evil is a strong start, with more classic heavy metal tropes in both its rhythm and its vocal delivery. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it after all. As things become doomier, and the vocals lower and gravel, your attention pricks. The second half, basing itself around a pseudo-interview with a murderer, takes on a much doomier, aggressive tone. There are some unusual and distinctive uses of cymbals, a strange splash sort of effect that seems to hiss inwards longer than it should, that gives a satisfyingly unsettling presence throughout. Likewise, the very sound clips themselves become rewound and unintelligible as the song devolves more and more towards its ending.

Second track The Hanged Woman is very much the epitome of sludge and doom that WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS really come into their own with. Tape warping keys create the atmosphere under the straining vocals and the loose, sluggish guitars. It’s a pretty varied vocal performance, with plenty of textures and depths telling the story. Likewise, when the guitars begin to weave the emotional thread from bittersweet to complete despair, it ticks all the boxes.

WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS do obviously know how to make pretty decent music, so Awakening feels like a classic example of intentionally uncomfortable music. Flat singing that isn’t quite at the correct pitch with the droning guitars. Sharp turns from blast beats to a regular 4/4 beat where the snare is right at the front of the mix is also a good ploy to just demonstrate how much of a ‘screw it’ attitude there is on show here. If that’s what you’re into, it’s great, but isn’t the most mature or exemplary work this band can make.

The Crushing Weight Of The Sun is most definitely the highlight on this record, no question. It’s powerful, immensely heavy, not to mention the massive vocal performance that utterly sets the tone. The decimating middle section is a fuzzy, growling behemoth, galloping at a menacing pace towards a sombre lead guitar. That’s not to say that its latter section isn’t full of interesting ideas too. The rhythmic patterns change and intimidating bellowing guitars overlap to really finish this track off and solidify that WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS can still make some really mean doom.

So Lost Are We has a more stripped back, sludge sensibility about it. There’s definitely a more repetitive, classic element to the bulk of this, with elongated call outs adding some real emotion and weight, while the grumbling guitars pull the same heavy riff on rotation. It’s typical doom and sludge ideas, but well executed without any complaints. An airy final minute or so makes for a pallet cleansing final moment, which is just a hint of a dynamic change that this album needed.

WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS have done the rounds in their 15 or so years and have a very evident idea of what they want to make. This is classic, doomy heavy metal with some standard tricks and tropes, all done really well. While it isn’t going to break any new ground, for a short, solid record, As Hope Valley Burns is pretty decent listening.

Rating: 6/10

As Hope Valley Burns is set for release on November 26th via Argonauta Records.

Like WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS on Facebook.