Soul Pollution is the debut record by Warwick, NY’s Dead Channels. A self described hardcore band, the genre itself is a broad stroke, but the eleven songs contained within this album transcend the label and find themselves difficult to quantify and neatly label alongside their peers in such fashion. It seems less time was spent concerned with what category these songs would fit in and more time was spent writing them. There’s one thing Dead Channels gets that many bands lately do not….fashion has a place in music. That place is either the dumpster or in the hearts of the clueless. Same place.
Honest, deftly assembled songs combine the sharp, thought out guitar feel of Quicksand and the sludgy, dronish guitar lines of Helmet sometimes within seconds of each other. A three piece, the rhythm section makes extremely interactive asides throughout these songs sound effortless and natural. The throaty vocal work of Angelo Mosca at times feels more like part of the music than a seperate element. The sustained delivery in most songs, notably Player Haters From Hell, Champion Collapsed and Rep Reclaimed, feels honest and raw. The extended intro in Private Lives has a feel that’s almost bluesy, along with the lyrics “And you thought that you could fix it/forgot the weakness of your will/to tear the nerve before the novelty wore off”. The Riff is an apt reaction to the dismal state of underground music. “Longing for something real/Lasting for just one more/When punk rock lost it’s touch/we came back more punk rock than punk rock”
It’s a sad reality when the slow dying of the big five labels somehow actually spurred underground music to become more derivative, uninteresting and fashion oriented but that just makes the occasional bright spot like this gem from Dead Channels feel so much more rewarding
Release Date: Jan 10th, 2012
Track listing
1. Broken Men
2. Smoke Signals
3. Rep Reclaimed
4. Conversion Syndrome
5. Mobile Homes
6. Champion Collapsed
7. Soul Pollution
8. Player Haters from Hell
9. Private Lives
10. The Riff
11. Shallow Graves
11. Shallow Graves
For more information on Dead Channels –
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/deadchannels
Innerstrength Records: http://www.facebook.com/innerstrengthrecords
Innerstrength Records: http://www.facebook.com/innerstrengthrecords
-Brian Lawrence