Band mantra 101: Get band together, write songs, record and release album. This is exactly the formula which Dead King’s Peace (DKP) have followed for the release of their eponymously titled debut album.
As an album ‘Dead King’s Peace’ sounds like a release that is out of time; this is an album which would not be out of place in 1995 with its deep cut southern stoner/doom grooves which help give ‘Dead King’s Peace’ a real air of warm familiarity to it. Tracks such as ‘Bury the Living’, ‘Pseudo-Superhero’ and ‘Death Rattle’ blast through the speakers with all the power of Corrosion of Conformity, Down and Black Label Society playing a game of ‘Rock ’em Sock ’em’ with Kyuss as the guitars of Andy Funk and Joey Linville giving their best Pepper Keenan vibe. Furthermore, what gives ‘Dead King’s Peace’ an extra slice of appeal is when vocalist Cody Randall suddenly drops into Layne Staley mode on tracks like ‘Bled You Dry’ with the song having so much of an Alice In Chains sound that it could easily be a lost track.
Yet, even with all this ‘Dead King’s Peace’ has an aura of ‘we’ve heard all this before’, it doesn’t do anything new or even strive to. However, that’s not always needed, the only thing that really let’s this album down is that DKP need to make their mind up whether they want to sound like a stoner band or like Alice in Chains, the band are very good at both, but jumping from one to other and back again gives the albums a disjointed feel. But this shouldn’t put the listener off, what DKP have delivered is a good album, it is rough around the edges and it will be interesting to see how this band grow and develop further.
