DEADSOUL TRIBE

No one will ever accuse Devon Graves of lacking ambition. The former PSYCHOTIC WALTZ man comes back after a two-year absence with what may be his darkest, most accomplished and diverse album yet, a murky and somewhat difficult album that takes quite a bit of listening to digest, but rewards the patient fan with many layers of dark and foreboding progressive metal.

Stylistically, Graves is singing all over the place, from harsh treated extreme metal vocals to his trademark croon, to a malevolent smirking spoken voice. The music is just as schizophrenic – songs like the epic "Goodbye City Life" veer from beautiful to brutal in short order, while shorter and less nuanced pieces like "Psychosphere" emphasize the band's newfound desire for heaviness. "Lost In You" and "Any Sign At All" are the most "typical" DEADSOUL TRIBE sounding, structured around Graves's vocal lines with simple rhythmic constructs and a somewhat bombastic, anthemic chorus. The title track sums up the album with a grand finish, melding the progressive and heavy elements of the group in promising new ways and setting the stage for further exploration of this territory on albums to come.

As is probably inevitable with an album this ambitious, there are missteps. First of all, the production does the band no favors, especially at the heaviest moments — the guitars and drums both lack punch, and the whole thing occasionally has a threadbare, low-budget sound to it. Then there's Graves's penchant for cringe-inducing clichés — he ruins the verses of "Here Come the Pigs" by snarling "let's rock" in a sardonic tough-guy voice after each one, while "Fear" finds him taking rides on carousels and dropping coins in wishing wells. While it's not a deal-breaker, it's distracting, and it takes away from what is otherwise a unique and far-reaching project.

The schizophrenia of the record is encapsulated in "Lost In You" — in one heavy part of the song, Graves sings "did you ever care for someone? / like sticking your mouth on the end of a gun". Less than a minute later, over a soft piano part, he's crooning "I'm so lost in you / I'm so lost in your smile". That's DEADSOUL TRIBE in a nutshell – progressive but brutal, scattershot yet cohesive, with songs seeming to take their own meandering paths to completion and Graves riding herd over the whole tense, emotional rollercoaster ride like a mad carnival barker. "A Lullaby For the Devil" has the feel of a transitional record, as Graves moves out from under his influences (and a sound that was already becoming set in stone on previous records) to find a new path. Though it's not perfect, it's definitely intriguing, and that's a rare quality in metal these days. Give 'em a chance.