- Release Date: 16 March 2010
- Label: Tears & Smiles Recordings
- Producer: Toby Wright, Logan Mader
- Jeremy Penick - vocals, guitars
- Dan Noonan - guitars
- Ryan Burchfield - bass
- Steve White - drums
[voto: 3.7]
Alternative rockers Depswa were disclosed to the mainstream audience in 2003 with "Two Angels And A Dream", an excellent record where nu-metal, so popular in the previous years, was mediated by a full, richer sound, with many elaborate melodies and "larger-than-life" refrains, made memorable even thanks to a dynamic and magnificent production by console star Howard Benson.
Unfortunately, TAaaD sales were disappointing and the band decided to take an indie road, because of lack of support from major Geffen, their label at that time.
Now, after many ups and downs and a few line-up changes, the band from Modesto ( California ) comes back with a new album (originally intended as a 7 tracks EP), released in these days thanks to Tears & Smiles Recordings label, created by the guys themselves.
This time Toby Wright and Logan Mader are behind the knobs; they may be not as famous as Benson but they have both experience and skills needed to act successfully even without a magnificent budget.
The honour to baptize Depswa's come back goes to the puzzling title track, "Distorted American Dream": a crossover of midwestern rock'n'roll and powerful hard rock with a surprising (for the old fans) harmonica, but it is only partly indicative of the new road taken by the band. On the contrary, since the following "Right Now" they jump in the past to seven years ago, with loud guitars and devastating rhythmics that annihilated us on TAaaD and that interchanges with more melodic moments, made precious by the beautiful stentorian and touching voice of Jeremy Penick.
Similar words may be spent with the next "Take It Back" and with "The Biggest Part", a bright example of strength enslaved by a classy melody.
Instead, the heavy and ripetitive "Performance After The Show" brings us to unusual territories for these Californians, on the border of stoner rock, while "Would I Lie", another "sinister" track, pursues Blind Faith's ghosts of blues, with an extra certain something of strength and the unmistakable Penick's mark to seal another quality performance.
The title of "Peace And Serenity" says it all, in fact it is an acoustic, delicate, peaceful and melancholy track that Depswa chooses to close the album the same way they opens it: bewildering us.
Well, rather than a new starting-point, this excellent Distorted American Dream seems like being an intermediate stop for the guys from California, a block in the evolutionary phase of an hungry band, who is searching for revenge and for a new identity.
Tracklist Distorted American Dream
- 01. Distorted American Dream 3:38
- 02. Right Now 3:40
- 03. Take It Back 3:39
- 04. 10 Kinds of Lonely 4:28
- 05. Performance After The Show 3:47
- 06. Would I Lie 4:00
- 07. The Way I Am 3:31
- 08. Hold On 4:01
- 09. Cut You Out 3:53
- 10. One Drop 3:36
- 11. Down In A Hole 3:55
- 12. The Biggest Part 3:16
- 13. Peace & Serenity 3:01
Discography
- Faithless ep (2000 Independent Release)
- Two Angels And A Dream (2003 Geffen Records)
- Distorted American Dream (2010 Tears & Smiles Recordings)
Links