Rising from the ashes of Chicago’s now defunct extreme death act, Against the Plagues, has come the phoenix that is Deadhand System. Featuring an amalgamation of current and former members of many other prominent Chicago groups, Deadhand System have spent the last year-and-a-half writing material, playing a few live shows, and honing their sound in preparation for the independent release of their debut EP, Artifex, available now on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Sporting six obstreperous tracks, Artifex is lean, mean, and stunningly well-produced for a first effort. Front and center on all tracks are vocalist Shaun Albro’s guttural growls and screams, guitarists John Major and Marco Martell’s vicious riffs and solos, and the excellent pairing of bassist Lisa Jablonski (also of Terranaut) and drummer Garry Naples (also of Novembers Doom, Bear Mace, and Without Waves) in the rhythm section. These elements swirl and churn together to coalesce into a crushingly devastating whole; and as a direct result, Deadhand System’s Artifex is pure, extreme death rapture.
Without delay, Artifex greets you with the savage sounds of the opener, “Nethersphere”, and within only a few bars, you know that you’re in for one monster of an EP. Merciless and malicious, but at the same time cleverly catchy, “Nethersphere” draws you in and paves the way brilliantly for the rest of the release. Following up, Deadhand System blaze forth with other knockout cuts such as “On Rancid Vellum” (for which an official lyric video has recently been released); my favorite track on the album, “The Pendulum Paradigm”; and the neck-breaking nastiness that is the closer, “Calamity Trigger”.
All in all, Deadhand System’s Artifex is one hell of a how-do-you-do from this Windy City quintet, so if you’re in the mood to head-bang to some extreme death, be sure to keep this killer debut in your rotation by purchasing a copy for yourself today!
FFO: Aborted, Kataklysm, Cattle Decapitation, The Black Dahlia Murder
Genre: Extreme Death Metal
Release Date: April 21st, 2017
Artifex Track Listing:
- “Nethersphere” (4:17)
- “On Rancid Vellum” (4:50)
- “Metehpsychosis” (4:42)
- “The Pendulum Paradigm” (5:41)
- “Ruin Spectacle” (5:27)
- “Calamity Trigger” (4:28)
Label: Independent
Video Link for “On Rancid Vellum”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTiFV2M73s
Facebook Link for Deadhand System: https://www.facebook.com/DeadhandSystem/
Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on May 4, 2017
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