Deadform, the three-piece collective hailing from Oakland, plays what is strongly aligned towards the fusion of Sludge Metal with Crust Punk undertones. Originally rooted from the members’ former projects Laudanum, Stormcrow, and Dystopia, the band’s debut full-length, Entrenched In Hell, releases via Tankcrimes Records, also based in Oakland.

Consisting of six tracks that are all-around virulent and transgressive, the album encompasses distinctive styles of sonic experiences that are all-around dynamic, undefined and ungovernable to the core as the styles they present happen to be a profound amalgamation of Metal and Punk subgenres. 

Dealing with recurring themes surrounding the discourses of war, apocalypse, famine and mortality, Deadform builds a personal nuance into their music, up close with the barren realities surrounding everyday lives – making it easier for the listeners to form an immense attachment towards the lyrical themes and premises of their music. 

Not only that the themes are subliminally profound, the distortions they have to offer are also soul-crushing; unable to be simply defined and categorized into segmentations. In between the heavy and dark chugging riffs, cordially crafted to subvert against genre tropes are also the crusty atmospheres with inherent character ever-present throughout the whole album. Think of Buzzoven, but with Punk-driven resonances.

Just like most of Oakland-based extreme underground scene pioneers, Deadform is one of the bands that succeeded in redefining genre boundaries, as well as staying true to their own distinctive authenticity in the purest form possible. On this album, Deadform managed to showcase the retrospective evolution of their sounds throughout decades, with ever consistent themes and storytelling as well as willpower to transcend boundaries, labels and segmentations with their distortion-laden Sludge-Crust convergence. 

Though I’ve been very familiar and fond of the Sludge Metal and Crust Punk scenes in general (thanks to discovering Hydra Head Records during my teenage years. RIP.), I’m actually relatively new to Deadform’s music, and fair to say, Entrenched In Hell ended up being one of my best discoveries.

Buy the album here:
https://tankcrimes.merchtable.com/tankcrimes-music/vinyl/deadform-entrenched-in-hell-vinyl-lp/

9 / 10
RALKA SKJERSETH