Band: Deathknell
Album: Still To Decide
Mixed and Mastered by: Deathknell
Label – Unsigned
Release Date: 5th October , 2012
Hailing from the foot of the Himalayas, Deathknell is a four piece band from Shimla. Formed in 2009, the band has come a long way from being merely a college band to releasing their own album. Describing themselves as Classic Rock Metal, they do not prefer sticking to a specific genre as such, which is evident from their album – Still To Decide.
Deathknell are:
Manish Kashyap – Vocals & Lead Guitar; Purvaj Chauhan – Rhythm Guitar and Clean Vocals; Sandeep Sharma – Bass Guitar; Manish Verma – Drums
The album is a mixed bag of Melodic Death tracks and Classic Rock tracks. First half of the album has full on Melo-Death touch, while the last couple of songs end the album in a more progressive note. The albums has 8 songs – 7 originals and a cover of Children of Bodom’s – Everytime I Die, one of my personal favourites from CoB.
Deathknell have tried out a lot of things in the album, some clicked, and some didn’t. With songs having Middle Eastern influences, like Still To Decide, to hard core Melo-Death sound like – Decadence and Reaper, to refreshing clean guitars in Lost. The recording and mixing didn’t do justice to the experimentation in my opinion. The instruments needed a little more space but sadly it was not given to them. Their cover of Everytime I Die suffered the blow too. A pretty nice cover, very well played guitar solo, but I just couldn’t enjoy the song because of the occasional glitches.
Throughout the album, one thing that disappointed me was the guitar tone. The distortion tone has to be worked on, it may sound good when performing live, but it is not meant for recording purposes. I would have liked a heavier tone in the songs; maybe pumping up the bass a little would work. At times, the guitar solo sounds a little low on the final mix, so the post production is to be taken care of next time.
Coming to the vocals, the growls need a little more variation. I know it is hard to sing while playing the guitar, but maybe changing the mic settings and adding a little reverb/delay would work. Clean vocals were nice, it would be great if they make a few originals with alternating growls and cleans.
Drums were good and tight, Manish can try out with some off time drumming at times to give the band a wider variation and maybe more ideas for future songs.
Bass on the other hand was inconsistent; maybe it was the final mix that was the culprit. So I can’t comment much on that area right now.
I like the band’s approach to music and the fact that they are trying to create something unique in the process. Their ideas are fresh and they are a bunch of talented musicians who know how to transform those ideas into music. Hopefully their next release won’t have the minor mixing glitches.
