Death Valley High: Doom, In Full Bloom

The name Death Valley High certainly paints a picture of a band trying their level best to attract gothic obsessed, vampire book reading teens to their cause and a quick listen to this bright, cheery, schlock horror album will confirm that Doom, In Full Bloom hits that particular nail right on the noggin. The band, who are formed round Reyka Osburn (who is possibly best known for song writing with The Deftones) picked up the genre tag of "doom –pop" with their 2007 debut album Similarities Of The Loveless And The Undead and have once again come up with something that can best be described as Rob Zombie-lite, or indeed indie-pop-metal. That may not sound hugely complimentary, however on the whole Doom, In Full Bloom is actually a well executed album of busy, if polite, riffs and driving rhythms, which if not always memorable, do certainly get the foot tapping.

The main problem though is that this album spends too much of its time walking the thin line between indie-dance, metal and, well.....cheesy. The vocals, which on the whole are well arranged and produced veer off on occasion into "spooky" wooooaarrgghhhh's and scccrreeeeaaeeeaeeems, which just sound a little silly, especially when Osburn has a perfectly effective singing style without all these daft nuances. Actually the interesting thing is that the band somehow sound at their tightest and most direct during their reasonably straight, rocked up cover of Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl", which along with needless remixes of two tracks from this album can be found on the deluxe digital download edition of the album.

Doom, In Full Bloom is an enjoyable enough romp through some throwaway themes that very possibly could feel slightly twee once the current fad of werewolves and demons moves on. This isn't bad stuff but in their current guise Death Valley High lack the staying power to make a real impact.

Track Listing
01. Black Friday
02. She Wants To Kill
03. Multiply
04. Days & Days
05. Meet Me for a Ouija
06. The Wait
07. Bring It Down
08. The Twist
09. Thru Hell
10. EVOLution
11. Mist & Debris
12. I Kissed A Girl
13. She Wants To Kill (King Loses Crown Mix)
14. Multiply (Dominion Mix)

Added: May 17th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Death Valley High MySpace
Hits: 2404
Language: english

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