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Deepfield: Archetypes And Repetitions

Judging this South Carolina outfit by its sartorial choices alone, you can tell the kids really want to make the big time––the perfectly coiffed hair, the tight black pants and sullen looks say it all. Of course, the music contained within the digital grooves tells a slightly different story. "44 Teeth" owes more than a little to Tool, though it's got a bold boogie at its core that Maynard and the boys couldn't get going with a manual and "Wayside" offers a fairly fresh take on contemporary radio rock although, it, like too many of the tracks here, explodes like a vomit piñata once its reaches the chorus and that's where Deepfield falls a little short of the big time. We've heard this kind of faux earnestness time and time again in the last decade or so, thanks to the likes of Buckcherry, Silverchair and Three Doors Down. Deepfield doesn't sound exactly like those bands––"Fall Apart" alone is greater than three "Crazy Bitch"-sized hits and "Dreams," like "44 Teeth" before it, demonstrates that there's some excellent songwriting potential here––but it sounds close enough that it's hard to recommend this album without wondering aloud what it adds to the larger musical canon that isn't already there. The answer? Not much. At least not yet. Perhaps a little more focus on craft and a lot less on commercial potential will serve this promising band well.


Track Listing
1. Innocence
2. 44 Teeth
3. Get It
4. Wayside
5. Fall Apart
6. The Bleeding
7. Into The Flood
8. Your Forever
9. The Silence
10. Dead Horse
11. Dreams
12. Don't Let Go

Added: July 27th 2007
Reviewer: Jedd Beaudoin
Score:
Related Link: More Information
Hits: 2734
Language: english

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» SoT Staff Roundtable Reviews:

Deepfield: Archetypes And Repetitions
Posted by Michael Popke, SoT Staff Writer on 2007-07-27 15:09:18
My Score:

OK, I'll buy the hype about the South Carolina quartet Deepfield taking influences from Silverchair on its debut CD, Archetypes and Repetition. I'll even add to that by citing bands like Saliva, Three Doors Down and (rap-free) Linkin Park. But Porcupine Tree, as In De Goot Recordings would have us believe? I'm not so sure.

Really, what we have here is a loud and modern hard-rock record overflowing with thick layers of electric and acoustic guitars, piano, vocal harmonies and clever wordplay; the emo-leaning "Dead Horse (The Love Between Us)" is a masterpiece simply based on its title. Even the band's name must have required some thought: It comes from the title of an image captured more than a decade ago by the Hubble telescope, featuring a dark corner of space thought to be home to hundreds of previously undiscovered galaxies. Deepfield visits several musical galaxies on Archetypes and Repetition, covering metal, progressive, punk and emo territory with equal levels of brain and brawn. At times ("Fall Apart" and "The Bleeding," for example), the band doesn't even sound like itself – even though all 12 of these tracks are powered by singer/guitarist Baxter Teal III's high-octane vocals.

But what makes Archetypes and Repetition worth hearing, even repeating, is the band's dark and heavy inside-out version of En Vogue's "Don't Let Go." (You'll recognize it when you hear it.) Deepfield makes the song its own, providing the perfect conclusion to 39 minutes of unexpected sonic seduction.




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