Customer Reviews

Commencement

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I recently caught the video for "Key to the Gramercy Park" (on all places, MTV). I was immediately hook. Deadsy takes the best elements of hard rock, goth and new wave, throws them in a blender and voila! What the listener gets is a sixty minute (plus some) collection of melodic yet heavy songs that reminds the listener of music from the '80s as well as from the past decade. I was quite impressed that the son of Cher and Greg Allman was equally blessed with the singing abilities of his celebrity parents. Unlike his parents though, Elijah and the rest of the band Deadsy puts out music that isn't ridiculously over-the-top cheesy or bland rock music with incessant guitar solos. Yes, Elijah Blue's vocals can be a bit monotonous at times but it doesn't bother me so much as it might for casual listeners. I particularly enjoyed "Brand New Love" and "The Key to Gramercy Park" but all the songs overall are enjoyable. It is rather refreshing to hear a rock band today that isn't a hybrid of rap and metal or a throwback to grunge and overplayed on the radio to death.

One day I was surfing the internet, looking at a particular website I check ritually.... I was checking out their list of up and coming bands which happend to include a band named Deadsy. I had vaugely remembered hearing their name before, so I decided to check out their website. Once on their official site I watched a video of "She Likes Big Words" in the media section. At first I was kind of left unfazed, but upon second, third, and fourth inspection, I realized that this band was brilliant! Immediately I downloaded as many songs of theirs I could find and put them on a cd. Flash forward about a half a year and their first major lable debut Commencement is released. Deadsy has a fresh and refreshing sound that gets in your head and just makes you feel better. The stand out tracks include "Winners", "The Key to Grammercy Park", "Brand New Love" and "Tom Sawyer". Come to think of it, I like all of them as much as the others! Unfortunatly there isn't enough room for me to type everything I admire about this stellar band, so I leave you on this advice: Buy this cd! It is WELL worth it.

I've been a follower of Deadsy for about 2 and a half years now. I have been living off of bootlegged Mp3's ever since, and have been waiting for 'Commencement' to see a permanent release. Well, after many delays and hold-ups, Deadsy has commenced upon the music world. Obviously this CD will draw many comparisons to Orgy, they have an 80's sound and are also on Korn's imprint label, Elementree. But listening to this album, you will see that that is where the similarities end. First off, they have a much more positive sound. A lot of their older stuff was very gloomy, (and believe me, this album does stay true to that) but there are a lot more brighter tunes, especially "Brand New Love" which is my favorite song off this album. Other highlights include a great cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" and a guest appearance by Korn's Jonathan Davis on "Key to Gramercy Park." Now here's the one thing that bothered my about this CD, "Key to Gramercy Park" is edited! I don't get it. The original version had the little four letter word in it, but the album version doesn't! (And trust me, I bought this from a place where they don't sell 'clean' CD's. There is no "explicit" version of this album). I have never heard of a band doing this. It's very confusing. But aside from that, this is a really great CD. I'm glad that it finally saw it's proper release. I never thought the day would come that I would hold this CD in my hands. Now I can't get enough of it.

The suits blew it on this one, it came out in 97 and is still ahead of it's time, someone should have really put some dough into promoting these dudes.

I fail to see how this is "nu-metal". it's heavy, yes... but it's more of a retro-rock/goth band. simply I can just say this--it's fresh. something new... very cool 80's synth sound. I wasn't really that interested in this CD at first but it stuck with me--in some way it was like I was obligated to listen to it. gradually week, after week I began to listen to the CD once a day. everything just seemed to come into place... such as the reference to Bauhuas's song 'She's In Parties' in their song 'She Likes Big Words' (...
there are a couple other tracks I used to skip over constantly--but now I can just play the whole CD and zone out for its duration.
the last track, 'Commencement', features another little reference to Friday the 13th's musical score when Jason stalks people... the echoing "ch-ch-ch-ch-ha-ha-ha-ha" which I caught the first time. cool stuff. this CD truly is an 80 rocker's opus... and you thought they were going to let Orgy have all the fun?
moving on, I might note that yes, this does sound a bit happy at points. this is what made it a little weird for me to listen to because I wasn't sure if this was some poppy MTV stuff or what... but then I remembered how 80's rock sounded. keep in mind I've been listening to Skinny Puppy's 'Too Dark Park' in heavy doses... so, it's been hard to let go of this stuff to go back to some Deadsy... I've adjusted to pretty much anything out there. even Edward Ka-Spel.

BOTTOM LINE_____
this is a solid CD. great overdriven guitar, sweet synth and neat vocals. great job on mixing by Josh Abraham. but when you realize that Jonathan Davis is [advertising] his artists so he can have a little bit of action on their debut record it can really make you sick of the label. the only downside would be the censored track and the time it will take to get you into their sound.

NOTE: for all you people that are wondering why "The Key To Grammercy Park" is edited--I have a little bit of information for you--Steven Speilberg owns Dreamworks/Universal (the distributer) so this could have been one reason why it was edited. but apparently the REAL REASON is because they would have to go through the trouble of releasing two versions just because of two cuss words and the band didn't feel it necessary to release an explicit CD as they are not huge on record sales at the moment. besides, the girl moaning is just SEXAY!

I remember Elijah Blue Allman when he was playing guitar behind his mother Cher in the "If I Could Turn Back Time" video. His project, Deadsy, has been around for the better part of a decade, but this is the first album of theirs to receive a mainstream release. The sound will definitely come off as jarring to anyone that hasn't heard the band before - it's certainly a change of pace for anyone who expects the scions of popular musical artists to sound like their parents.

Deadsy's sound is perhaps best described as a cross between the downtuned riffs and impending doom vibe of Type O Negative and the industrial-tinged music and "new romantic"-influenced vocals of Orgy - certainly not something one would expect from the offspring of Cher and Gregg Allman. "The Key To Gramercy Park" is catchy to the point where you'll have the words "I've got the key to Gramercy Park" in your head all day. The following track, "Winners", is a slower paced sludgy track that is indicative of most of the album's style - the synths definitely play a dominant role in this track. Elsewhere, you've got the new wave sound of "She Likes Big Words" which almost sounds like a lost Cars song, a cover of Sebadoh's "Brand New Love" that receives a goth reworking, and a cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" that stays surprisingly true to the original, except that the tuning of the guitars doesn't leave room for solos (I was hoping that they would have attempted them). The Type O influence is pronounced on many of the album's slower tracks, like "The Elements" and "Flowing Glower" - the dark sludgy guitars and sluggish tempo of these tracks are in stark contrast to the more new wave influences songs on the album.

In summary: A solid, lengthy debut from the band Deadsy. They're off to a good start, and the lyrics are definitely inspired - Elijah's (or P. Exeter Blue II, as he's billed here) prep school background definitely enhanced his wordplay, but I would like to see them develop more of their own sound on the follow-up. If you like bands such as Type O Negative, Orgy and Zeromancer and like the goth/metal/industrial hybrid sound, you can't go wrong with Commencement.

As a big fan of early 'eighties New Wave music (Gary Numan, Flock of Seagulls, Japan, Ultravox, etc.), I was very excited when a fellow New Wave fan hooked me up with this album. What a wonderful New Wave sound! Even the cover (particularly the back with the animation of the band members) is totally retro. It starts off with the rockin' "Key To Gramercy Park" (great keyboards) and I was blown away only to find out that's not even the best song on the album! My favorite track is the dark "Flowing Glower" followed by the upbeat "She Likes Big Words". A lot of spooky experimental tracks at the end (Japan with an edge). "Brand New Love" is a little too pop for my tastes and the cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" (one of my favorite tracks of all time) is almost too faithful to the original (I like it when a band puts its own stamp on covers), but those are just minor criticisms. I can easily play this CD all the way through without skipping a single track. I fell in love with this album before I learned that John Taylor made a guest appearance on the Duran Duran-ish "She Likes Big Words" and that the lead vocalist with the dark, droning, monotone voice I love is the son of Cher.

I don't know if I can say this, but when I heard Key's, my first thought was "Flock of Seagulls" on crack. It's eighties synth alright, but with something else in there. (I did notice someone else compared Deadsy to FoS, glad I'm not alone).
Firstly, the design of the CD is stuning with the four-color aproach. Anyway, the music itself is just as bright. KEYS and WINNERS are certainly my favourites, as is BRAND NEW LOVE but towards the middle of the CD it starts to droop into montonomy. Oh well. However, the first few songs on the track are definately worth it and don't be suprised if you listen to it over and over again.

Flock of Seagulls on Crack- no, wait, that doesn't sound right but that's what I was thinking when I heard "Key to the Gramercy Park". They have a new wave synth sound but something... something is in there that is not from the 80's.
The CD starts off well with Key and the few following then it goes a little flat. But other than that, I was glad that I bought it.
Also, whoever designed the video and the four/five color scheme ...genius, it was very original and refreshing.

I wasn't sure about this cd, but when I turned it around and saw that key to gramercy park was on it, I remebered seeing the wierd music video on MTV2, and the cd was so inexpensive I decided to buy it anyways, and I am very glad I did. I like all the songs, and I especially enjoyed the cover of the Rush song Tom Sawyer.