### Deadlock: Bizarro world

#### 22/02/11 || Lord K Philipson

It’s been obvious over the years that Deadlock’s got a few fucken things going for them. Impressive guitarwork and the amazing vocals by Sabine are two of those things. Naming albums is not the third. For me, they started off with “Manifesto”, a disc that impressed me somewhat. Then they shat out the follow-up, “Wolves”. That one also held quite a few glimpses of brilliance. And here comes their latest offering, entitled “Bizarro world”. Named after this, I suppose. And yes, I know they also released the full-length “Earth revolt” (along with some fucken demos and blablabla) prior to all of these albums that I mentioned above, I just decided not to comment on it (“Earth revolt”, that is) since that title is at least passable in all its semi-suckiness. And bringing it up in this intro would ruin my cause of bashing their album titles. How much fucken fun would that be? By the way, I don’t even know if I ever heard “Earth revolt”, or anything else released before “Manifesto” now when I think about it. How’s that for in-depth “journalism”?

What the fuck ever.

Slowly but surely, Deadlock’s become one of those bands that I tend to get back to on a regular basis. I blame it all on the Sabine chick, the kid handling the female vocals. Let it be known, few bands can work the way of having a male and a female vocalist. The only one (as I have stated before) who perfected this art is, ofcourse, The Project Hate MCMXCIX. I believe that Deadlock’s eventual success is held back by including this growler fucko in the mix. I am sure I have pointed this out in the past when it comes to Deadlock: I want more of the gal in their material. I might be wrong about this (fat chance), but it feels like they have heeded my call for this to happen. “Bizzaro world” comes across as an album where Sabine is more dominant than her male companion. Thank you for that. It’s when she fires up her incredibly sweet and personal voice that Deadlock reach their full potential. As I most likely have stated in my previous reviews (no, I am not going back to read them) of these guys’ albums, growler Johannes is not a terrible vocalist or anything, no, he’s just nothing special and matters shit to me. I don’t listen to Deadlock becoz of the male vocals. I listen to Deadlock becoz of the insanely catchy stuff from Sabine and Deadlock’s capability to write some very fine material more often than not.

Most of you don’t understand the brilliance of fantastic female throat escapades (you dirty little boy, I am talking about singing here). You think Xasthur and Ocular Faith is the best shit since your momma had you breastfeeding (guys, you are 16 years old, it’s time to stop that shit. At your age it’s just perverted). You need to rethink your situation. Female vocals FTW.

Deadlock is a bunch of real skilled musicians, and their melodic modern metal’s got its own touch, which is highly appreciated. And no, it’s not brutal (even when they try to be just that). It’s simply some great fucken music with a lovely female voice on top of it. These guys are lucky to have Sabine with them. Without her they’d be just another band.

“Bizarro world” feels more “immediate” and catchy than “Wolves” and “Manifesto”. I think ze Germans have managed to work with their formula a little more, understanding what to concentrate on and so forth, to make it as good as possible (at least as long as they have the grunts there) – coz “Bizarro world” is definitely their best offering yet. By the way, never did I think a band would succeed in getting “it always takes two to tango” into the lyrics and make it sound phenomenal. Deadlock proved me wrong.

They may look like a bunch of semen-drinkers, but I wish nothing but good shit for these guys and gal. Kill the unnecessary male grunts for the next recording, keep the rest intact and you’ll end up with a score even higher than:

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Lifeforce Records
- Website: www.xdeadlockx.com
- Band
- Johannes Prem: vocals
- Sabine Weniger: vocals
- Sebastian Reichl: guitars
- Gert Rymen: guitars
- Thomas Huschka: bass
- Tobias Graf: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Virus Jones
- 02. State Of Decay
- 03. Falling Skywards
- 04. Earthlings
- 05. You Left Me Dead
- 06. Brutal Romance
- 07. Alienation
- 08. Renegade
- 09. Htrae
- 10. Bizarro World
- 11. Paranoia Extravaganza