Slagduster – Deadweight – Album Review

Source // Slagduster

Hailing from Grand Forks, British Columbia, Slagduster’s swirling vortex of Sikth-esque odd time signatures, wounded-boar roars and barrelling grooves took us by surprise and clearly labelled this band as a fearsome proposition.

It’s clear from the get-go that these guys can play their asses off and when opener “Soldiers of Meth” bursts out of your speakers – with a technical ferocity that slams your head against the wall – you know you’re in this for the long haul!

“Peeping Ron” ironically blindsides you with its schizophrenic nature and quick-fire bursts of disorientating riffage while “Profane Puppet” sounds like Primus fed through a djent distillery. As much as that may sound hard to swallow, the taste is anything but bitter with Slagduster providing enough vicarious, heads-down thrills to counter-act the sometimes mind-boggling tempo changes.

Ending on a high with the untouchable “Untouchable”, Slagduster’s demented diatribes and devilish diversification comes to a fitting, groove-drenched, conclusion while bringing to mind the more fervent moments of the severely underrated Byzantine.

With a sound described by Slagduster frontman Shane Sherman as “progressive, groovy, creative, unique, heavy”, we’re hard-pressed to conjure a series of similar superlatives that accurately summarise the signature sound of Slagduster better.

Suffice to say, Slagduster are a sincerely unique proposition and these guys are anything but a deadweight, unshackled by the genre tropes that drag many a good band down and flying free in the process. A little more variety in the vocal department wouldn’t go amiss but other than that, Deadweight is one well-rounded, technically impressive release from some seriously talented musicians. 7/10