Album Review: Dead Soldiers 'The Great Emptiness'

-Tara

Recorded at Memphis’ High/Low Recording throughout 2016, the Dead Soldiers latest The Great Emptiness is an amalgam of Folk, Americana, Bluegrass, and Punk that is both raucous and reverent. The album catapults out of the gate with the mosh-pit ready, morbid “When I Die” and continues with nine other tracks that while driven by strings, fiddle, and horns in largely danceable melodies, paint sometimes dark, bleak portraits of life including the rollicking “White Collar Blues” and “Teddy Bears” which blends desolation with a jaunty, bohemian chorus. Things slow down, yet still retain a realness on the harmony-laden “Old Time Religion,” the dramatic “Still Climbing the Mountain” and the jazz-flavored “A Love Song.” The Great Emptiness is rounded out with the perceptive “The Smartest Man in the World” and the barnburner “Prophets of Doom” before closing out with the biting “Cheap Magic” an ode of sorts to an old love. Filled with stories and characters written with heart and honesty, The Great Emptiness offers interesting perspectives and distinctive melodies that will surprise you with each listen. For more information visit HERE.

---