{"id":4976,"date":"2016-08-03T13:24:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T13:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-death-spells-nothing-above\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:11:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:11:06","slug":"album-review-death-spells-nothing-above","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-death-spells-nothing-above\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Death Spells &#8211; Nothing Above, Nothing Below"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/df524e8de9229bfbf7419c8be9e3c70f\/tumblr_ob8f5zB3Qm1r8no6so4_r1_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p><b>Death Spells<\/b> has been in the works for a while now. Initially planned in 2012 as the industrial brainchild of former My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero and longtime collaborater James Dewees. Promised by Iero to be unlike anything the pair have worked on before, debut release <i>&lsquo;Nothing Above, Nothing Below&rsquo;<\/i> gives us nothing short of audio pandemonium. <\/p>\n<p> Sounding like a disgusting orgy between members of The Prodigy, Sleigh Bells and Ministry, album opener <i>&#8216;Why Is Love So Disastrous?&rsquo;<\/i> throws listeners into a brutal cacophony of industrial fury complete with blastbeat locked grooves and a dash of gothic melody in its choruses, adding a touch of velvet granduer to what feels like a assortment of noises.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>Setting the tone from here, <i>&#8216;Nothing Above, Nothing Below&rsquo;<\/i> continues what feels like a violent rollercoaster to the earth\u2019s core, getting stranger with each track while celebrating total genre autonomy. <i>&#8216;Choke On One Another&rsquo;<\/i> amps up the dance music influence with a brooding synthesiser groove that takes its cues from French duo Justice, while <i>&#8216;End of Life&rsquo;<\/i> is full on neo-psychadelia. And it\u2019s all delivered by Iero\u2019s petrifying vocal range which recalls the panicked screams of The Body\u2019s &#8216;Chip King&rsquo; as much as it does the impassioned snarls of \u2018Antichrist Superstar\u2019-era Marilyn Manson.<\/p>\n<p> Sometimes, there\u2019s a layering of teenage angst carried on this album that distracts from the chaos surrounding otherwise. Cries of <i>&ldquo;D-E-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N is my God&rdquo;<\/i> sounds like it was written by a 13-year-old that wants to be The Joker.<\/p>\n<p> There\u2019s a lot going on on <i>\u2018Nothing Above, Nothing Below\u2019<\/i> and each listen will guarantee some new discovery. Iero and Dewees have used <b>Death Spells<\/b> to expand their songwriting into darker and boundary-free territory. And while some of the pre-teen angst is still clinging around, it\u2019s an accomplished piece of work, which may act as a stepping stone for younger fans to discover more genre smashing acts such as Ministry, Death Grips and Atari Teenage Riot. <\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Nothing Above, Nothing Below&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Death Spells<\/b> is out now on <b>Hassle Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Death Spells<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/deathspellsmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DEATHSPELLSFOREVER\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DEATHSPELLS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"http:\/\/death-spellz.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tumblr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Andy Davidson (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/%20AndyrfDavidson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@AndyrfDavidson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Death Spells has been in the works for a while now. Initially planned in 2012 as the industrial brainchild of former My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero and longtime collaborater James Dewees. Promised by Iero to be unlike anything the pair have worked on before, debut release &lsquo;Nothing Above, Nothing Below&rsquo; gives us nothing short [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[15033,15021,3237,240,3236],"class_list":["post-4976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-andrew-davidson","tag-andy-davidson","tag-death-spells","tag-hassle-records","tag-nothing-above-nothing-below"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Death Spells - Nothing Above, Nothing Below - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Death Spells has been in the works for a while now. 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Initially planned in 2012 as the industrial brainchild of former My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Death Spells - Nothing Above, Nothing Below - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Death Spells has been in the works for a while now. 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