8 19 is the debutalbum of Deadwood. Deadwood is a Swedish one-man-project that combines powerelectronics, noise and darkambient to create a powerful sound added by samples and metal-like screams. Some noise-albums tend to become quite repetitive or end up being just one big formless stack of noise. One can't accuse Deadwood of making these errors, however.
8 19 is quite a varied album. The songs are reasonable to good compositions. The title song 8 19 itself stands out for being more structured and rhythmic than the other songs. I wouldn't mind hearing this song on a dance floor. In the other songs there is no or hardly any rhythm. The opening song Antabus is heavy powernoise with metal-like vocals and samples in it. The result is intense and oppressive. The other songs are mostly less harsh, more ambient-like. In 'Wither Sith' Deadwood succeeds in creating a strong, eerie atmosphere by using soundscapes that sound like crackling fire and churchbells. 'Crushing on' on the other hand doesn't come to development and is in fact the only weak song on the album.
Deadwood has succeeded in making an interesting album that holds the middle between powernoise and darkambient. The album stays varied and fascinating by combining these styles, though the use of the metal-like vocals could have been a bit less here and there.
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