[photos by Adam Peterson]
Long-running Arkansas psychedelic doom/sludge metal outfit DEADBIRD – formed by current and former members of Rwake, Iron Tongue, Pallbearer, and more – released their first new album in a decade in October, delivering the massive III: The Forest Within The Tree through 20 Buck Spin. The band now presents their first-ever music video, created for the LP’s “Heyday,” which now sees an exclusive premiere at Kerrang Magazine.
DEADBIRD‘s first video comes in the form of “Heyday,” the longest track on III: The Forest Within The Tree. The video was directed and created by David Brenner utilizing nature footage filmed by the band’s Alan Short and his wife Tera in Northwest Arkansas, and live footage of the band filmed by Frank Huang at Mr. Small’s Theatre in Pittsburgh during this year’s Migration Fest.
Alan Short offers, “My wife Tera and I shot all of the nature footage at the White Rock Wilderness Area and The Upper Buffalo National River, both in Northwest Arkansas. Our families have been seeking peace and refuge from the insanity and demands of city life in these areas for generations. Much of it has been protected from development, but we must stay vigilant. In fact, we just got news that the effort we have been involved in to deny industrial hog farming in the vicinity a permit that would have allowed them to continue polluting the river with run-off was successful! Permit denied!”
He adds, “I feel like the video is the perfect balance of elements for DEADBIRD; immersion in loud electric rock and roll and the contemplation of and within the natural world inform both our songwriting and our lives. Participating in music (both transmitting and receiving) is a powerful way to shed the static of the human world. Listening to a river’s water speak as it moves over rocks can remove the shadow from one’s heart. Putting these elements together shows not just who we are, but how we are.”
The eight-plus-minute “Heyday” video makes its debut through Kerrang who offers in part, “the video is a strange, beautiful mixture of live performances and nature shots, all observed through a seasick, syrup-soaked psychedelic lens.”
See DEADBIRD’s sprawling “Heyday” video debut at Kerrang RIGHT HERE.
The eight tracks comprising III: The Forest Within The Tree are the band’s best to date and signal the awakening of new day for DEADBIRD. Recorded in The ZZ Top Room at Ardent Studios and at AB Recording, both in Memphis, Tennessee, engineered, co-produced, and mixed by Alan Burcham, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, the LP features vibrant artwork by John Santos (Kylesa, Mutoid Man, Torche, Noothgrush, Catheter).
III: The Forest Within The Tree is a must-hear release for fans of Rwake, Samothrace, Neurosis, Alice In Chains, Kylesa, Pallbearer, Spirit Adrift, His Hero Is Gone, and El Dopa. The album is out now through 20 Buck Spin on LP, CD, and all digital formats; place orders at the label webshop HERE and via Bandcamp HERE.
Following their set at Migration Fest and two subsequent release shows for the LP, DEADBIRD will take their touring to the next level in support of III: The Forest Within The Tree throughout 2019. Watch for tour dates and another new video from the album to be announced early in the year.
Ten years is not a short time between albums, but the passing of years have solidified DEADBIRD into an entity well versed in the art of vigilance since the release of their Twilight Ritual LP. Though much has changed in the metal world since then DEADBIRD remains steadfast in their ability to sculpt heart-wrenching and gutsy songs from the deepest, darkest places within. Years of toil and scorched southern soil went into the band’s third album III: The Forest Within The Tree resulting in forty haunting minutes of emotive turbulence and resolute grit. An intense listen from the outset, after “The Singularity” intro the one-two punch of “Luciferous Heart” and “Heyday” carry the weight of the grandiose and the grave, burning with furor and primordial light. At times dipping into quietly morose acoustics and at others crushing with a Neurosis-like magnitude, DEADBIRD offers the scope of the world weary and of sentiment laid bare on compositions like “Brought Low” and “Bone & Ash.”
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