Microdose: Deer Park Ranger, Theory Of A Deadman, The Echelon Effect & Stone Temple Pilots

Mass is still at the helm of Microdoses and he’s already mixing it up. This week we take a break from extreme metal and delve into a world of more radio friendly rock and post rock. Some people listen to stuff other than metal, that’s probably a good idea. What are some of your favorite non metal albums coming out lately? (There’s a comment section).

Verdict: Adaptation is the fifth release from the Californian Deer Park Ranger and its third LP. DPR’s music is a where post rock meets ambience music and the marriage of the two is blissful. In one word, this album is SPLENDID! It was only last year that I got to know this one-man band and the previous album, Wolf, made its way to no. 30 on my album-of-the-year list. That’s pretty high up. Still, Adaptation is even a greater album with more elating atmospheres and more piercing drum work. So, we can conclude that this man has found his voice in music. There are only 6 tracks here, ranging in timing from 4 to 9 and a half minutes, each telling a separate story to the listener. This means a song like Shapeshifter (08:02) finds suitable room to create ambience and have impact on the listener.

I had the pleasure to listen to this album prior to its release (thanks to Trevor Humphrey for giving me the honor and sharing his work with me in advance). The result is that I can say that if you want to only listen to one post rock album this year, Adaptation must be somewhere special in your mind. Give it serious consideration. It is absolutely worth it.

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Verdict: I am normally against rock bands, especially the ones who have established themselves as solid acts within this genre, shifting towards a more pop sound. Say Nothing, however, is a different ball game and Theory of a Deadman is a different player. It all began with Rx (Medicate), the lead single which was released back in 2017 for TOAD’s previous album Wake Up Call. At the time, the band decided to drift away from their hard rock, post-grunge sound they were renowned for and head towards a more radio-friendly sound. This album takes the next pace and pushes the band a step ahead in this direction. The difference between Theory of a Deadman and many more bands which have taken this path may lie in the fact that these guys know what the business is and they are actually good at writing music and lyricism is their forte. Their music is immensely entertaining and agreeable for this genre. So, if you consider them within the framework of their new genre, they excel many, if not all, of their peers.

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Verdict: Some peaceful music for the troubled souls and lonely hearts, strolling through the empty streets, having your eyes to the sky and retracing tracks in the sky and then maybe, saying goodbye to a friend while they sleep and you keep watch. You may also wish you could listen to this album again and again as it is full of songs written for forever. It is a masterpiece of creating a sound which touches the very core of the listener. 10 years into his career, David Walters creates an ambience of emotions and purging of the soul by the use of post rock/instrumental music and some field sounds. Throughout these years, he has mastered this art and now he is able to present the heart-touching music. He makes modern music for modern life, with modern humans drowning in modern problems and having modern despair. Gigantic thumbs up to David Walters for the magical music he has composed.

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Verdict: An album full of memorable tunes which guarantees about 45 minutes of quality softness for the soul. I may listen to only a few alternative rock albums (even rarer on my playlist are soft rock ones), but I was so highly satisfied with this album that I gave it several spins and enjoyed them all the same. It is an acoustic endeavor with kind of a retro sound as a result of using uncommon instruments in the genre such as flute and saxophone which have enabled the band to sound much greater than they normally do; not that their previous releases were not adequate, it’s just that this one stands on a higher platform. From their collaboration with late Chester Bennington of Linkin Park in 2013 (on High Rise) to the present release, they have strived to broaden the scope of their music, and they have succeeded in it. This could be the best album they have released so far and they could become much greater in the years to come. This is just the first step on this path.