Deadfellow -
Hayden Sammak
 |
| Hayden goes deep |
Amphetamine
Salts
Christopher
Michaels
Deadfellow
pours on the tension on ‘Amphetamine Salts’, the title track to his latest
album ‘Millennials in love (& other post-apocalyptic standards)’.
In the vast sea of up and coming
artists that swell, crest and crash through social media, there is one thing
you will rarely find; that elusive artistic concept of ‘vision’. This wired world we live in breeds new artists
by the gigabyte, hell bent on hustling ‘merch’, but not much inspiration. In contrast,
Deadfellow (aka Hayden Sammak) presents us with 2018’s ‘Millennials in
love (& other post-apocalyptic standards)’.
Here you will find seven tracks with a sprawling vision of modern youth
and the anxiety inducing world around them.
The title track, ‘Amphetamine
Salts’, sends the listener reeling into the mind of a human relying on
medication to function in the world, and the tension that results from such a
dependence. The first thing we notice is
this thing sounds good. By that I mean the production, musicianship and
vocal performance deliver the artistic intent.
The distorted and sometimes dissonant tones of the guitar coupled with
the repetitive chord progression work to build a feeling of being out of
control yet, paradoxically, in focus.
Sounds like someone taking amphetamine salts? Yes, exactly.
Deadfellow’s, low, desperate vocals add to the swirling mass of
brainwaves as the song builds and builds to a frenzy. Small amounts of keyboard treatments and
Deadfellow’s off mic talking/mumbling add a sort of schizophrenia to the song’s
protagonist, heightening the desperation.
The only small criticism here would
be that Amphetamine Salts is probably too long.
The track builds and builds, but never reaches that cathartic end your
brain is yearning for. On repeated
listening, I noticed I was waiting for something else to happen musically at
the crest of the song but that moment never comes.
So if you are feeling a bit tired of
wading through your stream searching for something different, check out
‘Millennials in love (& other post-apocalyptic standards)’. You won’t find ‘radio friendly alternative’
here, but that’s precisely the point.
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