Deadlock - Bizarro World (2011)

Bizarro World is Deadlock's fifth studio album. Clean and heavy sound, mix in some catchy riffs and a beautiful female lead vocals - I think I'm hooked.

1. Virus Jones [4:59]
2. State Of Decay [3:43]
3. Falling Skywards [4:21]
4. Earthlings [3:41]
5. You Left Me Dead [4:11]
6. Brutal Romance [4:08]
7. Alienation [1:42]
8. Renegade [3:25]
9. Htrae [4:48]
10. Bizarro World [2:11]
11. Paranoia Extravaganza [3:08]

Something I need to clarify right off the beginning about Bizarro World - there are two vocalists. Johannes Prem exclusively does the death growls/harsh vocals, while Sabine Scherer covers the clean vocals. If you're a shallow-minded individual who only likes male lead vocals, then prepare to be disappointed. The rest of us can be left to enjoy this musical treat-to-the-ears.

Virus Jones gives a very good indication for how half of the album sounds; harsh vocals incorporated throughout the track, clean vocals for the chorus and melody, and a very heavy sound overall. Other tracks that follow this scheme are Falling Skyward, You Left Me Dead, and Brutal Romance. Meanwhile, State of Decay represents the other half of the album; 'casual' metal, with a slow tempo, soaring clean vocals, and a near (or complete) absence of death growls. The other tracks similar in style to this are Htrae (ie. 'Earth' spelled backwords), and Paranoia Extravaganza (which isn't actually metal at all; it's Sabine singing with a piano backup). Renegade is an interesting track to say the least, in that it combines both styles mentioned above, with synthesizers mixed in to boot.

There's actually a third 'theme' at play within the album as well, which is a sort of "minimalist-style", as heard on the tracks Alienation and Bizarro World. Essentially, there's no vocals, no drums and only the slightly semblance of a melody at play with the guitar/piano/violins that are heard. They add absolutely nothing to the album, except to act as a bridge between songs.

Well, the album as a whole is actually quite good, despite my bickering above. Virus Jones and Falling Skyward are both album favorites of mine, as is You Left Me Dead. If you're still interested after listening to these tracks, I'd add State of Decay, Brutal Romance and Htrae to that list, but would in all honestly stop there. Paranoia Extravaganza shows off Sabine's vocal capabilities, but the track doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the album (which is presumably why they placed it at the end of the album).

Overall Score:
80/100