Deadweight is the second offering from Finnish metal band Skein, and shows the band taking a slightly different approach to their debut. Whilst stylistically similar to one another, their debut Of Wings Unfolding was a concept album with an accompanying novel, whilst Deadweight stands alone with nine distinct tracks, rather than being a rolling continuous piece.
However, whilst musically solid, it just feels like there’s something missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s just a little difficult to connect with the songs. They don’t have that special ‘spark’ and there’s no real individuality to a lot of the material presented over the course of Deadweight. The quality of both the instrumentation and vocals is great but they just don’t quite gel together.
A highlight of the album comes with the closing song, The Unknown, which has a bit of a Twin Peaks vibe to it (possibly because of the similarities to Laura’s Theme in the introduction, the whispering female voice at the start and the overall dark mood) but in any case, it helps the album to wind up well and leave more of an impact on you as a result.
Deadweight is alright. It has the makings of a great album but doesn’t quite deliver in the grand scheme of things.
6/10
