Up and down goth
"There's no point doing what's been done before..." explains Tony Pettitt, NFD and founder bass player of The Fields of Nephilim. Tony is summing up the direction on NFD's new album 'Dead Pool Rising,' an encouraging statement if there ever was one. Perhaps someone has finally expanded the musical boundaries of gothic rock, pushed the genre onto new ethereal heights, overhauled the very essence that makes goth such a deep, influential and much loved form of music. Perhaps someone will in the future because 'Dead Pool Rising' doesn't break down anything, except perhaps yourself into tears when you reach the ballad 'Rise' and realise that it dirges on for almost eight minutes.
Take a large dollop of Sister of Mercy, sprinkle in some Tenebre, a dash of Fields of Nephilim, a handful of HIM and a pipette of The Cult and you end up with NFD. As you can probably guess from the listed bands, 'Dead Pool Rising' is a safe goth rock/pop album that isn't offensive, is pleasurable to listen to but unlikely to win any awards. This is being a little unfair to NFD because they've produced an album that's well thought out, varied and extremely likeable. The first three tracks 'Light my way,' 'My Possession' and 'Caged,' are all strong songs and catchy as hell. 'Caged' is perhaps the pick of the album, an upbeat cut containing a strong bridge and killer chorus.
Sadly the album takes a turn for the worse when NFD slow the pace down. 'One moment between us' shows good variation and they are to be commended for it, but the deep husking growling vocals of Peter White don't suit the slower numbers. This isn't anything against Pete White because I think his vocal style, similar to Sisters of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch, is out of place on such ballad style songs. Unless supported with a great melody, the deep vocalization sounds cheesy and a little out of tune. As mentioned earlier 'Rise' is another ballad, more acoustically driven than the previous song, and is quite painful to sit through. Its dullness is only matched by its length, coming across as a depressing funeral song than a deep goth soundscape.
The innovative 'Black Sun' attempts to pick the listener up from the dispirited state the last song instilled, and quick frankly it works a treat. Right through the song is a gorgeous constant groove of foot-tap-ability that is hard to resist. 'Descent' is of a similar ilk to the first three tracks and sensibly left towards the latter half of the album. 'Senseless' is another well written piece of up beat goth, relying on some clever bass work from Tony Pettitt. Unfortunately 'Dead Pool' finishes off the proceedings and is another slow number, but has more of a dark appeal that the previous slow aching tracks had.
In parts 'Dead Pool Rising' is very well written, catchy and at times innovative. It is let down however, by its general unoriginality, cheesy vocals and sleep inducing ballads. Fans of lightweight goth might do well to pick this CD up, because for all its faults it is a good example of its genre. In an industry that has a void left by The Cult, I think NFD, if they honed their song writing so it's slick and a little more anthemic, could see them filling that void to a certain degree. Just don't forget to take a couple of pro-plus before putting this album into your CD tray.