Deathchant’s last album Thrones gate crashed my 2023 end of year Top 20 albums. I think it was main man Thomas J Lemieux’s throaty holler, coupled with the band’s very distinct fusion of blues and metal, that captivated me. One part Lemmy, one-part manic shaman, there was more to these dudes than met the eye. So here they are with album number four, entitled KOVA, after their late friend Davy Kova. Years of hard living in motorcycle culture, drugs and partying have taken their toll on TJ as maturity finds him become a new Dad, go through a divorce and suffer serious loss. This all manifests itself in KOVA taking on some serious emotional heft and firing it out as a stunning collection of raw rock n’roll music.
TJ produced the album before sending it off to be mixed by Zach Weeks at Kurt Ballou’s God City studio, to retain the band’s unique sound. Joined by Doug Stuckey (guitar/vocals), Quinn-George Camacho (bass) and Nick “Joose” McDonnell, TJ also plays guitar, keys and bass. They’re a very tight unit as the musicianship throughout demonstrates. Opener ‘Enemy’ charges hard with some Thin Lizzy style guitar runs working over a blizzard of heavy riffage. When a scorching solo erupts and the groove backs up for a slower tempo it’s a mighty moment.
‘Red Sun’ shoots out of the speakers with some fizzy soloing before twisting and contorting with a series of twitchy riffs. TJ’s awesome throaty rasp is buried deep in the mix, so his lyrics are hard to decipher. ‘Funeral Pyre’ is blistering in execution as TJ unleashes a bellicose growl in your face, like an angry bear. Once again, the guitar solo is a bone shakingly great screech to end this raucous rocker. Ghostly voices rise up at the end hinting at darker undertones to come.
Until now, TJ’s vocals have been an angry bark, but on ‘Reverie’ he opts for a bluesy croon. The band take this opportunity to pull in some atmospheric sounds, and the song ends with more of those ghostly rambling voices. ‘Worshipper’ is when Deathchant really pull in some unique sounds as TJ sounds a bit broken and bruised. The song completely subsides into a haunted passage of female vocals, like they’ve smashed through some portal to the other side. The second half of this album really gets into a different flow and ‘Ruin’ strips away some of the distortion for a super charged groove. TJ hollers like a possessed shaman as the guitar work becomes more frenetic evolving into a sublime elongated solo. The tempo drops off as we fall into a dreamy passage with swathes of guitars wrapping themselves around you. Quite unexpected, quite incredible and deeply emotive.
After laying us down in calmer meadows ‘KOVA’ begins as an acoustic ballad with a hint of country rock. With a hefty boot we’re up and running again as TJ’s growled melodies permeate the fusion of twisting riffs and powerhouse drumming. The final notes of ‘KOVA’ are like rays of sunshine emerging from the clouds, this is the segued intro to the truly stunning ‘Forgiveness’. Over delicate mostly clean guitars (with just the perfect amount of fuzz) TJ sings as tenderly as a man with such a grizzly voice can, punctuating each line with a “Goddamn!”. This is strangely hypnotic and the instrumentation swirls and howls bringing a melancholic hue to proceedings. As the guitars wind to a gentle fade this stunning song rolls into the album’s finale ‘Requiem’, a stunning soundscape of ghostly choral voices and a mesmerising hum.
It’s hard to put into words the sheer emotion this album ends with. It’s one of those albums that somehow hits the sweet spot with me, listened to in its entirety, how it manages to traverse its journey is very special indeed. Their last album hijacked me in a similar fashion. Deathchant have a lot of (old) influences, yet they manage to sound so damn unique and fresh. KOVA is quite simply an awesome, spellbinding album with a lot of emotional depth.
