Dead Lord “Dystopia” Review

Dead Lord
Dystopia
Century Media
Released: March 25, 2022

Sweden’s Dead Lord are back with a six-song banger, Dystopia, which is composed mainly of covers, to end off their Surrender era.

Starting off exactly where Surrender left off, with the track that closed out the Surrender record, Dystopia – a refreshing taste of the band’s rebellious, no-frills hard rock trademark sound. Now nearly a decade into their quest as champions of straightforward, Thin Lizzy-era rock n’ roll. Each song on the six-track affair, which is a mix of four covers and two Surrender cuts, takes its own unique approach to anthemic strides, but commonalities and clear strengths are also easy to find. Early songs come out rollicking with healthy doses of reverb and chugging chords that quickly explode into high flying riffs, while frontman Hakim Krim leads the dance with prophetic, soul-piercing vocals that are equal parts urgent and undaunted.

One of the greatest aspects of hearing a good band banging out solid cover tunes, is that you can sometimes be turned on to artists long forgotten and yet undiscovered – and with Dystopia, I feel that is the case. Some of the names are familiar (to me anyway) like the legend Rory Gallagher, but others are a little more obscure – like Moon Martin, D.A.D (also known as Disneyland After Dark, prior to legal threats from Disney) and Winterhawk. Maybe it’s just my piss-poor memory, though. Either way, the point was, that a record like this can be a great tool to discover new artists, while soaking in the glory of a band like Dead Lord, while they get down with songs that obviously mean something to them.

See Also: Vio-Lence “Let The World Burn” Review

Unapologetic for its old school inclinations, songs like Sleeping My Day Away and Ace In The Hole, howl and saunter with exuberance that eventually grows into hard driving action. Krim and fellow guitarist Martin Nordin keep the soundscapes dynamic and winding on Moonchild by the fantastic Rory Gallagher and Hands Down, while the core rhythm section of drummer Adam Lindmark and bassist Ryan Kemp (who joined Dead Lord during Surrender) provide an intrepid pace that fuels these hard-rocking salvos.

On their fantastic cover of D.A.D’s Sleeping My Day Away, frontman Krim at times sounds eerily reminiscent to No Fun At All frontman, Ingemar Jansson – one of the greatest voices in skate punk. Mainly during the chorus, and although this is a minute detail and doesn’t really add much to this review, it is going to drive me up the wall if I don’t mention it. True, there are but two original songs on this recording, and both are already readily available on 2020’s Surrender album, but so what – they’re both great tunes, and coupled with these four seriously rockin’ cover anthems, this is a package with serious replayability potential. It might be just twenty-eight odd minutes long, but don’t let that distract from the quality on display here. Like the old adage goes, quality over quantity, and despite this not always being the case – it most certainly is here.

 

Pre-orders for Dead Lord’s Dystopia can be found on the Century Media website and given the popularity of the band, and the lack of vinyl thanks to fucking Adele (Yeah, I’m still bagging on her for using up the world’s record resources) you might not want to sleep on this one. See what I did there? Yeah, I apologize. 

For Fans OF: Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Scorpions
Track Listing:

01. Dystopia
02. Sleeping My Day Away (D.A.D cover)
03. Ace In The Hole (Winterhawk cover)
04. Hands Down (Moon Martin cover)
05. Moonchild (Rory Gallagher cover)
06. I Staden Som Aldrig Slumrar Till

Author Rating

  • overall
    8.6
  • composition
    8.5
  • enjoyment
    9.1
  • production
    8.1
  • variety
    8.3
  • memorability
    8.9
Pros & Cons
  • Thunderous toe-tapping rock anthems
  • Fun, with replayability
  • Would have been nice to have new songs
Contributors