The Deadlines

Item: The Death & Life of...
Author: D_Lister

The Death & Life of...

(2000)

Reviewed by D_Lister

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Label Tooth & Nail RecordsDead Zine2000

garage rock gothic rock punk rockabilly

Can a punk band be good? Well yes if they are original. The Deadlines have found that niche better than any kind of punk rock band I've seen in quite literally Y-E-A-R-S! Anyone who reads my material knows I'm no fan of punk music, but I gotta say I love this CD. This music is simply fun to listen to. They are able to take the sounds of TRUE old school punk music (IE The Cramps and The Misfits) keep that feel to it and yet bring it right up to date at the same time.

The music is 50's styled horror films put to song. It's almost not quite punk music really, more rooted in punk, with some just good old rock-n-roll mixed in and that creepy organ giving you the horror mood. I must admit if the organ were gone, I really would not be as keen on the music being as it's pretty simply guitar work. However for a punk band they do have dual guitarist and this really helps to create a full sound even if it's not technical. Keeping with the whole horror-punk mood, each band member has a unique name. The line up is Shaun Coffin-Vocals/Guitar, Sammy Lugosi-Guitar, The Creature-Organ, Thomas Demise-Bass, and Jerry Attrick-Drums.

Lyrically this is a hard one to call. If you were to try and make the lyrics stand on their own you'd be VERY hard pressed to call them Christian lyrics with but a couple of exceptions. However to go along with the CD insert I got this card that gives a description of the song and usually gives some biblical references to back up their stance. Let's take for example the song "Vampires In Love" the lyrics are:

Two vampires met one night, don't you know it was love at first bite.
They went out to the cemetery, daylight's coming so they better hurry.
tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Vampires in love (3x)
You wanna make something of vampires in love

Vampires in love is a beautiful sight, dawn is nearing it's growing light
The sun's coming up baby cover your eyes, the light hit their faces and those vampires died
tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Vampires in love (3x)
You wanna make something of vampires in love

OK, so it sounds like a basic little story, the card insert tells me that "Vampires in love is a sad tale that warns of the dangers of living a life with no boundaries giving into any and all lusts of the flesh. Sin may look fun for a season but in the end the subjects of this song succumb to sin's deadly grip. See 1John 2:15-17, Galatians 5:16-26"

Just because I'm long-winded I want to give you one more example of the lyrics, to show you one of the few places that you get a feel they are Christian by the lyrics alone. The song is "Darlin' Darlin'":

Darlin' come with me, once you see you'll believe
Darlin' take my hand, please understand God's perfect plan
Darlin' won't you see, they're all empty, the graves are empty
Darlin' be mine tonight, come to the graveyard and see
Darlin' be mine tonight, come to the graveyard and believe

And the card resounds; "A post-apocalyptic tale out of Thessalonians telling of what could happen after Christ's return. 1st Thessalonians 4:16 states that "...and the dead in Christ will rise first." A young man left behind after the rapture is trying to get his girlfriend to come see the empty graves and turn to God but his girlfriend refuses to listen."

OK now I can kind of see where they were going with that song. I like this VERY much. I understand not every band out there wants to write lyrics that are blatant (although I do enjoy it) lyrics. HOWEVER to write a song that is vague, and NOT include a little note like The Deadlines did is unacceptable. Good job on that guys! I'd also like to mention that EVERY song on the album has a small blurb on this card and according to the card AND every song has a Christian basis...with the exception of Vegecide (a song about "unbelieving vegans hellbent on converting the rest of the world to their sometimes-contradictory beliefs.")

Again OK, I get it now. This one however you get the sense of Christianity with the reference to "God's perfect plan" and "Come to the graveyard and believe" but you still wouldn't quite get the whole story they are trying to tell without the card.

Alright so this CD isn't going to change the world, it's not going to make us rethink the way we listen to music, and it's not going to initiate world peace...but it might just make you smile and tap your foot as you yell along "Go-go to the graveyard, go-go to the graveyard!" So you owe it to yourself to at least go listen to this thing in your local store. Hey you may hate it...usually I'm not able to tolerate punk in any fashion, but this band does it for me, and maybe you too.

7/10