The Old Dead Tree

It would be difficult to surpass the dark intensity of the Old Dead Tree’s Season of Mist debut, The Nameless Disease. Not bothering to even try, the band instead changed course slightly, intensifying the genre-bending patchwork of their sound rather than plunging to further emotional depths on new album The Perpetual Motion. A study in several themes and styles, the Old Dead Tree’s latest release explores multiple facets of the human experience through various degrees of melody, speed and aggression, reaching out to extremes at both ends of the sonic spectrum. The Perpetual Motion tips its hat to Opeth and Tool, traditional hard rock and neo-goth, death metal and new wave. It’s not as instantly memorable as The Nameless Disease — it’s far too unsettled for that — but there are more forces at work here, promising a level of staying power beyond what the band have accomplished before.