Artist: Deadwood

Album: Rituals of A Dying Light (EP)

Location: Montreal, Quebec (Canada)

Release Date: January 9th, 2026

Label: Innerstrength Records

Review Author: Brady Irwin

Oh, Canada.

True patriot love in all thy sons command indeed, if you’re a fan of heavy music. Like us supposedly-laidback (hint: we’re really, really not) Aussies, our Commonwealth imperialist-colony comrades have long had a knack for manufacturing high volumes of fantastic, pissed-off music.

Whilst we’re watching a certain mandarin-tan-coated individual flex against Russia in terms of what constitutes an in-and-out ‘special military operation’ not too long after sloganising ‘no war’, it’s clear we’re in for a year where heavy music will be required in regular increments as a mood stabiliser against… well… [gestures vaguely at everything].

That toupee-sporting fuzzpeach is concerned with Making America Great Again, but over the border in the land of maple syrup, flappy Terrence and Phillip heads, buddies, guys and friends? There’s a four-piece branding their own sloganeering, with a mission-statement to ‘Make Deathcore Angry Again’.

And you know what? Without derailing a brief EP review into an overly waffling thought-piece about the state of deathcore, they’re not wrong.

Initially bathed in the jagged glass and lime shards of a more mathcore/metallic hardcore persuasion, deathcore as a genre in its’ nascent stages early-late 2000s was characterised by janky, mathy riffage, near-grindcore speed and pure harshness. Blended with some absolute brodown chugathon moments to make the scene kids smile.

Then the 2010’s happened, Nolly from Periphery happened, economies-of-scale and AxeFX I/II happened. Drop A and more-strings-are-better damn near got enshrined as physical laws for musicians in the genre, and we saw a lot of dilution. Simplification. Safety.

Thankfully, deathcore is enjoying a similar renaissance to metalcore and death metal at present - the people have spoken, and our appetites are needing satiation for old-school, rough-edged, gritty and raw production/songwriting.

The current EP in question is ultimately one I feel doesn’t quite match the brutal savagery of Myspace-era deathcore, but it also manages to stay a few stone-skips ahead of the aforementioned riff-homeopathy that has plagued the ‘core scene in general for a while now.

First of five tracks in total, ‘Tales of Massacre’ feels like a charge of salivating bloodhounds finally unbound, unleashed and charging toward their prey - you. You can exempt the first half of this track from the prior paragraph, as there is some serious speed and gnashing brutality to commence proceedings today. Fred Element (Guitars) inflects a bit of that yester-year knack for jagged tonal/chordal riff-work, unsurprising with his past residency in the mighty Ion Dissonance (great band, severely underrated). Fred’s also on production duties for the EP, and it’s a satisfying blend of modern edge-smoothing and distorted grit all ‘round. For a self-produced EP, this is sounding damn good.

(As a bassist, I’d be remiss to not sniffle a tear about a lack of low-end monkey on the present title, however the production is beefy enough to hold that weight. Damn, more expendable than we like to tell ourselves huh?)

It’s not just the producer who maketh the sound, though.

Vocalist Martin Demontigny is no longer with the band, however sends off his tenure with a vicious blend of snarling rasps, guttural bellows and the odd Despised Icon-esque inflection of full brodown barks and shouts (albeit a fair bit more dialled back) as we proceed into ‘Heretic’.

The second track feels akin to the above band… if you threw them in a blender with a bit more of that extra-gritty Jesus Piece/Year Of The Knife/Yautja flavour to boot. The death metal elements are decently death-metal indeed, but I appreciate the extra abrasion on the ‘core end too. Lot of younger deathcore bands particularly play it safer on the latter subgenre, but Deadwood have got that angry dog in ‘em wholesale.

Make no mistake folks, this is fun stuff, but it’s certainly pissed off. A bristling sonic rage rounded out thunderously by Stephanie Fillon (Guitars) and Charles Etienne Lafrance on the drumkit. Oh boy is Charles ever on that drumkit, though - it’s his punishing and creative playing that really steps it up through ‘Heretic’ and into the ridiculously mosh-ready ‘Thirst For Blood’. No, really. I’m not a betting man, but if I were I’d put a solid punt on very few standing still for this number in particular, in live form.

Little EP Sample - ‘Heretic’, courtesy of the artist via their Youtube Channel:

Yep, it’s as tropey a title as they come and most at risk of inducing the dreaded two-step on the EP. It’s fast but stoic and grooves hard. Mind you, as with other tracks, ‘Thirst’ does so alongside some neat push-pull tempo dynamics/moments of real nastiness, all up keeping listeners reminded this ain’t metalcore, it’s deathcore.

By the third track’s conclusion, it’s clear we’re not being entreated to a band trying to out-prog Gorguts, nor out-pummel Cryptopsy - just riff, slam, bust heads, go hard, and minimise pontificating (that’s my role in all this). They know their niche and they’re playing enough with the sonic space provided to distance themselves somewhat from a more generic/rote deathcore style. That suits me absolutely fine.

‘Whispers of Death’ disavows titles-as-instructions, however, choosing to continue to scream via a grating wall of sheet-metal riffage, chest-caving kicks and Tyrannosaurus-on-PCP snarl-roars. I mentioned metallic hardcore earlier, and this one in particular has throes of late Coalesce, Botch and the like in the mix… but only subtly so. Enough to pique the ears, sure. But overall this track and EP clearly have momentum in mind. ‘Whispers’ especially is demonstrative of a band writing this as much if not more for the live front than us chin-stroking RateYourMusic/Metal-Archives neckbeards intellectuals.

Good.

Honestly, most of what I listen to heavy-music-wise these days feels self-conscious about how cerebral it is, how much it’s making you think. Deadwood purport some clever tunes with some interesting and dynamic moments, such as the creepy instrumental that peels back as the final layer off an otherwise chaotic EP-finisher in ‘Echoes of The Fallen’. But again, like the track prior and this EP as a whole, Rituals of A Dying Light is neither introduced, conveyed or concluded with tweed, corn-cob pipes and rows of faux-leather books in mind.

To conclude and circling back to the original mission-statement of Making Deathcore Angry Again - have the band produced an EP demonstrative of this claim? Yes. It’s gnarly, raw, organic, thuggish and decently heavy, demonstrating a similar knowledge of ‘deathcore = death metal + hardcore, not modern metalcore with a few shrieks thrown in’ to other Canuck peers.

Having recently toured Japan with none other than sonic-boom-peddlers Humanity’s Last Breath, given Inkcarceration Festival 2025 a ruddy ol’ beating and been called back for more by Born of Osiris re: hometown support slots, it’s clear this Quebecois troupe know what they’re doing. I’m confident new vocal initiate Derek Heynekemp will fit the bill nicely, and I’m keen to hear these guys release a full-length LP in future.

mettre à nouveau Deathcore en colère!

Get off your derriere - here’s the link for preordering Rituals of A Dying Light.

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