Old Growth

by Dead Meadow

Overview

Dead Meadow's fifth studio album, and their third for Matador Records, was recorded in two locations: Sunset Sound, a 50-year-old studio on the Sunset Strip, rumored to be haunted by Jim Morrison's ghost, and in a restored abandoned Indiana guest house next door to the farmhouse of drummer Stephen McCarty's parents -- where the band first recorded Howls from the Hills. Potential for a doomy throwback to their early works seemed high, with the latter space boasting 14-foot ceilings perfect for massive drum reverb, old cupboards, and closets for isolation rooms, and surrounding a bottom-lit brick well in the center of the kitchen to make shadows dance while mysterious ghost stories circulated about the shack. As legend has it, a park ranger who rented the secluded space prior to the recording pulled his gun on hand prints that were making their way towards him across the carpet in the middle of the night, and supposedly, as a result of the eerie environment, if you listen carefully, you can hear paranormal sounds bleeding through on some of the guitar tracks, along with footsteps and violin noises coming from nowhere. The spooky back-stories that portray the setting of the album as the cabin from Evil Dead, and cover art that depicts a claustrophobic forest would lead one to believe that this is going to be a stoner rock throwback to the fear-inducing lumbering thunder of Sabbath and Blue Cheer. Unfortunately, fans of Dead Meadow's pummeling self-titled album will be disappointed in the lack of bombast, as now the DC trio is continuing down their path of laid-back entrancement that was becoming all-too comfortable on 2005's Floyd-esque Feathers. There's still a woozy taste of psychedelia in the air, even though most of the songs now fall under the five-minute mark, with most of the grunge saved for the guitar solos. Frontman and guitar slinger Jason Simon still wails on his wah when time permits, but he sounds more apathetic than ever while singing, and the songs are more compact than before, resulting in what feels a lot like a blues-rock version of Spiritualized. Some moments specialize in the plodding groove ("Til Kingdom Come"), some are more experimental and trippy, like the tanpura drone and frantic build of "Seven Seers," others are surprisingly quaint acoustic based numbers like "Down Here." Where the group used to sound like a bulldozer demolishing rubble, now they're more like a snow plow gently shoving away a winter wonderland. It's still good, but isn't stoner rock supposed to sound destructive? ~ Jason Lymangrover

Product Details

Release Date:	05/02/2025
Label:	Heavy Psych Sounds
UPC:	0694685736370

Tracks

1. Ain't Got Nothing
2. Between Me and the Ground
3. What Needs Must Be
4. Down Here
5. 'Till Kingdom Come
6. I'm Gone
7. Seven Seers
8. The Great Deceiver
9. The Queen of All Returns
10. Keep on Walking
11. Hard People/Hard Times
12. Either Way

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Dead Meadow   Primary Artist
Steve Kille   Bass
Stephen McCarty   Drums

Technical Credits

Aaron Giesel   Cover Photo,Photography
Adam Lemnah   Lighting,Camera Operator
Steve Kille   Engineer,Group Member
Scott Mueller   Producer
Dan Horstman   Camera Operator,Lighting
Brad Baker   Cinematography
Clifton Allen   Assistant Engineer
David Schiffman   Mixing,Producer
Stephen McCarty   Lettering,Group Member
Rob Campanella   Engineer,Overdubs
Howie Weinberg   Mastering
Frank Longo   Design,Art Direction
Nathan T. Duncan   Editing
Brian "The Project" Coates   Assistant Engineer
Eric Cheevers   Video Director
Charles Wish   Paintings