The Deep
Premonition
Independent Release
2015
The Deep are a new formation, coming from England and featuring a good number of musicians from the ranks of “Deep Machine” a rather capable band that made a name for them, back in the day, but failed to capitalize on it, and at various times, involved, members of various Angelwitch line-ups. In fact, it was the 1982 line-up of the band, at least most of it, that in 2012, got back together to have a bit of fun in the studio that decided, it sounded quite good, and plotted a reformation of forms, that somewhat fell through to completely materialize, since a certain member wasn’t much interested in giving it another go and another was forced to abandon the line-up due to physical illness, that prevents the performance of their instrument on a professional level.
With a new line-up featuring some old collaborators, from bands they had played with in the past, the almost 1982 line-up, now unable to assume the “Deep Machine” name that certain other members of the band had assumed and resurrected, with a different line-up, opted for calling themselves “The Deep” and self-penned and financed an album, entitled “Premonition” that they started recording in 2013 only to gig between sessions and finally wrap up a couple of years later.
The album, itself is classy, classic NWOBHM, with generous amounts of melody, and features various songs from Deep Machine’s 82 setlist like “The Rider”, “Night-Stalker”, “Premonition”, “Spell-Bound” & “Saga”, together with a few songs written by Strutt (which featured a couple of members of the band in the early 80s “All I Want”, “You Take My Breath Away”, “Out of Touch” & “Turn Me Loose”. “Cold-Heated” is also another song, the band uses, and it was written in the early 90s by “The Rodford Files” project.
Between these songs, the “Deep Machine” originals, have a tendency to be a bit heavier for the most part, but they are still are melodic, with a couple being even more melodic like “Spellbound” and “Saga”. The “Strutt” stuff, is usually a bit more melodic, “You Take My Breath Away” but in their pomp and melody things remain quite heavy as well on the rest of the songs. “Cold Hearted” on the other hand, is a lot more melodic than anything else, but doesn’t feel completely out of place. Maybe since the common denominator is the singer, in all of them, (originally and now) it all, sort of holds together, remarkably. None of the songs is particularly bad, since they all have their “own” charms, but they cannot entirely antagonize, the bands that really made a big impact back in the day. They are however, quite worthwhile material to delve into and explore and by no means, a loss of time. If you enjoy melodic NWOBHM that is not missing in dynamics and rocks quite hard, go with The Deep and you can’t lose.
With a new line-up featuring some old collaborators, from bands they had played with in the past, the almost 1982 line-up, now unable to assume the “Deep Machine” name that certain other members of the band had assumed and resurrected, with a different line-up, opted for calling themselves “The Deep” and self-penned and financed an album, entitled “Premonition” that they started recording in 2013 only to gig between sessions and finally wrap up a couple of years later.
The album, itself is classy, classic NWOBHM, with generous amounts of melody, and features various songs from Deep Machine’s 82 setlist like “The Rider”, “Night-Stalker”, “Premonition”, “Spell-Bound” & “Saga”, together with a few songs written by Strutt (which featured a couple of members of the band in the early 80s “All I Want”, “You Take My Breath Away”, “Out of Touch” & “Turn Me Loose”. “Cold-Heated” is also another song, the band uses, and it was written in the early 90s by “The Rodford Files” project.
Between these songs, the “Deep Machine” originals, have a tendency to be a bit heavier for the most part, but they are still are melodic, with a couple being even more melodic like “Spellbound” and “Saga”. The “Strutt” stuff, is usually a bit more melodic, “You Take My Breath Away” but in their pomp and melody things remain quite heavy as well on the rest of the songs. “Cold Hearted” on the other hand, is a lot more melodic than anything else, but doesn’t feel completely out of place. Maybe since the common denominator is the singer, in all of them, (originally and now) it all, sort of holds together, remarkably. None of the songs is particularly bad, since they all have their “own” charms, but they cannot entirely antagonize, the bands that really made a big impact back in the day. They are however, quite worthwhile material to delve into and explore and by no means, a loss of time. If you enjoy melodic NWOBHM that is not missing in dynamics and rocks quite hard, go with The Deep and you can’t lose.