With the imminent release of Deadwood Lake’s fourth release Immortalised In Death, it was an opportune time to catch up with vocalist and bassist Bruce Powell to find out a bit more about the band and their forthcoming release. The interview was conducted two days before Bloodstock Open Air, and although Bruce is a regular, this year he has devoted all his time into the band. For those unaware of the Deadwood Lake back story, the band comprises Bruce, guitarist Ryan Willis and drummer Tom Warren. All the band’s albums and EPs are themed around the raw emotions that Bruce and his family felt after the death of his brother Gary in 2015. If you’ve listened to the band then you’ll know that the subjects of grief, sorrow and despair all appear, delivered through the medium of some of the most impressive UK atmospheric black metal.
Bruce and Gary got into metal after discovering their father’s CD collection, which contained Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motörhead etc. This progressed to the thrash CDs of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer which Gary had picked up at a house party when around 13 years of age. “This was our entrance down the rabbit hole” said Bruce, “we’d ventured into thrash metal for years and then Gary headed off towards more melodic death metal such as In Flames whilst I went for more progressive death metal and then black metal”. Whilst Immortal were a favourite it was discovering Alcest etc, which flipped the whole black metal thing on its head. “I enjoyed that side of things a lot more than your typical bands like Mayhem and Marduk”.
Gary was two years older than Bruce and they grew up close. “We enjoyed the same hobbies, years in the bedroom painting Warhammer models and listening to music, going out rollerblading in our teenage years. He was never into writing music, that was my kind of thing. I was in bands when he was still alive, but he never really got into that”. Bruce continues to explain his evolution into music. “I bought a bass when I was about 13/14, a horrendous one from Argos, but you’ve got to start somewhere haven’t you! I taught myself after finding Metallica and had a couple of school bands and it progressed from there when I was then writing thrash metal music when I was 16. After finding Opeth I moved to progressive death metal and it moved on from there”. Gary would be a regular at Bruce’s shows when he was playing thrash metal. They would also travel to see bands together including Mastodon, Iron Maiden and Slayer.
Deadwood Lake formed after Gary’s death. Tom is a long-time family friend and knew Gary for over 11 years although Ryan didn’t know Gary. The band’s touring guitarist Tim is also from around the same locality and knew the family. When Gary first passed, it was Bruce who wrote all of the music and lyrics; “our first EP Remembrance was solely written by me. I was in Canada (Bruce’s wife is Canadian). I wrote 15 songs at the time and used six of them. I then came back to the UK which is when I got in touch with Ryan and Tom about recording the songs.”
At first, there was no intention of Deadwood Lake becoming a live band. “It was purely a studio project” explained Bruce. “I just wanted to record the music for myself”. Ryan is now a major part of the song writing team in Deadwood Lake although most of the communication is via email as the two live over two hours away from each other. “We send stuff back and fore, and then Tom will tell us if it is shit or not! I trust his judgement more than anyone”.
Immortalised In Death is out on 16th August. The fourth piece of work from the band. Bruce explains that it is getting harder to write. “Mentally I’m in a better place. If I try and write lyrics when I’m feeling fine, it turns out to be crap. As time goes on, I’m feeling better most of the time so I’m only writing lyrics very rarely, when I’m down, which is rarely, but that is when you are at your most emotive. If I try to force it, it doesn’t work. So, lyrics take a bit longer. In terms of songwriting I feel we’ve progressed. We’ve forged our sound that we want”.
If you listen to the four pieces of work, there is a natural progression. Technically, Immortalised In Death has moved on a level with some of Ryan’s guitar work stupidly good. “There is a natural progression as far as our song writing is concerned. Lyrics are getting harder, but we have progressed from record to record. People often see Remembrance as our best piece of work (before the new album comes out) because it is so raw and emotional. Forest Of Whispers I think we pushed the boat out after what we touched on in Remembrance and kind of pushed the boat out and went exploring a bit more. There is a lot of progressive style, Steven Wilson and Opeth thing on there. There are even power metal parts on there. We pushed to see what we could do. And then we got to Forgotten Hymns and we looked back and reflected on what worked and what didn’t and refined it. With the new album I think we’ve perfected the sound we want”.
The album has some magnificent tracks and I asked about My Ashes Will Remain which is a deep emotional song. “It’s about my brother’s cremation from his point of view” explains Bruce. “Even though his body was passing on his soul remained. Musically we wanted something very powerful and the track even features Paul [Nazarkardeh] from De Profundis to add a guitar solo on the end”.
Another track which is technically clever is Drowning Reality, which is just astonishing in terms of the guitar work. “Ryan’s solos on that are simply ridiculous. He is very talented …and he has only just turned 23”. The song itself focuses on members of family and friends who dealt with their grief by turning to alcohol and other substance abuse. “Numbing the pain that way. I write music to get through it but there are multiple ways you can deal with grief”.
Will there be more work on the same subject matter? “As long as I feel honest about it, then I will keep putting stuff out. The second that it does feel forced I’ll either stop writing music for the band or change direction although I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable doing that. We have half a dozen songs ready for whatever comes next. It is still coming. We have put out four releases in four years so I can’t imagine something next year but maybe in 2021.
Bruce revealed that whilst in work he tends to listen to easier listening power metal such as Blind Guardian, Priest and Sabaton “although I’m not sure the true black metal fans will like that at all I draw most of my inspiration from outside black metal to be honest”.
Deadwood Lake share their label with Agrona, and Bruce is happy with the support they get from Chris at UKEM records. “He’s a good chap. He does great things for the underground UK metal scene. He puts out all the music he wants to put out with his whole heart. He puts his effort and money into it. He can also understand the sentiment of the band because he lost his brother to a traffic accident when he was younger too. You feel like you are helping a small label out rather than giving money to corporations”.
Deadwood Lake return for a couple of shows including one in the Cavern in Exeter with Levitas and then off to the Warhorns Festival in Rotherham at the end of the month. Playing live is a real challenge for the band with Ryan in Lisgard, two hours away. “He considers anywhere past Bristol to be North” adds Bruce. “It’s even difficult to practice so we have to pick and choose”.
Whilst Bruce can’t see a time when he is a full-time musician he admits “it would be nice” but that his music is cathartic and done purely for himself. “It’s something I do in my past time to get rid of the negative emotions I have”.
My grateful thanks to Bruce who was an absolute pleasure to interview and our 35 minutes covered many more topics. If you haven’t got a pre-order in for this album, then do yourself a favour and check the album out online where it is digitally accessible. Even better, get online to UKEM records and order a physical copy. Immortalised In Death is out on UKEM Records on 16th August. You should really buy a copy.
Another track which is technically clever is Drowning Reality, which is just astonishing in terms of the guitar work. “Ryan’s solos on that are simply ridiculous. He is very talented …and he has only just turned 23”. The song itself focuses on members of family and friends who dealt with their grief by turning to alcohol and other substance abuse. “Numbing the pain that way. I write music to get through it but there are multiple ways you can deal with grief”.
Will there be more work on the same subject matter? “As long as I feel honest about it, then I will keep putting stuff out. The second that it does feel forced I’ll either stop writing music for the band or change direction although I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable doing that. We have half a dozen songs ready for whatever comes next. It is still coming. We have put out four releases in four years so I can’t imagine something next year but maybe in 2021.
Bruce revealed that whilst in work he tends to listen to easier listening power metal such as Blind Guardian, Priest and Sabaton “although I’m not sure the true black metal fans will like that at all I draw most of my inspiration from outside black metal to be honest”.
Deadwood Lake share their label with Agrona, and Bruce is happy with the support they get from Chris at UKEM records. “He’s a good chap. He does great things for the underground UK metal scene. He puts out all the music he wants to put out with his whole heart. He puts his effort and money into it. He can also understand the sentiment of the band because he lost his brother to a traffic accident when he was younger too. You feel like you are helping a small label out rather than giving money to corporations”.
Deadwood Lake return for a couple of shows including one in the Cavern in Exeter with Levitas and then off to the Warhorns Festival in Rotherham at the end of the month. Playing live is a real challenge for the band with Ryan in Lisgard, two hours away. “He considers anywhere past Bristol to be North” adds Bruce. “It’s even difficult to practice so we have to pick and choose”.
Whilst Bruce can’t see a time when he is a full-time musician he admits “it would be nice” but that his music is cathartic and done purely for himself. “It’s something I do in my past time to get rid of the negative emotions I have”.
My grateful thanks to Bruce who was an absolute pleasure to interview and our 35 minutes covered many more topics. If you haven’t got a pre-order in for this album, then do yourself a favour and check the album out online where it is digitally accessible. Even better, get online to UKEM records and order a physical copy. Immortalised In Death is out on UKEM Records on 16th August. You should really buy a copy.
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