DEATH III REVIEWS
April 25, 2014 ”Like all things which passes within the universe,So shall death.” This dark prophecy, heard at the beginning of Death’s ‘We Are Only People’, holds double meaning for the Detroit rock band – which, until 2009, toiled in obscurity for more than 30 years. Aside from the physical transition of death itself, band member David Hackney once declared that the world would eventually catch onto Death’s music. ‘Death III’ is the last of the group’s unreleased masters, a dusty odds-and- ends collection of songs from the ‘70s, 1980 and 1992 that’s full of drifting guitar melodies and psychedelic funk. Death’s first album, ‘…For The Whole World To See’, was far more aggressive; ‘Death III’ offers thoughtful perspective on religion (‘Yes He’s Coming’), finding inner peace (‘Open Road’) and winter in the Motor City (‘First Snowfall In Detroit’). READ MORE: Clash.com
April 16, 2014 III is the third release in a series of Death albums from Drag City celebrating the trailblazing band. The first, For The Whole World To See, allowed their 1976 to see the light of day. Then came Spiritual • Mental • Physical, a collection of demos and recordings made prior to the 1974 United Sound sessions. READ MORE: musicomh.com
May 1, 2014 Recorded in 1980 – opening cut ‘Introduction by David Hackney’ turns on imagining Chuck Berry rephrased through the fractured kaleidoscopic lens of a solo Syd Barrett before falling away with the onset of the killer ‘North Street’ – a staccato shocked bollock dropping sassy bastard of a cut gouged in the kind of cool funked out street swagger of Hendrix and smoked in a bliss kissed smoking soul blues haze while there’s an almost wasted lysergic out there-ness spiked amid the Pretty Things-ish boogie running through the grooves of the hiccupping stop start ‘Open Road’. Both ‘First snowball in Detroit’ and ‘We’re Gonna Make It’ wrap up the set in fine style, both pulled from the final Death sessions in 1992 – they reveal a collective mindset matured and blessed with an intricately murmured intimacy the former a reflective sultry seafaring flotilla the latter a deliciously airy prairie tinged slice of breezily uplifting kitschy homely folk blues. A fitting tribute to a lost genius and a group of brothers reclaimed by rock. READ MORE: Godisinthetv.com
As buried treasures go, this is one of the strangest. Three black brothers from early 1970s Detroit, Death were a heavy rock band influenced by The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Ignored in their time, their songs, from the spiritual wonderment of We Are Only People to the stark, riff-laced social commentary of North Street, were too good to remain unearthed for ever, and after leader David Hackney’s death in 2000 word began to get out. READ MORE: Thetimes.com
April 4, 2014 Forgotten 70s proto-punkers Death make a hell of a comeback with Death III. Mixing up some slow, spacey cuts like ‘Free’ and ‘We Are Only People’ with angry, post- Velvets and Stooges tunes like ‘North Street’, this is the sound of Bad Brains but a decade early. There is some real invention here - the aforementioned ‘We Are Only People’ is an eight-minute jam which goes from the airiest of introductions to a reggae- tinged chug. READ MORE: Soundblab.com
April 15, 2014 Five years after the second life of Death was started with the release of their revelatory 1976 album, "For The Whole World To See", "III" slams the door on the vault with a powerful set of songs that bring equal amounts of rock and ethereal soul- searching, in high-fidelity, rich bottomed, studio-grade sound. Alongside songs from 1975, 1976 and 1980, "III" contains two songs from 1992, as the Hackney brothers reconvened nearly a decade after they'd stopped playing together. The album serves as a companion piece of sorts to the "A Band Called Death" documentary, tracking the band's movement from spiritual young rockers to older and wiser, bruised-but- undefeated brothers, in pure musical terms. READ MORE: junorecords.com
February 11, 2014 Death will soon see new life. On April 22, Drag City will unleash Death III, a nine-track album collecting songs pulled from the proto-punks’ past. The upcoming LP will be the third such archival release from Death, the ’70s Detroit trio featuring brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. In their original incarnation, Death disbanded before putting out a proper full-length. Then, in 2009, Drag City culled the group’s early demos and tracks to form the …For the Whole World to See LP. That same year, Death reunited with guitarist Bobbie Duncan standing in for David Hackney, who died from lung cancer in 2000. READ MORE: Spin.com
April 22, 2014 The selling of Death as a proto- punk band certainly helped the long-lost group catch the attention of modern listeners, especially now that they’ve reformed (minus their late leader, guitarist David Hackney). But with their third archival release, Death III, it’s become even clearer that Death had much more than spit and snarl up their sleeves. “North Street” pulses and pounces, but it does so fluidly—and with a bluesy lasciviousness that’s more Thin Lizzy than the Stooges. That aggression carries over into “Restlessness”, a pummeling confessional that melds the homegrown chops of David, bassist-vocalist Bobby Hackney, and drummer Dannis Hackney into a smoothly pneumatic machine. READ MORE: Pitchfork.com
MUSIC INDUSTRY BOOKING /ENGAGEMENTS AND ALL RELATED INQUIRIES
DEATH DEATH LEGACY DEATH MUSIC DEATH MERCHANDISE THE BAND CALLED DEATH
ADDRESS DL4 MUSICAL ENTERPRISES INC. BOX 112 Jericho /VT 05465
CONTACT e: death@deathfromdetroit.com
COPYRIGHT DL4 MUSICAL ENTERPRISES INC. ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
DEATH III REVIEWS
April 25, 2014 ”Like all things which passes within the universe,So shall death.” This dark prophecy, heard at the beginning of Death’s ‘We Are Only People’, holds double meaning for the Detroit rock band – which, until 2009, toiled in obscurity for more than 30 years. Aside from the physical transition of death itself, band member David Hackney once declared that the world would eventually catch onto Death’s music. ‘Death III’ is the last of the group’s unreleased masters, a dusty odds-and- ends collection of songs from the ‘70s, 1980 and 1992 that’s full of drifting guitar melodies and psychedelic funk. Death’s first album, ‘…For The Whole World To See’, was far more aggressive; ‘Death III’ offers thoughtful perspective on religion (‘Yes He’s Coming’), finding inner peace (‘Open Road’) and winter in the Motor City (‘First Snowfall In Detroit’). READ MORE: Clash.com
April 16, 2014 III is the third release in a series of Death albums from Drag City celebrating the trailblazing band. The first, For The Whole World To See, allowed their 1976 to see the light of day. Then came Spiritual • Mental • Physical, a collection of demos and recordings made prior to the 1974 United Sound sessions. READ MORE: musicomh.com
May 1, 2014 Recorded in 1980 – opening cut ‘Introduction by David Hackney’ turns on imagining Chuck Berry rephrased through the fractured kaleidoscopic lens of a solo Syd Barrett before falling away with the onset of the killer ‘North Street’ – a staccato shocked bollock dropping sassy bastard of a cut gouged in the kind of cool funked out street swagger of Hendrix and smoked in a bliss kissed smoking soul blues haze while there’s an almost wasted lysergic out there-ness spiked amid the Pretty Things-ish boogie running through the grooves of the hiccupping stop start ‘Open Road’. Both ‘First snowball in Detroit’ and ‘We’re Gonna Make It’ wrap up the set in fine style, both pulled from the final Death sessions in 1992 – they reveal a collective mindset matured and blessed with an intricately murmured intimacy the former a reflective sultry seafaring flotilla the latter a deliciously airy prairie tinged slice of breezily uplifting kitschy homely folk blues. A fitting tribute to a lost genius and a group of brothers reclaimed by rock. READ MORE: Godisinthetv.com
As buried treasures go, this is one of the strangest. Three black brothers from early 1970s Detroit, Death were a heavy rock band influenced by The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Ignored in their time, their songs, from the spiritual wonderment of We Are Only People to the stark, riff-laced social commentary of North Street, were too good to remain unearthed for ever, and after leader David Hackney’s death in 2000 word began to get out. READ MORE: Thetimes.com
April 4, 2014 Forgotten 70s proto-punkers Death make a hell of a comeback with Death III. Mixing up some slow, spacey cuts like ‘Free’ and ‘We Are Only People’ with angry, post- Velvets and Stooges tunes like ‘North Street’, this is the sound of Bad Brains but a decade early. There is some real invention here - the aforementioned ‘We Are Only People’ is an eight-minute jam which goes from the airiest of introductions to a reggae- tinged chug. READ MORE: Soundblab.com
April 15, 2014 Five years after the second life of Death was started with the release of their revelatory 1976 album, "For The Whole World To See", "III" slams the door on the vault with a powerful set of songs that bring equal amounts of rock and ethereal soul- searching, in high-fidelity, rich bottomed, studio-grade sound. Alongside songs from 1975, 1976 and 1980, "III" contains two songs from 1992, as the Hackney brothers reconvened nearly a decade after they'd stopped playing together. The album serves as a companion piece of sorts to the "A Band Called Death" documentary, tracking the band's movement from spiritual young rockers to older and wiser, bruised-but- undefeated brothers, in pure musical terms. READ MORE: junorecords.com
February 11, 2014 Death will soon see new life. On April 22, Drag City will unleash Death III, a nine-track album collecting songs pulled from the proto-punks’ past. The upcoming LP will be the third such archival release from Death, the ’70s Detroit trio featuring brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. In their original incarnation, Death disbanded before putting out a proper full-length. Then, in 2009, Drag City culled the group’s early demos and tracks to form the …For the Whole World to See LP. That same year, Death reunited with guitarist Bobbie Duncan standing in for David Hackney, who died from lung cancer in 2000. READ MORE: Spin.com
April 22, 2014 The selling of Death as a proto- punk band certainly helped the long-lost group catch the attention of modern listeners, especially now that they’ve reformed (minus their late leader, guitarist David Hackney). But with their third archival release, Death III, it’s become even clearer that Death had much more than spit and snarl up their sleeves. “North Street” pulses and pounces, but it does so fluidly—and with a bluesy lasciviousness that’s more Thin Lizzy than the Stooges. That aggression carries over into “Restlessness”, a pummeling confessional that melds the homegrown chops of David, bassist-vocalist Bobby Hackney, and drummer Dannis Hackney into a smoothly pneumatic machine. READ MORE: Pitchfork.com
MUSIC INDUSTRY BOOKING /ENGAGEMENTS AND ALL RELATED INQUIRIES
DEATH DEATH LEGACY DEATH MUSIC DEATH MERCHANDISE THE BAND CALLED DEATH
ADDRESS DL4 MUSICAL ENTERPRISES INC. BOX 112 Jericho /VT 05465
CONTACT e: death@deathfromdetroit.com
COPYRIGHT DL4 MUSICAL ENTERPRISES INC. ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.