The mention of a one man band evokes images of a guy standing on a street with guitar in hands, drum on back, and cymbals on knees banging out a few cover versions to pay the electricity bill….. Thankfully, Damien Deadson is a million light years away from this image. This independently released solo project is the brainchild of Ryan Helm formerly of The Ascendicate and more recently Demon Hunter. Helm played all instruments and handled the vocal duties by himself and in the process has delivered hefty slab of reinforced concrete.

Album opener The Nothing is a strong start with a soaring controlled guitar solo knitting it together towards the end. Power Soak is more up tempo as Helm trades clean and growled lines. His use of layered vocal multitracking is sublime and delivers a great feel to the song. I Am Power is chunky and driven but did it need the 65 seconds of spoken word at the end?

A Warm and Dark Embrace exhibits Helm’s extraordinary vocal talents on personal favourites A Night Sea Journey and Challenges of Change. The latter being the stand out track on the CD.

Other than the total curveball final track The Burning Sorrows Part 2 - Liberation, this album is relentless. It grabs you by the throat, never lets go and throttles you into submission. Said exception aside, a lot of the songs are very similar. This is not a bad trait. When you listen to Damien Deadson, you know what you’re going to get.

This is dark despondent IndustroDjent with slatherings of Meshuggah and Fear Factory. With the right personnel on stage and with some high profile support slots, Helm could get the break that will let him expand his talents further. Damien Deadson is a band to watch out for in 2012.