Prepare to get wrapped up in one of the most scintillating musical delights of this year! DeadTrees unveil a New World unlike any other.
Release date: February 19, 2026 | Pest Productions | Bandcamp
I never figured I’d be reviewing a black metal band, namely DeadTrees today, given my tenuous relationship with the genre. Although it’s worth noting right away that New World is, at least by my judgement, far from what would normally constitute a black metal record. It’s more that it has some black metal elements, heavily masked, and sparsely peppered throughout. This album was recommended to me by a friend, more as an afterthought than as a hardcore ‘you-must-listen-to-this-yesterday’ recommendation. I was immediately invested. By the time the album wrapped up I wasn’t even sure what was going on with me. I started digging around and listened to every song DeadTrees has put out. There’s essentially nothing I managed to find out about them, other that they are from Lanzhou, China, along with whatever material exists on their Bandcamp page. Though, it does track to an extent – the best music often tends to be made by ambiguous figures and entities. I would also underline that New World is, as the title implies, something entirely unlike the rest of their repertoire, standing as something essentially unrecognizable, as if it’s an entirely different band.
Since I am so smitten with DeadTrees‘s newest album, I want to quickly go through the one aspect which isn’t positive, so we can get that out of the way. The production is, simply put, just bad. I’m in no measure aware what budget size, amount and quality of gear, allotted time, and everything else went into that side of creating this album, so it’s impossible to tell what the real issue is there. Moreso, due to that, it’s equally impossible to tell how indicative or not is it of what the band is capable of. That being said, I don’t hold this against the album (or the band): merely, it’s that if what is presented here would’ve gotten the royal treatment of a world-class level of production, I can imagine that this would’ve been, without any shred of doubt, one of the greatest albums of this year, decade, and of all time. I am aware that this is an extremely bold statement and position to take, especially the latter part of it, given how fresh the album is.
I should be able to back up such a bold claim, though I have doubts that what I managed to feel through the course of listening to New World will be neatly translated in the words below. Stylistically, it’s a bit all over the place. The album rests on a stable rock-oriented foundation with some metal leanings, borrowing heavily from post-rock, shoegaze, blackgaze, progressive rock, classical music, with a strong insistence on East Asian aesthetics. It isn’t the most daring blend of styles, however that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great blend. It’s an outstanding mix from where I’m standing. I am especially enthralled by the rather maximalist approach of how this is executed in terms of structure and arrangements. The pacing is dynamic, shifting often, there’s a healthy amount of vertical layering, and the delivery is massive and dense. I couldn’t say there’s anything groundbreaking in any aspect, it’s more that the presented vision is, as I see it, one brimming with power, conviction, passion, and honesty. The overarching narrative thread also makes it feel more like a single, enormous journey, rather than a collection of disjointed songs. Each song has its standout moment, however they blend in well enough for this cohesion to transpire clearly.
New World doesn’t bring anything new to the table per se, but it feels like you are experiencing a new world via the authenticity behind everything. The entire record, all the way from “Extinguished City” to the closing title track “New World”, is roaring with vibrant colors, filling the space and time around you like the shimmering dawn unfolding over a fresh reality. Emotionally, it’s not particularly diverse, at least not in the way a true progressive album would usually wear itself, but it does go to great lengths and in deep detail with the exploration of what’s on display. Everything is extremely lush, tender, radiant, expansive, upbeat, optimistic, and melancholic in a highly romantic way, which allows for an almost magical atmosphere to weave itself as the songs move. Overall, it makes me think of some wild yet somewhat grounded adventure, unfurling with no holds barred in a medium where everything is possible. DeadTrees managed to also somehow capture a strong ludic spirit, which to me at least is obvious at any given moment across the tunes. I believe this would be the strongest binding agent of all of the above and the ultimate catalyst of it all. It feels like there is no false pretense, no showing off, no musical acrobatics, nothing of the sort. It’s all just pure play for the joy of playing. It’s been ages since I’ve felt this in an album and it just set my insides ablaze with a kind of fun that’s pure and unfettered, the kind that reminded me that this is one of the greatest things you can feel in this existence.
DeadTrees unabashedly made a masterpiece like it’s no big deal, and just dropped it on us out of nowhere. I don’t know who these people are and how they managed this, but I sincerely hope they don’t ever stop. Though, even if they never make anything ever again, in my heart New World will still feverishly scintillate, like a divine beacon, always calling and listening for its next of kin. This is an album that became an instant favorite, an instant classic, and something that I will carry with me. Go right now and listen to New World, so that you may also see that within, there’s always a new world waiting to bloom and be found.
