The curation of music is similar to a magician sawing himself in fucking half - the audience witnesses the spectacle, applauds (or screams in horror), and is stuck wondering, "How the Hell did he do it?" before being left alone to ponder for answers. Arizona's nu-metal heavyweights, Ded, are peeling the curtain back and letting the audience in on how much goes into shock and awe. The four-piece band shuttered the spinal column of the genre with their 2017 debut album, Misβ’anβ’thrope, and furthered it with 2021's School Of Thought - harnessing a collective fanbase that was now half aggressive manics (my group) and half hope-filled manias. Combining both of these concepts, the band unleashed 2025's Resent, which evolved them into an enterprise of aggressive introspection - with an insane feature lineup featuring members from Mudvayne, Motionless In White, and Upon A Burning Body. Catchy heart-splayed choruses and jaw-bludgeoning riffs were melded together: what more could a fan ask for?
Almost a year later, Ded releases Resent (Deluxe), adding 11 new tracks that did not make it on the original release, 6 of them being demos and the rest being 99% finished tracks. Artists will commonly do this years, even decades, after the initial release to showcase a sliver of an echo for fans from that original era. Ded, however, said fuck that, and gifted us the 'making of.'
These tracks are, for the most part, visceral in their direction, differing from their prequel. It's filled with experimental effects and production, some of the heaviest riffs and drumming I've seen from the band, and though I take my metal dipped in nihilism and violence, these self-encouragement choruses are nothing but earworms. This time the sequel is in fact better - and it's going to drop you fucking 'ded'.
"Use The Music As A Weapon"
Previously released as the first single back in May, "Weapon" is an all-encompassing track for modern Ded. High-energy riffs (guitarist Alex Adamcik and bassist Kyle Koelsch) with crisp syncopated kicks and battering fills (Matt Reinhard) open the track before melding into atmospheric verses. The first song given to us has an upbeat attitude to it - its energetic main riff, bass and drum verses with reverbed vocals, and an open-room-felt chorus. Frontman Joe Cotela has never shied away from hope and encouragement in his lyrics - preaching his catharsis for change and strength by using his music as its conduit, utilizing street-like mids and larger-than-life cleans. "Denouncer" is the first we see Ded's experiments in the lab (Trash Island Studios); the guitars are severely downtuned at least 2 steps down, synth builds to a djenty breakdown, and Cotela delivers ethereal-like cleans that are reminiscent of shoegaze metal and Deftones, preaching against the "evangelists, institutions, politicians, and religious figures who use faith as a tool for influence rather than a path to connection." Anti-dogma has never felt this good, and the track is, in fact, Ded, but it's a vein of them that until now I haven't heard tapped into. Furthering this is when the band expanded on some of these varied tracks:
Cotela explains,
"I've always loved this song. I wanted it on the record, but I think it ended up feeling a little left-of-center compared to the rest of the album. It's not necessarily a strange song, but it has a different energy and perspective that made it stand apart from the other tracks. Looking back, that may be exactly what makes it interesting.
"Set the World On Fire" clocks the neck vertical with its bouncing, catchy main riff - added on with electronic (more glitch- and error-code-sounding) atmospheres peddled in is on the tip of industrial metal's tongue and is more Fear Factory than 3Teeth. Cotela's harsh mids climb up with their teeth towards the final bridge and slam back in to exit the track. It's understood why artists may leave some tracks chalked up as 'B-Sides' while on album cycles; however, on the same token, it's considered a gift for them to share where the headspace was beyond the final product.
"Death is coming, Death is coming, Death is coming, Death is coming!"
"Windbreaker" begs for life in the face of the big nothing. It's rapid-fired in its buildups of double pedaling and chugs, groovy in its verses, and riots in its vocals that will find themselves dogpiled tastefully in tremolo-effected modulations. Adamcick delivers a flowing mid-track guitar solo that swallows the track into itself and is an impressive switch compared to what we heard in "Dig Deep's" shredding and dive bombs on the original release.
"I'm Here To Stay" calls upon Nu-Metal's counterpart with Cotela rapping mids and lows over bouncing riffs and groove-filled drums. The breakdown is tough, with speeding palm-muted chugs and kicks while Koelsch's bass gets sent forward in the track like a lead pipe.
Cotela states on the band's decision to share the album's underbelly,
"We thought it would be cool to put everything out there and give people a look behind the curtain. These songs and demos were all part of the creative process behind RESENT, and we wanted fans to hear the full picture of what we were working on during that era."
"I'm just a phantom limb - severed off"
I've been gnawing on my own damn face to get to this part of the deluxe release - the demos. The last half of the album is what was considered the more raw and rough ideas of what could have been future tracks, and honestly, these are some of my favorites from the band. A lot of these are truly aggressive, and we enter a more hostile territory than we have thus far.
"Become The Villain" drops the encouragement and fills the air with our more unhinged counterparts when pushed to the breaking point. Droning synths become bounce-city (population: you, bitch) with stomping kicks and riffs, while Cotela delivers almost Korn-similar verses. This is a "jump the fuck up" track at its heart, but the pinnacle is the breakdown. Descending bass and guitars sound like madness, and it is an olive branch back to the Misβ’anβ’thrope era.
One of, if not my favorite, tracks off this release, "Get Ready Stay Ready," has the most insane chorus and song composition in Ded's discography. The verses are off-kilter and uncanny, giving it a sinister atmosphere behind it, while Cotela's mids are foaming at the mouth. The chorus' message is about overcoming adversity, but sonically, it's violent and would put someone on a stretcher. The added synths make this track feel like it comes out of its packaging and uppercuts you - in my opinion, it needs to be on every setlist Ded has continuing from this point forward. "Phantom Limb" was my contender for favorite on the deluxe, with a unique, punishing main riff; a vocally bleak and drum-like build-up; and a chorus hell-bent on fighting dissociation and isolation. The emotion here does not have a positive undertone - it's grey, all on its own, and wants to be left to die. It's a unique play on the term (where amputees say they can still feel their original limbs, even long after they've been severed from the body). The breakdown is equally destructive, with quick galloped bass, guitar, and drums whipping the track, while Cotela bleeds from tremolo-modulated screams to monotoned scatting. The environment we are currently in is not safe - embrace it.
"Missing The Point" is a more street-vibed demo delving into the value sickness given when pretentiousness fogs the retinas. The chorus's calm and collected cleans are mere breather points between the crawling riffs. Here we witness Cotela brushing on extreme metal's more creature-like voices - with snips of snarled highs and an outro where you can hear actual fucking gutturals (think All Shall Perish). The track is blurred and malforms into "Colors" - a shoegaze-like track with the return of drop-tuned guitars, and it is a side of Ded you wouldn't imagine to be alive for. The track is almost psychedelic with heavy undertones, like it's drowning in itself. The guitar and drums are more prog in nature, and Cotela has dream-like cleans that snuff out hostility and replace it with sublime acceptance of one's pain. This is a track you turn on during a late-night drive going nowhere or when you find yourself having the classic existential staring contest with the ceiling, and it is rated as an impressive experimentation on the band's ability to branch outside their established sound.
Closing out and leading us to our album's 'ded-end' (not sorry), "Wave and Watch" is Ded at their most violent. Its entry point starts at a ridiculously paced aggression (mind you, we just came off fucking "Colors") with Reinhard showing cyclic double pedal and cymbal action and merciless bass and guitar verses - I thought the band was going to end up in deathcore territory by the first chorus with how it was going. Vocally, Cotela is a full misanthrope - lashing mids, layered gutturals, and chanting, "Damn you all!"- This is the side of Ded that made me a loyal fan since 2017. There is no breathing room on this track; it strings you up and beats the shit out of you for two and a half minutes before taking your lunch money. I couldn't be happier to reach my skin-stripped knuckles into my pocket and hand them over to them.
The gift held when an artist delivers the extended versions of their artistry isn't found only in what more you're able to touch, but also in what it took so your hands could grip it. Ded remains a household name in the genre, not just for their positive message niched in heavy riffs, catchy choruses, or whited-out eyes, but also for their openness. The magician saws himself in half, and the audience applauds and screams. When the artist exposes the cuts on the body, shows the previous blades that weren't the right size, and the thrown-away plan to maybe one day use a chainsaw instead of a saw, you feel more connected to them. Aggressive, hopeful, encouraged, bleak - they're more human regardless of the audience's initial reaction. "Resent (Deluxe)" is riddled with rare occasions where we see a band sharing their experimentations, their ideas, and what morphs a band into who they are - and Ded remains evolved, resurrected, and furthering their craft of hopeful aggression. Tread carefully in the pit, 'fore the Ded walk amongst us.
Catch Ded on their upcoming 'Anti-Everything' headlining tour from July 11th to August 8th with support from Dropout Kings and VRSTY. For tickets, click here:
