Review Summary: A solid melodic debut, but needs some work.
(Written for the “Review a Random Album 2025” challenge.)
When it comes to the deep recesses of music, one and done bands usually have a good reputation. They tend to channel all of their best ideas into one album, then quickly fizzle out and disband. Deep Inside Myself is a gothic metal band that is a good example of these types of bands, but does have aspects that could use more work.
While the band is very symphonic with its use of the synthesizer, they also throw in some nasty metal riffs as a nice contrast. In fact, it's why it makes Endless Winter the best song on the album. It has a catchy melody, varied vocals, and the second chorus is quite aggressive with the black metal rasps. The rest of the album does do things similarly, but it doesn't come together as well as it does on the second track.
One slight problem I do have is the vocals. Most of the time it is quite clean, but it does feel whiney at times. When the vocalist, Marco Bauer, does mix clean and harsh vocals in the same song, it sounds great. But overall the cleans are pretty all right. In terms of lyrics, some are stronger than others. It’s mostly about spirituality and the like, but does dabble in some sci-fi in The Proof.
Without a doubt the biggest problem is the complete disregard for a rhythmic backbone. The bass is virtually non-existent (other than one song), and the drum programming is so forgettable that I actually forgot it was there after the first listen. You can clearly hear the bass struggle to be heard, but is drowned out under the synths, guitars, and vocals.
The later half of the album is where most of the stronger songwriting is. There’s a better effort of mixing the symphonic elements and metal chugging together, with some melodic riffage to tie everything together. Freedom Counts opens with some of the nastiest chugging on the album, and Marco starts to get more comfortable with using his black metal vocals more with his cleans. His vocals tend to make the second half a lot more enjoyable, such as in Wishes and Hopes.
This is a pretty strong debut, but still has enough elements that could be improved on. If they released anything else after this, I would check it out. There’s clear untapped potential, which is shown when things are mixed just right.
Recommended Tracks: Endless Winter, Freedom Counts, Wishes and Hopes, Helpless Victim.
