Deep Cross: Scaffolded Dawn

Austin, Texas’ Deep Cross are well known for taking their audience to uncomfortable places. While fellow Texans, Water Damage, have fast become the titans of hypno-rhythmic long-form composition, Deep Cross explore darker frontiers across the experimental landscape.

Compromising of Jason Joachim and Michael Cockrell, Deep Cross return with Scaffolded Dawn – the follow-up to 2023’s Royal Water. An unsettling trip of dystopian horror etched to tape, on Scaffolded Dawn, Deep Cross capture the chaos of these times, and ahead of tomorrow’s official release via Roman Numeral Records (vinyl) and Phage Tapes (cassette), be the first to listen to the album in full below.

Each piece on Scaffolded Dawn delves deeper into the abyss that is ultimately Deep Cross’ natural habitat. The scrambled synths and haemorrhaging drones of Vestibule and Ranine Copper, leaving the listener in nothing but wide-eyed fear. So, too, the chainsaw hell grind of The Churning Ray, which is eventually parted by a spectre’s whisper that echoes across the killing floor.

Elsewhere, the plundering devotional-inspired electronics of Lazuli Catacombs fuck with your internal organs without really knowing it, while Fire Governs This Work is like drone-metal at half-speed; its residue, sinking all the way down into the groove.

And that’s where Deep Cross remains on the title track. With the kind of hymnal passages that illuminate cathedrals in colours one wouldn’t normally associate with Deep Cross, normal service is resumed on the aptly titled closing track, Feral Appetite. As Joachim and Cockrell pit ear-splitting noise against hushed soundscapes, it encapsulates the disquiet of Scaffolded Dawn.

Alongside Amanda Votta’s flagship year, firstly with Deep Fade and most recently through the lens of The Spectral Light, Scaffolded Dawn not only sees Deep Cross dispensing their finest release to date, but also one of the most crucial noise-based records from the underground this year.

Scaffolded Dawn is out tomorrow via Roman Numeral Records / Phage Tapes. Pre-order from Bandcamp.