Deadline, the pioneers of the New Wave of South African Heavy Metal, are back yet again with the second single called Monuments from their upcoming third album Vitriol Inc. Deadline openly bow down to the memory of 80s Thrash Metal, Power Metal, Heavy Metal and on occasion Sleaze Rock, as they march with intent and pride towards the release of their third album that will undoubtedly be their most daring release yet.
Frontman Jessy Switchblade shares that “Our previous guitarist Raven Chaos gave us ‘Monuments’ as a parting gift before he left the band. He always wanted to write something faster and less melodic. He gave us the shell of the song and we transformed it into what you hear today. I wrote a poem several years ago called ‘Monuments’ that I made fit over the riff. I wanted to give it the Thrash Metal treatment, so I sang directly over the riff, as opposed to coming up with a vocal melody.”
Jessy Switchblade further adds that “The song itself is inspired by the fall of communism, as well as the political-themed poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ultimately great liberators end up being the people that cause our and their demise. All great empires eventually fall due to greed. I suppose we are basically seeing something similar in our own country South Africa right now, although we never used our current state of affairs as inspiration behind this track. I remember being a pre-teen when the Soviet Union collapsed and was divided into the Commonwealth of Independent States, seeing the massive statue of Stalin destroyed and the people celebrating the collapse of communism. It tied up so nicely with the poem by Shelley. That image never left my mind, and I’m glad I could use it a song all these years later. What I wanted to say with this song is really that the more things chance, the more they stay the same.”
