Deer Lord Goes Into The Beam – Single

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · January 25, 2025

The Sonoma County power trio Deer Lord are back with a new recording of two of their older songs from their debut 2020 Deer Lord EP. The heavy riff rocking doom and rollers return with new and improved versions of the songs “Deer Lord” and “Into The Beam”. Both songs are now available (as of January 24th, 2025) on all streaming platforms. Deer Lord is a band that I just discovered towards the end of last year. Their exceptional album, Dark Matter Pt.2 (review here) was released on Halloween. They were my number seven pick on my top twenty favorite albums of 2024 and I featured them in a recent post titled, 4 Excellent Bands I Found from Blogging – Part 3 (here). Deer Lord surprised me with the new versions of these two classic tracks entitled, Deer Lord Goes Into The Beam. The band members are Sheafer McOmber on guitar and vocals, Ryan Alderman on drums, and Jared Marill on bass.

The cool thing about this two song single is that the songs blend right into each other. The band stated that these two tracks are staples in their live shows and are also fan favorites. I can definitely see why because they are both fantastic! The biggest difference I hear in the new versions of both songs is that they sound much better. The production is in line with the Dark Matter recordings and the band incorporates more musical flourishes and dynamics in the new ones. The older versions sounded more bassy overall and the cymbals are high and tingy. Great songs but the production was too muddy compared to the band’s current sound.

So here is my review of the new and improved songs. “Deer Lord” starts out with a bang! Brief fade in feedback with guitar and cymbal crashing in big rock star fashion. A quick four count on the hi-hat and the guitars with kick drum lead the charge. The heavy fuzzy riffs sound massive and align well with McOmber’s vocals. I hear very subtle keyboards in the background too which enhances the song further. The dense layers of guitars are a big improvement from the original as are the vocals too. The song retains its distinct aggressive edge but with a much fuller sound. The chorus flows in nicely and the flange guitars sound spaced out, in a good way. The left to right panning is used to really expand the Deer Lord nucleus, like the Dark Matter albums did. The band definitely hammers the riffs in hard crashing rage and demolishing rhythms.

“Deer Lord” blends perfectly with “Into The Beam” and it practically sounds like a continuation of the same song. It’s another kick ass track full of hardcore fury and intensity. Deer Lord pummels heavy riff after heavy riff on this one. Hearing both songs with this production makes me really appreciate the tracks that much more. On top of the mammoth guitar riffing from McOmber, Marill lays down some sick bass grooves on these tracks. Let’s not forget about the hard hitting colossal drumming from Alderman either. The drums sound awesome too and makes all the difference from the original versions of the songs. Deer Lord really captures the high energy animation and enthusiasm with this release. I can’t wait to hear more from this amazing band from California. I know I’ve said this before but, I can’t believe they are not signed to a legitimate record label yet.