4 out of 5

Label: digital release

Produced by: Carl Saff (mastered by)

I was pretty down on Dead Now’s full length, but I did note that the group definitely rocked, and that there was a lot of promise in their – if a bit too familiar – formula. Well, a couple years later DN dropped a single, Slow Beam, and it definitely moved the needle forward, smoothing out their influences into something that felt more seamless, bringing in some post-rock / indie-rock vibes found in some of the band member’s other projects, and… still rocking. Slow Beam takes is essentially another stoner boogie tune, but there are some interesting changeups throughout that give it teeth. One of those changeups midway through kind of misses for me and blips the momentum, but I dig that they tried it; a second shift towards the song’s end is a ton more successful and ends on a great note. Shame we haven’t seen the group give this another swing, at least to date.