May 7, 2026

Deadnate - Mosaic - Album Review

In this episode of Sh!t Talk Reviews, John Staley and Derek Showerhead dive into Mosaic, the latest release from Danish metal outfit Deadnate. The hosts hail the album as a potential "Top 10 of the Year" contender, praising its seamless blend of thrash, progressive metal, and raw aggression. They explore the band's unique production process—multi-tracking during rehearsals to maintain a high-energy, DIY feel that rivals big-budget studio releases. Key highlights include the dual-vocal dynamic between Simon Juul and Kenneth Kejlstrup and deep dives into standout tracks like "Neon Burner," "Guilt and Sorrow," and "Funeral Cortège."

BIO:

Hailing from Fredericia, Denmark, Deadnate is a progressive metal quartet that has rapidly evolved from a thrash-metal foundation into a sophisticated force within the European underground. Known for their intricate musicianship and raw, organic production, the band has drawn frequent comparisons to heavyweights like Gojira and Mastodon.

The band’s sound is defined by a unique dual-vocal dynamic and a "DIY" philosophy toward recording. They are notable for multi-tracking their rehearsals to capture a high-energy, authentic performance, often producing their own records to ensure their creative vision remains uncompromised.

Band Members

Simon Juul: Lead Vocals & Guitar
Kenneth Kejlstrup: Lead Vocals & Guitar
Frederik Fammé: Bass
Ole Frank: Drums (and Producer)

Discography & Career Highlights

Deadnate first made waves with their 2018 EP, Concrete Flood, followed by the 2021 EP The North Sea Pt. I. Their full-length debut, The North Sea (2022), established them as a band capable of blending muscular grooves with atmospheric, progressive songwriting.

In March 2026, they released their sophomore album, Mosaic, via DeadRecords. The album explores themes of urban complexity, grief, and personal trauma—specifically highlighted in the track "Guilt & Sorrow." Mosaic has been widely praised for its technical precision and punchy, "evil" guitar tones, solidifying Deadnate's reputation as master technicians of the genre.

Quick Facts

Origin: Fredericia, Denmark
Genre: Progressive Metal, Thrash, Groove Metal
FFO (For Fans Of): Gojira, Mastodon, Lamb of God, Intronaut

Notable Live Performances: Royal Metal Fest, Copenhagen Metal Fest, and tours alongside bands like Lifesick.

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LISTEN:

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Yeah, the record is a massive step forward from the North Sea. You know, I think that it is for fans of Gojira and

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Mastadon. love this album sonically and I love the trading of the vocals, the trade-off of the vocalists. And this

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album just was one of those albums when you hear it, it instantaneously is like most albums you listen, you go, it's in

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the middle. This one was right away for me anyway. So, I'm curious what your take was.

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You you sent it to me a couple of weeks ago now. And unfortunately, we we planned on doing this a while back, but just life got in the way. So, I've which

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has turned out to be good because it's given me a lot more time to get to know the record. But when you first sent it to me, I was I was I love the record. I

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think this is a fantastic record right off the top. This is an awesome record.

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I think that it's going to appeal to a great number of different listeners. I picked up a bunch of different vibes in there. Again, not to say that, you know,

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oh, it sounds just like this band or that band, but there were moments throughout this record that I went, the

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biggest one for me was I picked up a lot, not a lot, but I picked up some flavors of early early first four album

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Metallica, which just tickled me to no end. Did Am I alone there or did you get some of that, too? No, there's some

1 minute, 40 seconds

riffage in there that had an old school flavor to it. And that's what I really liked about it was because they're the the albums uh from a tonality standpoint, it's sonically very big.

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It's a it's a very big record, but they get back to the core of of their music is kind of predicated on thrash. And

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that was what I was drawn to. And you know me, I'm a I'm a Thrash guy. Love Power Trip, Metallica, you know, all that stuff. Um, but I just really

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enjoyed just the music part of it. How they produced it is more along the lines of like drug church versus, you know,

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the old school thrash sound, but it works along with that those thrashy riffs. And again, I I'm I'm so glad that we're talking about this because, you

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know, when you do a band that's not known and we don't get a ton of, you know, views as a result of it, but it's

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worth the spotlight because this record is so good. Mosaic is an absolute, no doubt in my mind will be a top 10 uh album for me this year.

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Yeah. Yeah, I would agree. Me, too. Um,

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uh, I because I'm terrible with pronunciations and I don't want to butcher anybody's last names, I'm not

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going to. But they are Simon, lead vocals and guitar. Kenneth, lead vocals and guitar, which cool that they've got

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two lead players, two vocalists. Ola Frank on drums, and he is the band's primary producer, and he is great at it.

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And Frederick on bass. They have a they have a great sound and Ola does an amazing job translating it to tape. Like

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you said, sonically it is a very very well-recorded record. And one of the things I read about them and and this

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record in particular was that they spent an awful lot of time during rehearsals multitracking everything at all their

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rehearsals so that when it came time to do their final recording for the album,

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they could do it as much in one take as possible and not have a super sliced and edited album. I am okay with really

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highly produced stuff where everything is super clean. This record does not come off as sterile in any regard

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because they put so much time into nailing parts and figuring out stuff they wanted to do before they went in and recorded. And you can feel that on

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the uh on the final product. Transitions are seamless. Um, you know, there's a good low-end punch to it, but it's still

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like you could feel the progressiveness while also the thrashiness and,

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uh, a perfect balance, I thought, you know, and and Ole did a great job with that. He who pays the energy in that for for a kickoff song and the drumming.

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Yeah.

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On that track, that was instantaneously like, what are we listening to? crunchy, dark tones, paced perfectly, aggressive,

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high level of musicianship, just it was such a it just captured me right away.

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And then guilt and sorrow is for me the high watermark of this of this album. It is about Yep. Okay. Loss heavy sonically,

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lyrically, it's just it's also heavy. The transitions from rage to,

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you know, more melodic passages was really really great. Just a an absolute monster track and one of my favorites of the year so far. Wow. Yeah. Okay, cool.

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Yeah. Let's talk a little bit more about the dueling vocals they've got. And I'm not sure who does the who's the the gnarly aggro vocalist and who does more of the cleans. I don't know. Do you?

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Yeah. So, my understanding is Simon is more of the melodic guy and Kenneth is more of the raw nasty side. Well, the

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the tradeoffs and the dueling vocals that they do where they're both singing are so cool, man, because you get you

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get the really raw aggressiveness with the any given vocal pattern, but then you have the clean side that gives it a

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sense of melody. So, it's not just cheese grater for the sake of cheese grater. Like, it's grounded really well in the melodics of the rest of the

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track. So cool. I wish I wish more aggressive vocal bands utilized some of that layering of clean in there. I think it's so cool and really effective, too.

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Yeah, it's dynamic. Yeah, I I think that that's the word. And again, I I really hope that this record gets the notoriety

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that it deserves because, you know, it is aggressive, but it's also melodic and there's a lot to hear, you know, and the entire the entire album is that way. So,

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yeah. Funeral Cort Cortees Cortage. So good, man. So many of these songs are so good. It was tough to pick just a few

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standouts for me. But there is there is so much cool stuff happening in here,

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which really scratches the progressive itch for me. Mhm.

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But again, they they move in and out of sort of styles within the framework of individual tracks, which I think is

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great. Genre hopping a little bit here and there, like this track, Funeral Cortez. Cortage. I'm sorry if I'm killing it. The opening riff is amazing.

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It's chunky and chuggy, but then there's these really cool like slippery passages in it, too. The last third of that track

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just builds and builds and builds and builds and, you know, brings the opening riff back in and all these fantastic great guitar bands. It is just so tasty.

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Yeah. The payoff in the middle is a roaring good time. The technicality on this track is great. The intensity is a 10. Mhm.

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You know, I again can't say enough goodness about it. Good goodness. You know, it's great. Two tongues,

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longest track on the record, over seven minutes. Epic progressive roots in there that I heard. Lots of interlocking guitars, complex layering.

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And then, you know, there's obviously Simon and Kenneth just being what they are, which is great.

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They do this really cool. They they play with accents in the intro. the intro. I This is one of my standouts. I have

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three on on this record. He Who pays the opening track, this one, two tongues,

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and then another one uh a couple tracks down. But I love love love the intro on this. The way they play with these accents and they move them around, but

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it's done in a very very musical fashion, which I think is pretty badass.

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Uh and it that gets brought back in here and there, you know, thematically throughout the track, which is rad. the verses and I I wondered if there was any

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there is another band that I thought about a couple times uh that whose vibe kind of poked through on a couple songs

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for me and and I noted it on this one and I wondered if uh if you had any if there were any any of those vibes that

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poked through from any various bands on this track.

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No, but I'm curious where where you're going.

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First off, the band that kind of and it I think it was a vocal style, which is our buddy Stu Folsam with Spirit World.

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There's just these little moments where I was like, "Ooh, that reminds me of Spirit World," which then got me thinking, and that it poked through a little bit later in in the album, too,

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and I was like, "My god, I want to see those two bands on stage together." So, guys, let's let's make that happen.

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Yeah. Uh, fantastic. an absolutely killer guitar lead in that track. Uh,

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two tongues. Just an epic epic mashup of Prague and Thrash and just

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straight ahead metal. Like super super super cool song. Then we move on to the title track, Mosaic. Oh, sorry.

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Yeah. Yeah. And what was your take on that?

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Again, the the theatic center of the of the record. Great track. You mentioned that the the Two Tongues is a little on

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the longer side. A lot of these fall into it looks like the shortest one is just over four minutes. The longest one

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is two tongues at just over seven. These are great song lengths, which I know doesn't matter, you know, because you can have a super impactful song in two

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and a half minutes and you can have an epic journey in a nine-minute track, but I think what's cool about the length of

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these tracks is they're as long as they need to be to say everything the band wanted to say without drawing anything

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out. Like there's no filler. There's no on this record. If it's there,

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it's there for a reason, which I think is very cool because it's a successful successful track. And this is this is exactly the same in that regard, too.

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Yeah, it it's well thought out. Eight tracks. It's not 15 of and with, you know, half half the record being filler.

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And you know what I had for a note? I actually took a voice note. I remember listening to this in the car. It felt like a scolding mosaic to me.

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Yeah. Yeah. Uh Yeah. Very tight, you know. Love the breather in the middle, but you know, it's it's aggressive,

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focused, and a great track. I don't have a there's not a track on the record where I went,

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nah, you know, this is a this is a throwaway. This isn't one of those albums. And again, there's not a lot of albums that come out where I want to listen to it start to finish. This one is one of them.

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Yeah. Yeah. Uh I've found myself doing that, too. Every time I had a chance to to put music on again, I always started at the beginning of the album. I think

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only once just yesterday did I I was like, "Oh, I heard the first two tracks.

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I can get back to some music." I started at three. Every other listen, front to back all the way through. Okay.

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Moving on to my third standout of the album, Neon Burner. Yeah. Yep.

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Such a such a cool track, man. The opening chugs are absolutely filthy.

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Like if you're into the the Prague VGarta style heavy stuff, these ultra dissonant, gnarly, terribly

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dissonant is a good word. And I had sledgehammer.

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Sledgehammer applies. Yeah. Yep.

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Yeah. It just uh if you like heavy music, there is not a person out there that's a metal fan that is not going to like this track.

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I agree. I agree. Neon Burner is a burner that is worth just getting into the pit for. It is amazing.

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Yeah, I've got uh you know, you've got those those filthy dissonant and lovely chugs at the beginning. You know, you

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add in these wild pitch bends, you've got the killer riff, you put Ola's drums underneath it, a fat baseline, those

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dueling vocals again, and it's just it's a real banger. But then like halfway through there's a break in the track and

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things get super optimistic and you know things get really light and awesome and you know then another flying lead comes

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in which is fantastic over this really ugly dark rhythm and it ends on this fantastic like big question mark hanger

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of a chord. Uh it's just such a cool song, man. That that's probably my favorite on the record of of of the

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whole thing, but definitely a standout amazing track.

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Yep. The Lie We Can Trust starts a bit slower, focused on the lie, and it builds into a firestorm. Yeah.

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You know, again, dynamic and a banger.

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You know, it's it if you like heavy music, you will like this.

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Yeah. Great tones, great rhythm, guitar tones on this. Great tones across the whole album, guitar, bass, and drums. Lots of great proggy vibes in that one.

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And then to the closer Morass,

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you know, there's this great melodic fingertapping on guitar and this really lovely dueling guitar section. It's a great closer to a great record.

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Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, Morass is a it's like almost like a fractured assembly, you know, and it and it just

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ends in a in a really nice way. It's very fulfilling. And I will say that part of what I really enjoy about doing

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talk reviews with you is when you bring something to the table with and you're kind of my friend even though we are supposed to talk each other.

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It's very pleasing when you are enthusiastic about something that I was enthusiastic about and you understand it

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and you get it. Um and and that's the hope. If we get one person to listen to this record and buy into it, then we've

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done our job. Mosaic by DeadNate is an absolute masterpiece. Is definitely in my top 10. And I plead with you, any of our listeners, our three, four, or five,

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however many and subscribers, listen to the record. Give it the spotlight and the time that it deserves.

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I couldn't couldn't agree more. And I've got I knowing that these guys produce this themselves. They've got their own

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label, Dead Records. This is as refined a and and I hesitate to call it a DIY

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project because it does not feel at all DIY or, you know, like a low-level project. This is a these songs are

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incredibly well written, incredibly well performed. The players are all super talented. The sonic qualities are there.

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The mix is great, the presentation is great, and I love it. One of the reasons I think I got so excited about it was I was unfamiliar until with the band,

15 minutes, 16 seconds

until you sent this to me. So, I came in totally blind. I had no preconceived notions at all. And it was a fun way to

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listen to what I quickly determined was a a great piece of music with no expectations. Yeah.

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And I hope other people experience it, too. Look, here's the message for Simon,

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Kenneth, Ole, and and Frederick. We just reviewed the Melvin's Napalm Death, you know, collaboration.

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Your record blows that away. Oh my god.

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Just so you know, and take that to heart for what it's worth.

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Yeah. Yeah. This is a great record. And again, you said it very well. I hope that people who are interested into

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heavy music, although you've not heard of them, I mean, that's how we all find new music is somebody introducing it.

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And I hope if a couple people listen to it and get into it, we've then we're winning uh and doing something good

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because this is worthy of of a listen if you like heavy stuff. And then support the band. Buy their merch, buy their vinyl. Bands make no money these days.

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Nothing. They're making nothing. So, if you can support, if you find a band that you like, buy their and uh you know, and then wear it.

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And then wear it. Yeah.

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Well, unfortunately, the the Creature of the Black Lagoon is benefiting on this.

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You know, I I should have wore a a metal t-shirt, but it's what I was wearing. Well, you know, plan better next time,

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Derek. Do better. Be best. I did a bad job. That was poor planning,

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but it's okay.

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Hey, at least deadonate's good. And maybe what I'll do now to pay the piper is go buy one of their There you go. One of their t-shirts. So,

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there you go. Yep. As will I.

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All right. Excellent record. Thank you for bringing it to me and can't wait to get into uh the next one. That will also be awesome.

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Take it easy. See you.

Derek Showerhead

John Staley

Deadnate - Mosaic - Album Review

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