Dead Hazards’ ‘Saline’ is an audacious debut that drags doom into stranger, bolder territory

From the very start of ‘Saline’, the Greenwich-based four-piece Dead Hazards stomp through it with steel-toed boots, reshaping sludge, doom, and alt-metal into something more far-reaching and more unpredictable. This is an album that dares to wield intensity and weirdness, and it’s better for it.

Dead Hazards lean into heaviness, but they never get lazy with it. The riffs are thick, oppressive, almost physically demanding, but what’s surprising is how they’re used. ‘Prime’ is a monster of a track- massive, downtuned guitar tones, anchored by a rhythm section that churns like a machine fed on gasoline and dread. But then come the vocals, soaring, dramatic, laced with menace and grace. There’s an operatic streak running through the chaos, and it’s magnetic.

‘Lazyeye’ flexes the band’s knack for groove, nodding to the desert-rock greats with a swaggering riff that feels born from heatstroke hallucinations. But don’t expect a straightforward ride. Like much of ‘Saline’, it twists into left-field textures and noise experiments that remind you that this isn’t just about sounding heavy, it’s about feeling unmoored.

Elsewhere, Dead Hazards veer into more abstract terrain. It’s a gutsy move, and it works. The record’s more experimental moments don’t feel like tacked-on flourishes, but like the core DNA of the band: doom filtered through surrealist cinema and punk nihilism.

If there’s a central thesis to ‘Saline’, it’s that darkness is multi-faceted. It has shape. It morphs. It can crush you or seduce you. It can sound like Kyuss dropped into a dystopian opera. It can sound like violins screaming through a broken amp. It can be Dead Hazards.
‘Saline’ is a sprawling, ambitious debut that kicks down genre gates and drags doom metal into strange and glorious places. It’s not for purists, instead it’s for those who like their riffs with a side of madness. A triumph from a band unafraid to push their genre off a cliff just to see what it sounds like on the way down.