To create a preface for the reader I'm going to backtrack a bit. I grew up during an amazing time for metalcore - before Victory Records became giant media whores. So noted I have a very obvious soft spot that style of hardcore. This may be helpful information for you since Dead City compares their sound to that of Crowbar, Integrity and Entombed. For any band to compare themselves to three of the best bands of the 90's and beyond is a tall order and creates a lot of doubt for any reviewer. I also recall a band by the name Dead City being signed by Deathwish a couple years ago. This band, if it is the same one, seemingly dropped off the face of the earth after being dropped by Deathwish. (I would love to find out if this is the same band, someone let me know please).
In any case, the comparisons the band has made in their press kit is as accurate as what any reviewer could tell you of their sound. There is a ridiculous amount of Integrity worship. I love Integrity so that's not necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. In my notes I kept coming back to the same things about the music; the band loves Systems Overload-era Integrity and has yet to meet a breakdown that they haven't fallen in love with. All of the band's songs seem to follow a similar cadence. Opening with metallic riffs, or feedback and drums; this leads to a metallic (i.e. Integrity worship) verse part leading to an insanely heavy breakdown part back to the verse to a breakdown and out. The band does their best to switch it up on more than a few occasions adding melodic riffing over the breakdowns or metal solos into the songs. The songs sound respectably heavy and even somewhat evil but that doesn't save the middle part of the album. Towards the middle the songs seem to cling together into a block of metalcore. What brings this album back are the aforementioned solos, its clear that the guitarist truly thought out what riffs were getting used and what would build the intensity in the songs themselves.
The production is very clear and lets the songs breathe. Each individual instrument gets enough room to itself so that nothing seems to be fighting for room in the mix. This makes for a rather enjoyable listen. On the other hand, the packaging leaves a bit to be desired as it looks rather simple and dark as though very little time and effort was given to make the packaging speak for the music. I'm sure Dead City shows have huge pits and lots of kung-fu kicking. I just can't help but think this would've made an amazing EP as the middle part of the album just drags the rest of the album down.
