Alt-Metal Madness: Sink Into Doom With Old Deer

Old Deer forges fear into sonic fury. Since 2021, the Denver alt-metal band’s oppressive sound, with built-in cryptic doomsday themes, has been brutal enough to induce a panic attack.

Vocalist-guitarist Matt Conlee breaks down just where these tailor-made versions of hell come from. “That’s the lyrics, and when it comes to the lyrics, that’s what I try to do,” he says. “I’m not as specific as a lot of writers I’m a fan of. I think of an ominous setting, alluding to darkness, something frightening; it lets the listener create it more in their heads and have it more personal for them.”

Sometimes it’s more horrifying when you don’t know what the monster lurking in the shadows is, exactly. That power of allusion is something Old Deer wields well on both its 2024 debut EP, Something in the Water, and its first full-length, Someone in the House, released independently in November. The titles alone make the chest tighten and mind race with sinister suggestions.

“They’re both plays on fear. A lot of my writing is about fear and how it has control over people and how important it is to not let it control you,” Conley says.

“Fears of your own depression, thoughts, worldview, to the larger ‘what this country and world is looking at’ through an apocalyptic viewpoint or overtly religious, fascism, things of that nature,” he continues. “It’s not necessarily about all those things specifically, but it’s all in there. I feel that’s a good way to let people know, ‘This is the road we’re putting you on. Now look around, and what do you see?’”

You don’t see a golden path to the Emerald City. This is a message delivered via a vortex of instrumentation. On Someone in the House, in particular, there are notes of saxophone, water harp, gong, cello, harp, timpani and tambourine mixed amongst the bedrock of wailing guitars, heavy bass and earth-shaking drums.

“That’s my favorite part about being a part of this group, is the four of us all have very definitive tastes in what we appreciate in music, whether that’s more traditional thrash elements and punk stuff all the way to avant-garde, borderline is-this-music type of sound,” says guitarist Tyler Mills, who joined Old Deer in 2023. “We are able to throw a lot of those spices into this big pot that we’re working on. To me, that’s the fun part.”

Recorded locally at Green Door Recordings with Felipe Patino, Someone in the House is the most fully realized version of the four-piece to date, featuring everything Old Deer does so seamlessly — from the harsh dense doom of a songs such as “4507” and the title track to the schizophrenic math-metalcore of “Maelstrom” and “The Hatch,” which was inspired by television series Lost.

“And if we want to put more stuff into it other than bass, drums and guitar, we can,” King says. “This was the album where we threw a lot of stuff into it and most of it stuck. Sonically, it was a lot of fun to record.”

He, along with bassist Josh King and drummer Adam Schubert, credits Patino, who’s worked with many a local alternative band, for being so open-minded.

“Things that are initially kind of weird to us, and maybe things we’re a little apprehensive about, come together in a way where we’re like, ‘Wow, I cannot believe that worked out’ and have become such a definitive single song or just element we’re able to bring into future works we start crafting,” Mills says. “It doesn’t feel like we’re ever really stuck in a box, but at the same time, it’s also kind of a challenge, having all this decision paralysis like, ‘Well, what do we want to throw in?’ We’re putting together something that’s unique but also something we’re really proud of and can take forward with us as we develop this project.”

And sometimes, as neoclassical guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen famously professed, more is more.

“We try to throw everything in at the same time,” Conlee says. “We don’t aim much. We’re just doing what comes natural to us and what we feel strongly about. We want to do as much as we can every time. Any ideas that come across, we want to at least dig into them and see if we can make them a reality. We try very hard to make sure no idea is too weird or too off.”

For the record, weird is a good thing in the case of Old Deer.

“You’re going to get pretty much everything at the same time,” Conlee continues. “We’re not going to be like, ‘Just wait because the heavy or weird stuff is going to come later.’ No, it’s the heaviest stuff that we have. Less is not more, more is more. I like subtly, dynamically quiet stuff, too. But for the most part, it is everything that we can throw at the canvas. We’re like the Pollock of music.”

You can witness Old Deer’s abstract expressionism live on Saturday, January 31, at the Federal Theatre, where Atomic Shine, Prophets Tomb and Sea of Flame round out the local bill. “We’re opening so we’re going to hit them as hard as we fucking can,” Conlee says.

“There’s very little dead air,” Mills adds.

“For as many instruments and different things that we have on our record, we’re kind of a punk band,” Conlee continues. “We have that kind of energy that it could go off the rails at any minute, we just don’t know.”

Hunter S. Thompson once mused that the only people who know where the “edge” is are the ones who’ve gone over it. Old Deer leads listeners right to that precipice, before abandoning them with a head full of intrusive thoughts.

“We have an appreciation for that big wall of sound, that tone-based music. We tend to get a little bit bored with the prototypical, repetitive doom long-form music. I really like that we’re able to capture those little glimpses of big riffs, big stacks of stacked guitar tones and bass all working together to create this big movement of air on stage,” Mills explains. “But that’s not the whole set. We get there, and we create that journey for you to join us to get there. In that audible journey is where we can put a lot of those other influences to culminate into that big sound. It feels like a communal event rather than just us presenting our art.”

And like a Jackson Pollock painting, there’s a lot to unpack once you take it all in, including the band’s sneaky sense of humor. Old Deer, after all, is a reference to a 2016 skit by California YouTube comedian Bridge Stuart, which includes a hypnotic buck that transfers the tranquility of tap-dancing on all who cross its path. On Someone in the House, there’s an unexpected hidden track after close “4507,” as the group blasts into a rendition of the King of the Hill theme song.

Since the album’s been out, it’s become somewhat of a running joke within the band. “We got several reviews and mentions about the record, and that’s the first thing we look for,” Mills says, “like, ‘Did they see it? Did they mention it? Did they say anything?’”

Westword was the first publication to recognize it, in the heaviest albums of 2025 roundup. “When we saw the write-up, Matt texted me and was like, ‘Tyler, somebody did it,’” Mills adds.

“Yeah, like, ‘It’s happened, Tyler,’” Conlee says with a laugh. “We appreciate you listening to the whole album.”

Old Deer plans to promote Someone in the House hard in 2026, releasing a music video for each of the eight tracks. Three are already out, providing a visual companion to that inherent dread. For example, the short for “4507” is one continuous shot that follows an unnamed protagonist driving on an unpaved road up to an Evil Dead-looking cabin, cattle skulls swinging from chains on the front porch, before committing a heinous off-screen act of violence.

“That was a video idea I had in my head for months and it took so long to get that one shot together. I’m so happy how it turned out,” King, the band’s in-house videographer, says of the Bailey backwoods shoot with friend Michael S. Hilmes. “We’re just sitting in the back of my old truck and trying to hold the tripod down on this back road in the cold in the middle of Colorado.”

The Pandora’s box of Old Deer is still spilling its contents.  

“I never want people to walk away or leave our shows being like, ‘Okay, we get it. That’s the kind of band you are,’” Mills says. “I think we’ve done a really good job of creating this atmosphere. It’s heavy something, aggressive something. We have a lot of strange, wonky time and syncopathic changes and psychedelic breaks that’s not the typical fast beating-the-drums-all-the-time metal music. But we were born into that pit.”

Old Deer, with Atomic Shine, Prophets Tomb and Sea of Flame, 7 p.m. Saturday, January 31, the Federal Theatre, 3830 Federal Boulevard; Tickets are $16.