“This Long Road,” the latest album from Darren Sawrenko, better known by his stage name Deully, takes listeners on an emotional journey that explores Sawrenko’s ongoing battle with addiction and mental health. But that doesn’t mean you can’t crank this record up and bang your head to it.
Teeming with intricate guitar solos and heavy, driving, hard-rock and metal riffs, “This Long Road” is as fierce as it is introspective. The powerful sound of the guitars, coupled with the album’s raw and emotional lyrics, give you plenty to sink your teeth into. You feel as if Deully is taking you on a musical voyage inside of his psyche and that you are experiencing life’s ups and downs, hope and despair, alongside him.
Songs like “One Step Behind” and “When Will it Shine” really allow you to feel Deully’s desperation with lyrics like “the scars you have will never heal,” “no matter how fast you fly you’re one step behind,” and “there’s a sun in the sky, when will it shine.” While the title track “This Long Road” offers a sense of optimism and fighting for something better, with Deully passionately singing “there is a glimmer of hope just within your reach” and “tear down this wall you made, let the light shine through…”
The biggest surprise on the album, though, is the ballad “Tonight I Say Goodbye,” which sonically deviates from the rest of the album, trading in heavy riffs for a more delicate piano and weeping guitar. The song is heartfelt and is where Deully gives his most emotional vocal performance. “And now I’m alone again, just fading away,” he heart-wrenchingly sings.
While the album may have been inspired by Deully’s journey to sobriety, its themes are universally relatable, conveying highs and lows of the human experience. In this way, the title of the album does really well to sum up its themes. “I named the album ‘This Long Road’ as a reminder to myself that it will in fact be a long road to a full recovery,” Sawrenko explains. You can check Deully out on Instagram and Facebook.
