Category Archives: D

Deformity “Obsessed With Death” tape, 2010

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Deformity “Obsessed With Death” tape, ingenuous proto-brutaldeath from Costa Rica, Visceral Vomit/Murder 2010

Despite the lineart cover and OSDM typewriter layout Deformity is a prom night would-be Brutal Death metal band from Costa Rica, my guess is their southern world origin somehow safeguarding them from going all out guido slam, they sound more like a hugely simplified version of Internal Suffering. They are decently fast and tight for being so young (maybe not so much, two of them put their sons in the thanklist).
This band has an amazingly naive 90’s teenager attitude, one song even starts out by ripoffing “Sense of Demise” by Sinister so much that I thought it was a cover. And the song titles like “Freddy Krueger” are so eastern block thrash I cannot help but liking them. It’s somehow weird because this band is still active and even wrote two full-length albums so far, go figure.
My favorite part of this tape is the snail address featured “800 meters sur del salon la cima, plantel de aya”.
Nothing special but I have no method but randomness to pick records to review lately.

Vote: 

DAWN OF DEMISE (Dnk): “…and Blood Will Flow” demo Cd 2006 s/p

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Uhuh! So Jacob Hansen owns a recording studio now? Is it the same guy behind Invocator and Maceration? if we’re talking about the same guy, he did a pretty decent job with this band at the recording console.

From a broad perspective there is nothing wrong with Dawn of Demise. The band plays solid, chunky brutal Death Metal with very deep vocals and an american imprint. Even when the songs speed up there is a sense of intrinsic staticness which the band probably looked after to make the whole sound even more granitic, think of a moderate version of late Deranged or mid Meshuggah (death metal version). My point however is that once you want to make everything as solid and as compressed as possible with constant palm muting chugs and so on, you could as well push through it to the end as Deranged does. Danish bands historically lacked “it” even when the crunch was pretty decent (except maybe, Infernal Torment?) and I am afraid we’re not far from that situation with this 3-track as well. Don’t misunderstand me – this is honest, well written stuff with a great emphasis on the groove, and it might be good stuff to hear at 4pm in some late night after show in any Germanic country, yet I believe the music fits the crispy recording and the heavily CGI-elaborated cover art: they’re neat but a little bit lacking of “sickness”. I can’t say I don’t like deep growls, power chords, or bloodstained knives, but all of this sounds a little bit polished for my tastes, and I just can’t force myself to like the mosh-pit grooves, although I know somebody else is looking for exactly this stuff.

Bear with me now: my number one rule for great Death Metal, is “if you can dance at it, it can’t be good”.

DENY THE URGE (Ger): “Blackbox of Human Sorrow” full-length Cd 2008 G.U.C.

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After some really shitty stuff it was enough time for something really structured like this German band Deny The Urge on German label German Underground Crossection eh eh. Seriously speaking thi is a band that certainly knows how to handle instruments even if sometimes I have the feeling they just go a little bit over the top. But let’s start with some thoughts on the booklet: first and foremost you understand this band struggle to differ, they have a non-metal introspective name with a non-metal introspective logo on a non-metal introspective cover (look, it looks like an eye but it’s your soul confined within a sewer looking out at the real world, surrounded by the demons of your mind!). The booklet is complete as any booklet should be, with lyrics in every page and all the recording bollocks. Stopping a bit on the lyrics they’re of the – guess? – introspective kind, about inner demons, reflections on how peace comes from a time of war, evaluating the infinite cosmos and its plethora of options and so on. Not terribly interesting but worth a fast read. They’re also not extremely well written but I appreciate the fact they tried at least.

As for the music one could understand by now that this band takes itself quite seriously so I was expecting some hyper technical showoff hodgepodge to back up the whole project. Well indeed Deny the Urge does play technical Death Metal but despite going mellow at times with longs solos and display of unquestionable prowess, they can also crush with some more than decent Death Metal riffing. You get good growls, fast double bass, sharp riffing like every respectable Death Metal band. They do sometimes showoff a bit with those Necorphagist-like guitar leaks and some not so subtle incursions in melodic Death Metal a la [insert any name here]. Luckily however, melody and crunch are quite separated so it’s not too invasive. If this band was considering shattering any boundaries and come up with original stuff it definitely fails, however I cannot deny that everything is arranged with a LOT of skill. There is thought on every note here, with very good arrangements and as much structure as you can think. What lacks here is in my opinion and maybe paradoxically, the ability to mix all the good ideas in a single SOUND. The songs actually do have head and tail and follow a concept, but I feel like all this prowess is wasted when things don’t overlap in a new sound.

Now I can go back to my Mortician albums, thanks.

DLA COKE ET DES PUTES (Fra): “Fast Fashion Federation” full-length Cd 2011 Rewolucja/xBloclotx

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From a first glance at the shocking pink cover I’d have bet this was some freaky “Japanoise” project in the vein of Niku Dorei or Boredoms. The truth however revealed itself to be quite different: D’la Coke et Des Putes (which might means something like cocaine and whores, at least it’s my guess since my lack of knowledge of this language is complete, I don’t even know how they spell “1” – is it “ein”, “an”, “eine”, “oun”?) is actually a French band with two vocalists and humorous lyrics alike, just to name some country mates, the great Beer Vomit or Gronibard.  There is a weak link to what were my earlier considerations though, as the album was in fact recorded in Japan and, trying hard to decipher what’s written in the booklet, I dare to guess the guy pictured on the cover is some random person they met during their trip (not completely sure of that though eh. Despite the shocking pink color, the layout of this thing is not bad, we have a spread collage of pictures, another two pages of name combinations which ranges from “dicks and asses”, “bums and policemen”, “eggs and chicken” and so on. This must be their personal interpretation of the yin-yang philosophy eh eh.  Then we get some more random pictures and a long thank-list, let’s say routine stuff.

Using labels like Powerviolence, Freeform Noise, Grind Core etc. might be hazardous ground here as I can hear some sparse breakdowns and samples but no real crunch in between these. I certainly cannot claim this album is altogether something as disastrous and untalented as Subterranean Fecal Root, but in all honesty the parts that should consist in real music are rather uninspired. Despite the double vocal effort is supposed to give this album an extra punch all I hear is mouse squeaks over a texture of timid hard-core and painfully average metal riffs straight outta some high school show. Even the recording is somewhat under par for my (maybe a bit stereotypical) expectations of Japanese precision. The whole sound and songwriting here is quite flat, and even some choruses just don’t raise attention. I am always intrigued by flashy weird covers like this one, but this time I have been quite underwhelmed. Pity.

DEFEATED SANITY (Ger): “Psalms of the Moribund” Lp Cd 2007 Grindethic

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I am not an incredible fan of cold, mathematical, technical brutal Death Metal – American style. But when it is played properly, it is able to raise so much intensity and thickness you really cannot get with other forms of standard Hard Core and Metal. Defeated Sanity‘s sophomore “Psalms of the Moribund” delivers hard and efficiently, an incredibly thick carpet of frighteningly intricate guitar work, guttural stone-grating vocals and hyperblasting drums. I think I even saw them live once but for some reason I completely overlooked them. It might be since this is not the kind of bands I like to see in an open air gig where the sound is dispersed in the ether.

The sound on “Psalms” is deep, bass heavy and suffocating, the kind of sound that coupled with non stop constant blasting and curving leaves no breathing space whatsoever. The production as said before is rather sludgy and mucky, but to me it fits finely, it almost as you can see the meatcleaver chop and hack and truncate chinks of flesh from a cadaver. Not a total swamp like in Enmity, but almost. The riffing is impressive, you got an half gazillion leaks, harmonics and squeaks in the middle of all this fucking calculated chaos. I cannot but recommend this shit for all those into hyper-intense Brutal Death where skill and musical ability is at the service of intricacy without bending to the necessity of making the sound softer. There are just 3 or 4 wigger slam riffs a la Devourment in the whole Cd, all the rest is non stop barbarity. Very, very good.

The cover artwork looks real good, however I got this promo on a shitty Cd-ROM with xeroxed cover, I cannot give an opinion of the packaging or the lyrics. I hope one day labels will realize having some promotion on a webzine might be worth sending a 2 dollars Cd instead than a 2 dollar Cd-ROM.

DIORRHEA (Ita): “I Give You My Heart” split Cd with FETUS EATERS (USA-Ca) 2007 Grindmind

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Much better we go with Diorrhea, even if i wouldn’t have dared to say so judging by the pictures alone, ahah, what a lame ass I am sometimes. Actually Diorrhea deliver a powerful grind attack with the occasional idiot speech inside but not as pervasive as in Fetus Eaters (I don’t know hos is it in other countries, but in Italy if you play grindcore you have to make funny faces and speak about idiot stuff between the songs, that’s routine). Diorrhea is actually quite a bastard beast and play straight to the face old school grind with whacked ultra fast chords and shit, I definitely like it. The vocals are not very powerful, but the shrill sound isn’t bad either. You got some extra growls but they’re just a marginal thing. The riffs are basic, there are a good share of blasts as in the old school tradition yet we’re quite far from the Swedish mates. Fast, cutthroat grind with double vocals and no super-polished bollocks. Get this stuff if you’re into grind, it’s quite good.