Deist - Demo

Good lord its raining quality death metal on me for quite some time now! And I'm surely banging my head as Satan himself does in hell. Quite to my fortune this time it's Chicago based outfit Deist whose explosive demo has once again set my balls on fire with fiery brand of death metal and I certainly won't be sedated till I get my hands on their full length(Thinking about it now, its very unfortunate for me to satisfy myself with just two of their songs). Best part about their demo is that it's free. Yes, you read it right you hypocrite! It's free!

Quality over quantity seems to be their mindset. And I must add I've never seen anyone master this term more perfectly than the guys from Deist. With just two songs, clocking over 11 minutes from their demo, Deist have shown what they're capable of. At first hear, the unstoppable blasting amidst those mammoth riffs almost make them appear as Incantation worship band. But hang on, these guys aren't that shameless. They have their own tricks and the solo at 2.47 in Lost Aspiration almost forces you to die out of the orgasmic pleasure it gives. The demo showcases every ounce of their talent that hooks you up to a wild ecstasy that you only derive from when the dissonance of Immolation rhythm pattern meets otherwordly-kind-of dense bass sounds of Demilich and Gorguts.

Right now there's a resurgence of old school styled death metal as heard from Sinister, Vore, Excoriate, Revolting and Dead Congregation. And this is only a good thing, 'cause there has been enough of mass technical wankery of death metal for quite some time. Listening to the demo is like opening the floodgates of hell. And just like how the floodwaters gushes out strikingly in a cohesive flow, brutality and melody chart out their path hand in hand in the songs. Bloody good song structure is what I mean to say. Check out the demo and don't be surprised if you find the Grim Reaper himself headbanging beside you.


Hail The Resurgence!

This is Deist

Video: Abandoned Agony - Deformed

That Abandoned Agony 'terrorize, brutalize and sodomize' their audience in their high octane live shows is a fact that every Bangalore metalhead will give a nod to with their horns raised high up in the air. They've already replicated that energy on their demo 'Infected Unborn' even though I still prefer their live performance over studio acts. And now these guys are out with their first video of their song - Deformed.

Treated in a very noir-esque way, the video is very much in the likes of Cannibal Corpse video were the protaganist is always portrayed with immense distress while the antagonist is curiously missing from the scene. The acting of their former guitarist Kiran is quite funny to be honest. But then hats off to the guys for coming out with a true death metal video in the domestic metal scene.

Life is One Big Chasm

Hamano always had big words for Chasm. He almost seemed hysterical. Words of wild adulation flew out of his mouth as though he was possessed by an entity of another kind. I now envy that bastard for taking their first interview in over 5 years. Deathcult For Eternity : The Triumph. The album has finally showed me why Chasm turns your life upside down and changes your view on 'quality death metal acts'

There's no looking back for me now, I've already fallen into the Chasm.

Disma - The Vault Of Membros

For starters, Disma is the new project of Incantation and Funebrarum members. Yes, you read that right. Incantation and Funebrarum. Is the music nastily heavy as fuck? Hell yeah! When Craig Pillard, Daryl Kahan and Shawn Eldridge come together to make music after finishing crates of beer, they dont make nonsense. They churn out some crushing, straightforward old school laced death metal to show that these guys are still the front-runners of the burgeoning death metal scenes and not followers.

The Vault of Membros is their first demo release and you certainly won't be satisfied by listening to just three songs on the demo. Cleverly combining Funebrarum styled structures with Incantation's all out energy, Disma makes a strong impact in just 16 minutes of its listing. Disma's music is mostly melodic leadlines riding upon American styled frantic(which sometime tends to get too hasty) rhythm riffage, which makes the album an interesting hear. At time's the music sounds quite dense like in doom metal which suddenly caves in to rapid death metal blasting, as heard in Vault of Membros. Vocals is an interesting mix of Craig Pillard's low guttural with black metal styled background growl.

However this shouldn't allow you to mistake the band as a blackened death outfit 'cause these guys draw a clear line between black metal and death metal. Sometimes the song repeats excessively before moving on, and thats's minor glitch in the demo. Clocking them below 4 minutes instead of long 6 minutes, could've helped them sort this out. Nevertheless the demo pretty much shows Disma are a force to reckon with in the new uprising of OSDM and you sure can expect a hell lot of more skull-crushing beats from these guys in the future. Till then Vault of Membros awaits your honour.

Infected - Crawlspace

Yes, it sure is a mad world out there. Endless wars are being fought and endless lives are being lost, all without a greater reason. But then most of these people are victims of forces beyond their control. However the guys who chose to make music on these issues are not. Expressing all these thoughts in a unusual mix of industrial and death metal, Crawlspace is Aussie act Infected's remastered release of their second offering by the same name.

The hybrid of industrial and death elements in Crawlspace is unusual to a large extent. Mostly because the songwriting is not strong enough to incorporate industrial elements to a death metal structure. Also missing is the lack of direction in the album which is clearly evident when one notes the oddly timed tempo changes and cameo-role of guitar solos which come out of nowhere and leave without a trace as in tracks like Truthkill, Assimilate and Never. But as one proceeds in the album, one thing becomes clear Infected are pretty much in the vein of Fear Factory. Except the guys in Infected have a knack of playing at a milder pace than their well known counterparts.

First half of the album is played in a morbid style of death metal where the guitarist Mathew Jefferson belts out riff as though they're coming out of a maze without any sense of purpose and direction, aimlessly colliding with an equally raw sounding basslines from John Campbell. The keyboards and the clean vocals are definitely out of the place in the album which once again gives the feeling as though the whole purpose of the album;s existence seem out of place. Industrial element comes in the latter half of the album in Assimilate and Never and its very much like early Fear Factory. Needless to say the tracks are mostly listenable in their beginning until they complicate things by making things more technical and complex.

Lyrics are truly a strong point of the album and they almost have a poetic feel to it - 'Watch the honey drip from their tongues/It will turn to shit once they've won'. In fact the high sense of despair that carries along with the lyrics almost give it a very Kafkaesque edge to it. Sadly the music wasn't strong enough to guide in that direction and Infected have truly made a glorious asshole of themselves in the album. Approach it at your own risk.

Vishal J.Singh's Insight To Quantun Hack Code's Final Narration

Bowing down to the chain of karma, Vishal J.Singh's gives a thought provoking insight to the concept of his next production 'Quantum Hack Code'. Living is not a futile effort where death is perceived as a final destination of its journey. Instead its a part of an already existing cosmic chain on a larger scale, where every action has a grander meaning. His music has never failed in delivering the just meaning of its composition as heard in his previous album. And I'm certainly sure he'll pretty much nail it in QHC too. Here is what he says


'There is a difference between the Sunrise and the Sunset. The one who loves the Sunrise knows there is a new mission everyday. The responsibilities aren't over yet. And the one who loves the Sunset knows that the end is near. The responsibilities are over and the Master is waiting to welcome you to another memory i.e Post-Life. As a living being, we call it "Salvation". :)'

As someone rightly said, he's a living genius. He shouldn't live any longer!

Aeon - Path of Fire

For the last couple of weeks I had delved in so deep into Defeated Sanity and Masachist and grind, that I had totally forgotten that some of the greatest exponents of death metal practice their craft miles away in the icy lands of Sweden. And right now I'm speaking about Aeon's new album Path of Fire, that once again reminds you why Swedes are one of the megaliths of death metal foundry. Sure these guys have always walked on the anti-religious path like their Norwegian counterparts do in their thriving black metal scene. But its their aggressive arrangements and impressive changes it has employed in those structures that makes me raise my horns to their music.

Aeon knows to keep things interesting and in Path of Fire they clever set in changes in the whole atmosphere of listening to them by employing wide arrays of Nil's drumming techniques or Dahlstom's clever shifting from high pitched to low pitched growls and vice versa. Guitars used in the album tend to be tilting little bit on the melodic side with the riffs and the leads mildly reminding of NWOBHM bands. But its the devastating combination of Nil's ravenous blastbeats and piercing riffs that gives the album its punch. Sure there're a lot of lead guitar lines used sporadically in the album, but before you get used to them the band directs their music in a whole new direction. And this works greatly with me goes music needs to progress to new paths and not stagnate in the same old one.

Yes the Swedes do play some awesome death metal music, but these particular bunch of Swedes seems to be held in the awe of Vital Remains and Deicide, which becomes pretty evident by the time you cross over to the second half of the album where the fully charged assault on the instruments remind of the brutal music of Vital Remains and the likes. I think thats here the Finns stand out in their music, the Finnish death metal is unlike anything you have heard before. But the same cant be said for Aeon's sound. Nevertheless the brutality of their music manages to rub on you when tracks like Forgiveness Denied and Total Kristus Invertus take the seat. The trademark Aeon features of high velocity death metal with technically proficient arrangements are characterized in tracks like Suffer The Soul and Liar In The Name Of God.

The lyrical content as I said earlier is anti-religious but it comes as a surprise to me considering vocalist Dahlstom is a member of Jehovah's Witness. And though Dahlstom's delivery could have been more intense, the album never disappoints in the spirit of its conception as the guys have charged head on against the topic rather than playing along with it. Production of the album is the best considering Erik Rutan handled it. Overall Path of Fire is a slab of solid blasphemous death metal that punches your stomach with a pack of brutality and intensity. Expect more from Swedes in the future, till then rise on your Path of Fire.