Tech Death Thursday: Deivos, The End of All Reason, Hideous Divinity, Status Abnormis
It’s that time again, ladies and gents. Prepare to have your faces melted off!
I’d be willing to bet that when you think of metal, cowbell is the last thing on your mind. A cowbell can’t possibly be brutal, right? WRONG. Enter Deivos. These guys hail from Poland and are fucking awesome. Aside from the unrelenting drums and the searing guitars they manage to incorporate a little bit of groove into their songs and make the cowbell sound brootal. Check out their song “Wretched Idolatry” from their album Gospel of Maggots which dropped back in 2010 on the mighty Unique Leader Records:
Their most recent album, Demiurge of the Void, came out way back in 2011, so here’s hoping we get some new shit from them this year! Check them out on their Facebook here.
Next up we are gonna take a look at The End of All Reason from Belgium. I discovered this band while surfing Archsp-uhh… Youtube videos and I honestly wasn’t expecting much due to their silly name. The thing about my expectations is that they are usually wrong, and this was no different. I was enjoying the intro to this song well enough, but when it picked up the pace at about 40 seconds in, I was hooked. I really dig that riff. There’s some real talent in this band and their debut, Artifiacts, is pretty damn impressive considering the fact that they’re unsigned. 1:22 makes me want to run through walls. Check it out!
You can follow these dudes on their Facebook here.
Prepare to be blown away by yet another monstrosity from Unique Leader’s ever expanding roster. Hideous Divinity’s drums are a category 5 tornado of precision fury and they sound fucking good [Editor note: It’s actually hurricanes that are ranked in categories 1-5. These categories are based on wind speed and storm surge. Since it’s usually impossible or impractical to measure the wind speed inside a tornado without being ripped to shreds, tornadoes are ranked on system known as the “EF-scale” or the “Enhanced Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale” after the fact, based on the damage caused. — Meteorologylord SteelDragon] The guitarists are great and, like the previous bands, they manage to incorporate some groove into the songs. Their debut album, Obeisance Rising, came out in 2012, and they will be releasing their second album of face-melting fury, Cobra Verde, October 28th (I’m seriously going to go broke in October). This is one of my favorite tracks from the debut:
Right? Check them out on their Facebook over here.
Do you feel like this post was over too soon? Do you crave more technicality? You’re in luck! Our good friend Detective Mcnulty managed to get his ass out of the interrogation room long enough to give us a guest submission! Check it out!
Detective McNulty here, and I must say it’s a pleasure to be working with Agent Jack Bauer. Occasionally we argue about who gets to use the interrogation room, but most of the time we are in agreement upon Technical Death Metal being far superior to Power Metal.
Please say hello to my little friend, Status Abnormis. Metaphysical Anus probably knows a thing or two about this Finnish band. They don’t intrinsically sound like tech death to me, but upon each listen I manage to hear more and more technicality in each of the players: guitar, drums, bass, and VOCALS. What I am about to tell you is as serious as Conan’s love for Italian horror films — their 2013 album Call of the Void contains THE most impressive vocal performances I’ve heard on an album since Strapping Young Lad‘s City. I’m just going to do a one-track analysis of my favorite song of theirs, “The Glass Coffin”:
Keyboards set the tone for the song, masterfully played and without over-indulgence.
At the 0:32 mark there’s a hint of desperation in the vocals, which we shall return to. The consistent harshly-spoken lines are effective in evoking the essential brutality.
1:20 starts the “chorus,” if you will, and the desperate vocals return, like the death rattle of a nerd shoved into a locker. What a catchy chorus, amirite? It’s the kind of thing that can make a technical death metal band stand out.
Then, we’re treated to a little instrumental dog-and-pony show; nothing too wankery, just a nice display of masterfully-crafted bridging and a tasty melodic guitar solo.
At 3:35 we return to the chorus, and whoa, it hasn’t been copy-pasta’d, as evidenced by an increased desperation in the high vocals and increased brutality in the lows. Afterwards, Status Abnormis give us a moment or two to breathe, which is welcome.
4:30 — Can you hold my beer? Because it’s time to mosh… but just for a few seconds! At the five-minute mark we are treated to some moody, black-metal-esque spoken-word. “The song must be over,” you’re saying to yourselves… and incorrect you would be. They throw a short section of beautiful, technical, stylish riffing and then a gorgeous solo right at your face.
To provide the calm after the storm: 20 seconds of keyboards. Head over to their Bandcamp and grab the album!
Thank you Detective Mcnulty! If you are interested in doing a guest submission for Tech Death Thursday, feel free to hit me up in the comments section. I feel like I’m forgetting something, it’s just, it’s on the tip of my tongue… Hmmm… Ah, yes: STAY TECH!
