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Deeds Of Flesh: Of what's to come
29/11/10 || The Duff
Deeds of Flesh are one of few seminal bands inspiration to an entire sub-class of death metal, having kicked off their career but three years or so following on from the greats. Despite this slightest of late-bloomings, teamed up with Suffocation, I think we can all agree that brutal death would not be what it is today without them. Deeds of Flesh, circa 2008, fifteen years into their career, match the best of present-day BDM outfits with “Of What’s to Come”, much to my astonishment after the linear for linearity’s sake Crown of Souls, mixing tech death with their regular recipe of hammer-to-the-face brutality – the experience accrued throughout such a tenure as DM heavyweights, plus possibly the band’s connection with on-the-pulse label Unique Leader has worked wonders for its ability to stay abreast of a competitive, steadily evolving underground.
A seasoned collective to say the least, the one drawback I can most closely identify is how proficient the musicians comprising its ranks are and consequently just how clinical its music; the production doesn’t help: tighter, dryer and crisper than a dehydrated nun lost in the desert that didn’t fucking know which direction to run to. Altogether the musicianship combines the laid-back approach of experience with the fury of utmost precision picking and drumming, the overall effect both sweet and sour; different shades of grey whilst simultaneously mindblowingly kickass evil tech death. Pretty much purveyors of the generic breakdown + 1 pinch harmonic for brutality’s sake, expect to find a couple of such, but within a tech death context, it works deliciously; I have a feeling this is what present-day Decrepit Birth are striving for and failing at. The rest is a wall of intense tremolo riffs, chug-fests a mile a second and solos that would suggest the practitioner having focused hours getting the accuracy of his downpicking perfected as priority number one, but I can’t fault him for his phrasing which is spot-on.
The temp bass recruit is none other than Erlend Caspersen, known to everyone but myself; he’s recently joined the ranks of Spawn of Possession, which is all fine and enough for me (the production gives him a top-spot, and boy can he play). The drummer, there are better to be found than Mike Hamilton in terms of stimulating playing, but the exactitude is faultless and undeniably performed with a give no quarter mentality that only the most practiced can attain. The album all in all, if you overcome the initial “blur syndrome” common in brutal death metal, is quite varied, in time tracks taking on individual flavors and moods (and album opener rivals some of the greatest intros I’ve come across). It doesn’t flow in the best of manners as one whole, but “Of What’s to Come” is a laudable effort by veterans who aren’t fucking around in the slightest, showing how it’s done in quality form.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Unique Leader
- Website: Deeds Of Flesh MySpace
- Band
- Sean Southern: guitars
- Erik Lindmark: guitars, vocals
- Erlend Caspersen: bass
- Mike Hamilton: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Waters of Space
- 02. Unearthly Invent
- 03. Eradication Pods
- 04. Of What’s to Come
- 05. Virvum
- 06. Century of the Vital
- 07. Harvest Temples
- 08. Dawn of the Next
- 09. Infecting them with Falsehood
