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Deeds Of Flesh: Portals to Canaan
24/08/13 || The Duff
Deeds of Flesh are veterans, they are pretty much masters having released several classics namely “Trading Pieces”, “Path of the Weakening” and “Return of the Anthro-fuck this shit I can’t be bothered spelling it so I’ll write a prolonged, unnecessary sentence that is about as funny as it is prolonged and unnecessary”.
They went through a lull with “Reduced to Ashes” (considered by many just as much a masterpiece as their early days) and, especially, “Crown of Souls”, which was traditional Deeds of Flesh brutal but very, very linear – me personally, I dig both records, but not massively. It wasn’t until “Of What’s To Come”, with peppered melodicisms about the frenetic music and the work of Erland Caspersen that my interest began to take.
Remarkably, the follow-up, “Portals to Canaan”, took four years in the making, and with vocal-less samplers, Amazon samples and finally full-tracks appearing over the course of as far back as two years along the album’s production, you’d be forgiven thinking that this was going to sound like “Of What’s To Come Part 2”, mixing ferocious, catchy riffing and with a newfound tech, melodic sensitivity.
Turns out this band has really put four years to good use; where “Of What’s to Come” seemed borne on the back of the popularity of Decrepit Birth’s newfound melodic tech death influence (only without the shoddy songwriting and probably even then a shit-tonne better quality of riffing), “Portals to Canaan” is that same sound but strengthened, with an added groove.
However, it is the structuring that sets this apart from its immediate predecessor which tended to go by in a blur at times; here, they have brought their own brand of tech death with the gusto, vigour of a starting out band – it is refreshing as it is surprising for a band as seasoned as Deeds, who have put more thought into each track’s development and flavour than ever before, bringing them to the fore of melodic, brutal technical death metal.
Unlike “Of What’s to Come”, the record runs very well as a complete whole, and with one segue sample track, we’re at 7 very distinct numbers, each with their unique, highlight riffs and tech/melodic frenzies, killer, atmospheric yet highly demanding lead playing, all brilliantly placed. The drumming on this record is sublime, everything brought to a very thick, compact finish (I underestimated Hamilton in my review of their last record); perhaps overly so, the record has as with its immediate predecessor a very mechanical, heavy feel yet somehow is allowed to breathe.
Needless to say, the production is a detractor as much as it is very professional, but the album’s fluidity, brevity and constant change-ups means that the record is both engaging and diverse – there is always a catchy or groove-heavy riff to bring you out of the daze of madness, the balance between head-spinning and catchy top-tier (even with the aggravating sci-fi samples, which fill out the record where perhaps one extra track wouldn’t have gone amiss), something “Of What’s to Come” fell short of despite bedazzling on many fronts.
Deeds of Flesh may have released a top-ten album by the end of the year, and I never thought I would say such a thing (although it clearly won’t happen what with Wormed, Guttural Secrete already and Ulcerate, Gorguts and Putridity yet to come haha are you shittin’ me?). They have reached yet another peak of their careers, re-invented themselves when before it seemed like a case of jumping on the bandwagon with Decrepit Birth, throwing melody at their trademark sound and seeing what stuck (albeit with far more success than their brutal labelmates).
The record closes on the Gorguts cover “Orphans of Sickness”, which is a shame because it takes away from the atmospheric finale, the title track, but you can’t have everything and of course the cut is an absolute death metal staple – the cover is hardly any different than the original, simply of higher production values.
Ultimately, this record is excellent, nothing in excess yet everything bursting at the seams with top-notch, flashy musicianship – over time the quality of what is on offer here has made me yearn for another track, for which the album is screaming seeing as pretty much all excess has been stripped from this record; that plus the samples and unfortunately I have to dock a half point.
BUT, beyond that is there anything left to say but a corny line like “Hail the Kings of brutal death metal for they have returned” or perhaps the vastly more GD-appropriate “support this band or suck our dangly cocks”? No, surely there is not.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Unique Leader Records
- Website: Deeds of Flesh MySpace
- Band
- Erik Lindmark: guitars, vocals
- Mike Hamilton: drums
- Craig Peters: guitars
- Ivan Munguia: bass
- Tracklist
- 01. Amidst the Ruins
- 02. Entranced in Decades of Psychedelic Sleep
- 03. Rise of the Virvum Juggernaut
- 04. Celestial Serpents
- 05. Caelum Hirundines Terra/The Sky Swallows the Earth
- 06. Xeno-Virus
- 07. Hollow Human Husks
- 08. Portals to Canaan
- 09. Orphans of Sickness
