Deeds of Flesh - Portals to Canaan

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Death Metal, Technical Death Metal

Having been somewhat inactive the past five years, California's brutal death metallers Deeds of Flesh roar back to action on their eighth full-length, 'Portals to Canaan', and it is every bit as vicious and pummeling as their past works. Filled with over-the-top technical riffing that seems impossible to create in such a short space being buffeted against the previous rhythm creating a suffocating atmosphere of non-stop unrelenting guitar work and over-the-top drumming that has long been associated with the band, the songs are packed with lots of energy and rarely falter from an up-tempo pace that really lets the guitars focus on executing fascinating riffs throughout. This is best viewed on "Rise of the Virvum Juggernauts", where the guitar patterns are just mind-blowingly complex and technical throughout yet due to the nature of the blasting drumming it becomes a brutal onslaught of riffs that overwhelm the listener. Elsewhere, tracks like "Entranced in Decades of Psychedelic Sleep", "Hollow Human Husks" and the title track the brutality is lessened slightly to make for a more overall technical presentation, where the different patterns and riff variations employed are more the favor of the track rather than the relentless drumming, which adds a different flavor to the album overall. Still, the overwhelming vibe taken from this is the more brutal moments, where tracks like "Amidst the Ruins" and "Xeno Virus" run rampant with simply pummeling rhythms dished out by guitarist Craig Peters who shows a fine sense of keeping both areas in check with each other and when to forsake the brutality in letting the more technically-precise riffs in focus. If one is to find fault with this one, it’s the monotony that comes in rather constant form when dealing with this brand of death metal, for it’s almost impossible to say that this kind of music will be noticeable and distinctive the deeper into the album it gets. There’s only so many ways you can write riffs in this style without coming up with the same structure and pattern numerous times over, and while the band does do a decent job of making the songs stand-out in some sense, the fact that they can blend together is something of a hurtle to get over. The one lone needless track is the brief instrumental collage of ambient noise mid-way through, which does break up the monotony of the songs but just serves odd as a mid-album breather rather than a final fade-out outro, but nonetheless these two qualms aren’t enough to stop this from being one of the better DM releases of the year. (Don Anelli)

(Unique Leader Records - 2013)
Voto: 85

http://deedsoffleshmetal.com/