01. Messages From an Entity (Intro)
02. The Phantoms Cry
03. The Faithless
04. Into the Abyss of Sorrow
05. Beyond this Emptiness
06. Apocalyptic Holy War
07. Restless Spirits
08. In Ancient Beliefs (2010) *Bonus Track
09. The Bataan Death March
10. Outbreak of Evil *Bonus Track
11. Alone and Cold
Comment:
Triumphant resurrection of New Jersey’s darkest & heaviest Death Metal machine!! 2nd album which combines elements of AUTOPSY, INCANTATION, early PARADISE LOST, BOLT THROWER with a finnish/ swedish feel a la ABHORRENCE, NIHILIST…
The name Deteriorot may seem familiar to quite a few death metal fans, but they may not be able to remember why. You see, the American group formed in 1990 and released a demo and EP that really impressed listeners before fading away for almost a decade. Although they’ve been around almost as long as bands such as Immolation, for various reasons Deteriorot has had massive gaps between each of their releases. Their debut effort came out in 2001, eight years after their last EP, and now their sophomore effort The Faithless is being released almost nine years later. This album finds the group continuing their old school death metal assault, and while it’s not one of my favorites of 2010 it has more than enough memorable moments to justify a purchase.
The instrumentals on The Faithless are constantly moving between fast paced and extremely slow riffs, and the band is able to transition between the two styles without losing any energy in the process. One of the first things that people will notice when they turn this album on is that Deteriorot has stuck with the old school death metal guitar tones and production values, as every song has that buzzsaw sound that the genre has become known for. Admittedly some bands have been able to pull off this style better than others, but I personally really like the way that the instrumentals have been mixed as the contrast between the drum and guitar work feels just right. The riffs themselves are sure to grab listeners, and when the band throws in a cover of Sodom’s “Outbreak of Evil” they do it justice with their heavy and murky sound.
Vocalist/lead guitarist Paul Zavaleta is the only original member of Deteriorot still with the group, so it isn’t that surprising that his style still sounds fairly similar to what was offered on the band’s early demos. Zavaleta has a slightly higher pitched growl than most but occasionally hits some lower ranges. However, this time around it seemed as though there were a few songs where his vocals were just a bit off. I’m not sure what it is but there are some tracks where the growls sound as though they are on the verge of falling apart, and not in a good way. It doesn’t completely derail the experience, but it does hurt the album a bit as it makes some songs seem a lot stronger than others.
If you’re an old school death metal fan and either know of Deteriorot from the 90’s or have never heard of them before, I would encourage you to check this album out as it has some killer riffs and that perfect instrumental tone that the genre has become known for. Unfortunately some occasional vocal quirks keep it from being album of the year material, but these guys are better than some of the other old school acts that have resurfaced in the past year or so. Hopefully it won’t be another nine years before they put out another album, as with a few key changes these guys could be more than just an obscure name in the death metal scene.
It's been almost ten years of silence from death metal outlet Deteriorot since their 2001 debut full length in 2001. The original demo of 'The Faithless' was released in 2002 directly after, but the band decided to take some time in the final production of the album. As a result, fans should be very pleased to know they've created a hybrid of death and doom metal that takes that raw old school feeling and puts it in motion. Some tracks crawl and some downright pound straight through, but either way, waiting this long was a smart move.
Much of the album's music is performed in a slow, gritty melodic style, but other times it is a bit more aggressive. The real thing to pay attention to are the drums because their pace will determine the energy of the music. On tracks like "Into The Abyss Of Sorrow" and "Apocalyptic Holy War" the music just shreds with the guitars cutting like razors while the drums perform blunt head trauma beats with the power of very early Paradise Lost. Other times on tracks like "Beyond The Emptiness" it is an entirely different story as the music just groans with melancholy and crawls its way along. It still has that bold, death metal tone but the entire tempo and pace is excellent doom metal. The vocals are right in the forefront and grunt right along; they are more suited for the doom metal styled passages than death metal because they tend to stay in the one gear the whole time throughout the album. On the death metal tracks they feel a bit out of place because everything is going much faster than them and it makes them feel separate from the music, rather than as a whole.
Perhaps Deteriorot didn't need to take this much time to get this album out, but their direction split is present on this album. Whether or not they'll keep the hybrid sound or head towards one direction permanently is unknown, but it certainly makes their music more dynamic when compared to just straight death or doom metal. It is a fresh sound amongst so many other bands who either go the brutal or technical death metal way so much that it sounds all the same. At least with the varying pace of each song fans can stay interested without becoming bored or tired of it too quckly.
It's bands like DETERIOROT that still keep me motivated to support the Death Metal underground. This New Jersey bunch is luckily one of the few really cool remaining bands that didn't join the armada of gore grind infected hyperblasting CANNIBAL CORPSE / SUFFOCATION clones. DETERIOROT is a lot closer to old acts like BOLT THROWER (in terms of the slow heaviness), IMMOLATION (for a blasphemous pure Death Metal vocal delivery), ROTTREVORE (for the raw brutality), SADISTIC INTENT (for the right feeling) and some old Swedish masters of Death (for their partly NIHILIST / early ENTOMBED infected guitar sound and riffing). This 5 song rough mix of their upcoming second full length album "The Faithless" is another proof of their uncompromising attitude and brilliance in composing killer material. While bands of the younger generation mostly seem to mix up brutality with total speed and technical skills, DETERIOROT have choosen a quite different (yet very effective) path and even prefer to slow down in order to perform their straight ahead, quite simple structured material. That doesn't mean, that these guys are of the doomy kind, not at all - there's a lot of pretty fast elements involved in the songs as well! It's just that they don't use speed just for speed's sake. They are obviously writing their material from a different point of view, focusing on every little part of their songs equally, always trying to create those bits and pieces with the same necessary dark atmosphere rather than just blasting through them without compromise. This formular results in extremely convincing pure Death Metal of top notch quality! It even seems to me that in terms of brutality they went back quite a bit to their earlier material (7" and demo), which is completely fine with me. And considering the fact that this CD-R only features rough mixes of five of the new songs, I bet my ass that the final result will even manage to blow away their excellent debut album "In Ancient Beliefs"!
The Faithless is a gruesome, effective record, even if its charms have been experienced by this time through a number of other acts. Decisively archaic and menacing, it brings all the best to the table of its influences and teaches a few of the lagging younger acts what 'heavy' means, without ever taking on any hint of technicality or modern wanking. It's quite comparable to the band Funebrarum, though perhaps not quite so bleak, and worth tracking down whether you're into the original, raw artists that first delivered these sounds or the wave of recent acolytes that have decided to spit in the eye of progression. Let's hope it won't take another nine years for the third album!
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