Straight Outta Satan’s Armpit, Florida, Deicide’s 13th album is just under 40mins of straight up high tempo, aggressive death metal. No fannying around with different styles, feels, or atmosphere, the Tampa based Jesus dislikers have a distinct style that consists of blisteringly fast riffs, soaring guitar leads, and punishing blastbeats.
Deicide have been around for longer than I have, but there seems to be no sign that they’re ready to hang up the death metal chops and start a more laid back project anytime soon. Which is great news, because Banished By Sin is their strongest record since 2006’s The Stench Of Redemption. It may even be their most consistent album, ever.
Brace yourself for this, but every, single, song, is a banger. There’s just no filler on here. It’s 12 equal tracks of absurdly good death, the only difference is which particular jam takes your fancy as your favourite, and after a number of listens I still can’t pick one. Glen’s iconic layered vocals are brilliantly showcased here, with the low barks fat with visceral rage, the high demonic screeches blended perfectly in. There’s a good mix of intelligible and unintelligible lyrics, with care given to punctuate where Mr Benton wants you to hear certain phrases clearly.
The Karma Effect - The Promised Land (Earache Records) [Matt Bladen]
The Karma Effect have been making waves in the UK rock scene for a while now. Their debut was well received rock n roll, bluesy guitars, hip shaking rhythms, funky organs and some hooky choruses that have been sung in venues around the UK and on festival stages such as Steelhouse.
Brace yourself for this, but every, single, song, is a banger. There’s just no filler on here. It’s 12 equal tracks of absurdly good death, the only difference is which particular jam takes your fancy as your favourite, and after a number of listens I still can’t pick one. Glen’s iconic layered vocals are brilliantly showcased here, with the low barks fat with visceral rage, the high demonic screeches blended perfectly in. There’s a good mix of intelligible and unintelligible lyrics, with care given to punctuate where Mr Benton wants you to hear certain phrases clearly.
Another highlight is the bass tone, which is usually decent on a Deicide record, but here it’s extra clanky and sitting really prominent in the mix. I love it. Guitars sound excellent too, with the razor sharp riffing getting a proper shine and polish to ensure there’s a distinct edge to the notes. Solo sections utilise a great tone too, giving them a real epic feel.
Steve Asheim’s a big name in death metal drumming for a reason, his pneumatic footwork and lightning quick tom and cymbal work pull everything together expertly. My one niggle with the record is with the cymbal production - there’s one particular frequency that stands out and is particularly painful, especially in the track Faithless. Might just be my speakers making a big deal of it, but once I started to notice it, I found it really distracting.
All in all, this record is about as "Deicide" as you can get, and I feel that’s a good thing. They’re not chasing fads or trying to reinvent the wheel, just settling in with their sound and turning all the dials to the max. On a related note, it sounds to me like they’re using the same tuning as ever, which really stands out against the crowd in extreme metal given we’re ever plunging into lower and lower tuned guitars and basses.
All in all, this record is about as "Deicide" as you can get, and I feel that’s a good thing. They’re not chasing fads or trying to reinvent the wheel, just settling in with their sound and turning all the dials to the max. On a related note, it sounds to me like they’re using the same tuning as ever, which really stands out against the crowd in extreme metal given we’re ever plunging into lower and lower tuned guitars and basses.
Having those riffs played up in a higher register than contemporaries will make you distinct, and your ears will thank you for that variety. Aside from the sharp cymbal pitch, I can’t find faults with this album. It’s everything I want from one of the bands that got me into death metal in the first place, and I’m going to be boogieing along to the riffs on here for a while. 10(Glens)/10
P.O.D – Veritas (Mascot Records) [Zak Skane]
The first part of the album brings in some classic 2000s P.O.D energy with the opening track Drop, which hits us in the face with their classic old school attitude but wrapped up in a modern coat of paint with the guitars Marcos Curiel and Traa Daniels still sounding as huge as their classic riffs hits like in Boom and Alive but having these trending octave sounding effects that just gives this hair on chest bottom end assault whilst The Youth Of The Nation era sounding ambient chorused clean guitar sections cast this nostalgic spell.
To open up the second part of the album we get the heart warming tribute to their friend Roo in Lay Me Down (Roos Song) which brings in some Deftones styled huge chord sequences and heavily reverbed choruses and poetically arranged lyrics that ooze heart and soul. The short and sweet I Wont Bow Down brings some sonic boom attack with some naughty 808 cinematic bass drops, groovy half time drum beats and nasty bendy riffs.
The final few tracks on this album is where I feel like they start to soften their edge and start to loose their direction a bit, because This Is My Life (feat. Cove Reber) takes a more a hardcore punk direction with bright sounding guitar riffs that you would hear from a Stick To Your Guns song whilst the choruses sound like they are taken from an old-school offspring song. Same goes with Lies We Tell Ourselves which consist of classic hard rock chord sequences and choruses that are delivered in this generic mourning friendly radio rock show format and This is Our Struggle brings in some Twenty One Pilots styled pre-choruses and some lazy chanting choruses.
Despite the last few tracks on the record, We still got to give credit that after 32 years, P.O.D can still come packing the punches with tracks like Drop, I Got That and Dead Right, whilst their lyrics still ooze passion into songs Lay Me Down. This album packs classic P.O.D delivery with a modern shine. For fans of Limp Bizkit, Ill Nino and Saliva. 7/10
Raised By Owls - Vol 3: The Satirical Verses (Self Released) [Mark Young]
And now for something completely different.
Raised By Owls return with their latest, Vol 3: The Satirical Verses which they describe as being an homage to the music they love whilst giving it a gentle prod and highlighting the silliness present within the genre.
With this in mind, I’m slightly torn as to how to approach the review. With song titles such as Going For A Pint With Corpsegrinder, Strictly Come Danzig and Live, Laugh, Lars plus the cover art it certainly paints it as being irreverent, but the music presented here is anything but. My experience of ‘comedy’ metal is that the music is sometimes secondary to getting a laugh. Luckily here, the approach to the songs are spot on and if you listened to them without knowing the context you wouldn’t know any different.
And now for something completely different.
Raised By Owls return with their latest, Vol 3: The Satirical Verses which they describe as being an homage to the music they love whilst giving it a gentle prod and highlighting the silliness present within the genre.
With this in mind, I’m slightly torn as to how to approach the review. With song titles such as Going For A Pint With Corpsegrinder, Strictly Come Danzig and Live, Laugh, Lars plus the cover art it certainly paints it as being irreverent, but the music presented here is anything but. My experience of ‘comedy’ metal is that the music is sometimes secondary to getting a laugh. Luckily here, the approach to the songs are spot on and if you listened to them without knowing the context you wouldn’t know any different.
To really get in on it, check their videos out, especially the one for Strictly Come Danzig, which skewers him as a preening, hip-thrusting, lap dance performing dark Elvis. In a school hall. Probably. The Dark And Twisted Realm In Which Fred Durst Resides is a riot, five corpse painted red-hatted hooligans running around a local park, not unlike the classic Scandinavian bands back in the day. Although I do not remember them playing head and volley.
Back to the music, and it is royal. There is a level presented here that a lot of ‘serious’ bands won’t get near, and these seem to do it with ease. Comedy Metal Is A Fucking Embarrassment that starts and just flies, it’s rapid-fire drum mayhem and I think once you get hold of the lyric sheet the humour that is there would come through. I haven’t got a lyric sheet so I’m just basing this on the music.
Back to the music, and it is royal. There is a level presented here that a lot of ‘serious’ bands won’t get near, and these seem to do it with ease. Comedy Metal Is A Fucking Embarrassment that starts and just flies, it’s rapid-fire drum mayhem and I think once you get hold of the lyric sheet the humour that is there would come through. I haven’t got a lyric sheet so I’m just basing this on the music.
Going For A Pint... has that muscular, chunky build that was evident on Gorgeous George’s solo release. Like I said this isn’t half-arsed in any way, the music is super focused and heavy AF. Dance Like Barney Greenway is a blast, and The Dark And Twisted Realm In Which Fred Durst Resides has this amazing Scandi vibe running through it. There is some fantastic guitar on this, but don’t take my word for it, check it out.
What is great here is that they maintain a consistent level of quality right through. Each song has its own thing going on, and they manage to ape the genres they are prodding so well. I Honestly Thought OSDM Was A Sex Thing has a Morbid Angel / Dave Vincent thing going on, at least to these ears and delivers on a OSDM feel to it. Final track None Of This Will Matter In The End is chock full of razor-sharp riffing that is furious as it is introspective. The album’s serious track, it still stacks up against the others here and is a fine song to close out with.
I know they suggest that this is largely tongue in cheek, but you shouldn’t let that put you off what is actually a cracking album. The accompanying videos really help in getting the message across, but you don’t need them to enjoy this. Visually, they certainly poke the right areas of what can be a bloated and too-serious genre. Musically, they are not joking. 8/10
What is great here is that they maintain a consistent level of quality right through. Each song has its own thing going on, and they manage to ape the genres they are prodding so well. I Honestly Thought OSDM Was A Sex Thing has a Morbid Angel / Dave Vincent thing going on, at least to these ears and delivers on a OSDM feel to it. Final track None Of This Will Matter In The End is chock full of razor-sharp riffing that is furious as it is introspective. The album’s serious track, it still stacks up against the others here and is a fine song to close out with.
I know they suggest that this is largely tongue in cheek, but you shouldn’t let that put you off what is actually a cracking album. The accompanying videos really help in getting the message across, but you don’t need them to enjoy this. Visually, they certainly poke the right areas of what can be a bloated and too-serious genre. Musically, they are not joking. 8/10
P.O.D – Veritas (Mascot Records) [Zak Skane]
The first part of the album brings in some classic 2000s P.O.D energy with the opening track Drop, which hits us in the face with their classic old school attitude but wrapped up in a modern coat of paint with the guitars Marcos Curiel and Traa Daniels still sounding as huge as their classic riffs hits like in Boom and Alive but having these trending octave sounding effects that just gives this hair on chest bottom end assault whilst The Youth Of The Nation era sounding ambient chorused clean guitar sections cast this nostalgic spell.
Sonny Sandoval still sound as vicious as ever whilst spitting aggressive bars. The subtle takes from Lamb Of God' Randy Blythe adds more aggression to the mix whilst still keeping it to it’s P.O.D delivery. Those fuzzy riffs still continue and walk us into sleazy groove territory with the drums providing some pounding halftime beats and Sonny still keeping up with these aggressively delivered positive lyrics.
Afraid To Die brings in this yin yang effect of having these dark sounding elements of detuned effected keys to Tatiana Shmayik's (Jinjer) haunting vocal passages, which gives the listeners the assumption that the subject matter takes a darker route but once you listen to the lyrics you can hear themes of unity and choruses about coming to terms with death, really puts the audience in a expectation in a 360.
Death Right returns with the heavy delivery with out beat accent riffs aggressively catchy lyrics all suited in a short and sweet package. To close off the first half the album, we get the first ballad Breaking, which brings in some formulistic Sirius FM radio friendly style choruses and catchy post chorus guitar lead melodies, whilst the lyrical content starts to based on mortality and how death can effect us.
To open up the second part of the album we get the heart warming tribute to their friend Roo in Lay Me Down (Roos Song) which brings in some Deftones styled huge chord sequences and heavily reverbed choruses and poetically arranged lyrics that ooze heart and soul. The short and sweet I Wont Bow Down brings some sonic boom attack with some naughty 808 cinematic bass drops, groovy half time drum beats and nasty bendy riffs.
The final few tracks on this album is where I feel like they start to soften their edge and start to loose their direction a bit, because This Is My Life (feat. Cove Reber) takes a more a hardcore punk direction with bright sounding guitar riffs that you would hear from a Stick To Your Guns song whilst the choruses sound like they are taken from an old-school offspring song. Same goes with Lies We Tell Ourselves which consist of classic hard rock chord sequences and choruses that are delivered in this generic mourning friendly radio rock show format and This is Our Struggle brings in some Twenty One Pilots styled pre-choruses and some lazy chanting choruses.
Despite the last few tracks on the record, We still got to give credit that after 32 years, P.O.D can still come packing the punches with tracks like Drop, I Got That and Dead Right, whilst their lyrics still ooze passion into songs Lay Me Down. This album packs classic P.O.D delivery with a modern shine. For fans of Limp Bizkit, Ill Nino and Saliva. 7/10
The Karma Effect have been making waves in the UK rock scene for a while now. Their debut was well received rock n roll, bluesy guitars, hip shaking rhythms, funky organs and some hooky choruses that have been sung in venues around the UK and on festival stages such as Steelhouse.
So there was always going to be a follow up, a second chance to dance, keep the music alive with the experience of being able to tour, their debut was released before the Pandemic, but re-released after to give them something to tour. These song then have been refined while on the road, where a rock n roll band thrives and they sound like a band in full swing.
Promised Land (the song) has a gospel tinge of The Answer or The Temperance Movement, the southern swagger of Be My Salvation is bit of Skynyrd or Whiskey Myers, however not to rest on their blues rock background they dabble in some Foreigner-like 80's rocking with Livin' It Up, it's the keyboards that definitely add to this comparison.
There's also a lot of Aerosmith on The Promised Land, from the driving rock of Nine Lives or the ballad Still Falling For You. The band approached the album with the notion of it being escapism and they managed to capture that well, each song is a retro slice of bygone halcyon nostalgia but given a modern production sound and a passion that comes with being a relatively young band. No forty days in the desert for The Karma Effect, they take you to The Promised Land from the first chord of this second album. 8/10
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