DEITY: “DEITY”

 

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the self-titled debut album by the Canadian death metal band Deity, which was released earlier this month.)

 

I have a very hard time getting into a lot of the technical and progressive death metal that’s being released these days because so much of it misses the fucking point. It’s all plastic mixes, weak noodly riffs, with death metal as the least prevalent of ingredients. It just… isn’t death metal, man. Whether bands are fellating their fretboard with an overly digitized guitar tone and simply running through rote, stock melodic progressions or playing what amounts to really bad progressive rock with weak black metal vocals and no power, it’s no wonder I’ve tended to gravitate toward either old school death metal, or death metal that’s just straightforward and no bullshit.

Sometimes, though, I run across bands like Deity and my hope is restored. I remember the beauty, the majesty, and the putrid overwhelming crushing power that can be channeled once the musicianship and spirit are on par with each other.

 

 

Deity are a technical AND progressive death metal band, mixing that perfect 50/50 blend of melody and disgusting atonality, crushing grooves, frantic speed, feral vocals, and virtuoso-level instrumental performances, along with compelling epic-saga songwriting. It’s the kind of combination that at times has made the best of both sub-genres the pinnacle of what metal can be.

A three-man act hailing from Ontario, Canada, an area that’s produced some of the best death metal we’ve got now, they’ve enlisted the help of Flo “fuckin’ scramble my brains ’til they fall out of my ears” Mounier of Cryptopsy fame to man the kit on this album. The core duo of Daniel Cinty and Simon Haroon are impressive guitarists, both from a technical perspective and even more so from a songwriting perspective. They also supply the vocal attack of the Deity sound, acting as high/low counterparts to each other. This is completely devoid of the manufactured gimmicky tonality of deathcore-styled vocals, though; both of them are raw, impassioned, feral, and full of conquering spirit.

Deity are a band who essentially pay tribute to the absolute best of new-old school in their given leanings — Anata, Spawn of Possession, Suffocation, Decapitated, I could go on. They took tiny, microscopic pieces of influence from all of the best of the entirety of 2000‘s death metal and have crafted a masterpiece of a debut album.

 

 

We premiered the frantic death-thrash savagery of “Sacrificium” here on NCS previously. It’s a fantastic song, but the thing about this record that I think will surprise most is how NO song on this album is representative of the album. The songs are all very distinct in the kind of technical/progressive death metal they represent and what era they are channeling.

While a song like “Sacrificium” may take a more old school Suffocation-esque bent of technical bleak riffs with more old school thrash style drumming behind it, post-intro opener “Beginning Of Extinction” is a waltz of blast beats, neo-classical riffing, and frantic tempo changes. “From Which We Came…Now We Return” is one of the best instrumentals I’ve heard in the realm of death metal. We’ve seen some pretty impressive instrumental compositions in death metal (the trademark instrumental on every Revocation record comes to mind), and it’s astonishing just how good this shit is. The song is a real journey man, 9+ minutes of melodic and atonal majesty and might.

Deity are impressive new blood, exceptionally so. This album is something nobody should miss out on.

Bandcamp:
https://deityca.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Deity-554005458044410/

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuua6tQZwnE