DEEDS OF FLESH: “NUCLEUS”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 162020
 

 

(This is Vonlughlio’s review of the new album by Deeds of Flesh, which was released by Unique Leader Records on December 11th.)

I have the honor to write about a band who are considered a classic act by fans of Brutal Death Metal, a band who came to life back in 1993 in Los Osos, California, and whose music has transcended the test of time and inspired many bands in both the BDM and Tech scene.

I remember while living in the Dominican Republic discovering their 1996 debut album Trading Pieces and being blown away as the music started. It left an everlasting impact on my life. Continue reading »

DEEDS OF FLESH: “PORTALS TO CANAAN”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jun 172013
 

Let’s get one thing out of the way up-front: The new Deeds of Flesh album Portals To Canaan is a bewilderingly complex tech-death masterpiece. As a demonstration of pure physical speed and dexterity married to voracious brutality, it’s difficult to imagine any other release surpassing it this year.

The songs are one explosion after another of intricate instrumental extravagance: jabbing, darting riffs; swarming melodic leads; jackhammer bass rhythms; bursts of noodling notes and frenzied arpeggios that fly by almost too fast to follow; blistering reverberant solos; unorthodox rhythms; blinding, blasting drumwork. It’s as if the musicians were juiced up on exotic accelerants delivered from another star system when they laid down these tracks.

The music will no doubt spawn different mental images in different listeners, but for me I imagined an army of alien machines fabricating some immense incomprehensible structure in deep space, a thousand gleaming entities performing a thousand tasks at light speed according to perplexing blueprints drawn by monolithic sentient devices with computing power beyond the understanding of mere mortals: Vast frameworks lashed together by writhing metallic tentacles, tangles of wires threaded by nanobots into almost indecipherable patterns, titanium girders slammed into place and joined by explosive welders. Continue reading »

DEEDS OF FLESH: “AMIDST THE RUINS”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
May 142013
 

I thought we were finished posting for the day, and then I got a message from TheMadIsraeli that Deeds of Flesh had premiered a new track from their long-awaited eighth album, Portals To Canaan.

The song is “Amidst the Ruins”. It’s utterly fascinating. It scrambles the mind quite thoroughly, and in my case, left me gap-mouthed in a silly smile.

The technical acrobatics are top-shelf, of course, but the song is also cleverly constructed in a way that ties together the flurry of notes, the bullet-spitting percussion, and the big-barking-dog vocals. Threaded through all the impressive instrumental work and the unstable rhythms are magnetic little melodies and repeating motifs that begin to seem like old friends after a few listens.

But what really widened my grin are the few bars of warm guitar melody with which the song opens and closes. Brilliant.

Do listen right after the jump. The album is due on June 25 from Unique Leader.

Continue reading »

NEW DEEDS OF FLESH: “RISE OF THE VIRVUM JUGGERNAUT”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Dec 222012
 

January 1, 2012. That’s the date on which I first saw the album cover for the next full-length release (the 8th) by California’s Deeds of Flesh, Portals To Canaan. Naturally, I posted about it immediately in an installment of our EYE-CATCHERS series. The artist is Raymond Swanland.

At the time of that post, the only music we had was a “pre-production teaser” for the new album — just Guitar 1 and “drum mapping” (no 2nd guitar, leads, or vocals). Now we’re almost a year down the road, and finally today brought us the debut of the first song from the album — “Rise of the Virvum Juggernaut”.

It’s been a very long wait for new music from this band, especially with the first album teaser being released almost one full year ago. But yes indeed, the wait has been worthwhile. “Rise of the Virvum Juggernaut” is a mechanized slaughterhouse of crushing brutality combined with a brain-centrifuging swirl of start-stop technical acrobatics. It seethes and swarms with alien energy and gnashes its sharp teeth in voracious hunger. It sounds already like the tech-death monster to beat in 2013. Continue reading »

“THE U.S. TORTURE TOUR” CONTINUES THIS FALL: CANNIBAL CORPSE, MISERY INDEX, HOUR OF PENANCE, DEEDS OF FLESH

 Metal News  7 Responses »
Sep 112012
 

The PRP and Lambgoat have reported this morning that Cannibal Corpse, Misery Index, Hour of Penance, and Deeds of Flesh will be embarking on a continuation of THE U.S. TORTURE TOUR this fall. There has not yet been an official announcement, though one is expected soon. UPDATE: There has now been an official announcement by Cannibal Corpse, and here is a complete schedule:

11/16 Huntsville, AL Crossroads Music Hall
11/17 Little Rock, AR Juanitas
11/18 Springfield, MO Outland Ballroom
11/19 Bloomington, IL The Castle Theater
11/20 Eau Claire, WI House Of Rock
11/21 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
11/23 Flint, MI The Machine Shop
11/24 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls
11/25 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
11/27 Providence, RI The Met
11/28 New York, NY Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard The Harbor Lights*
11/29 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock
11/30 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony
12/01 Washington, DC Rock N Roll Hotel
12/03 Louisville, KY Headliners
12/04 Spartanburg, SC Ground Zero
12/06 Miami, FL Grand Central
12/07 Tampa, FL Brass Mug

*Show will not feature Hour of Penance

There will be maiming and killing and the consumption of human flesh and the picking of teeth with bone splinters. It’s nice to see that whoever organized this tour chose not to dilute the brutality by mixing and matching the genre styles. It’s just going to be 100% death metal hell.

We’ll fill in more details when we learn them.

Oh, and one more piece of titillating Hour of Penance news has surfaced. Continue reading »

EYE-CATCHERS

 Eye-Catchers  13 Responses »
Jan 012012
 

It’s the first day of the New Year, and a Sunday on top of that, and except for the poor motherfuckers who have to work on Jan 1, I’m guessing most people are having a lazy, drag-ass kind of day — or they’re still in bed with eyes closed and drool coming out their moufs. But not us. No sir, we actually have a crapload of posts scheduled for today, starting with groverXIII’s wake-up call with some Cut Your Teeth loudness and the latest round of Trollfiend’s deathmatch with Amorphis.

I’m following that raucous video and the Amorphis bowel-perforation with the eye-catching album cover up there. It’s for the next full-length release (the 8th) by California’s Deeds of Flesh, Portals To Canaan. It reminds me a lot of Par Olofsson’s work, but the artist in this case is Raymond Swanland. It’s the first time I’ve come across his name — he seems to do a lot of his work for games such as Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft. After the jump, I’ve got more of his striking artwork, plus a “pre-production teaser” for the new Deeds of Flesh album. Continue reading »

A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL: BIG CHOCOLATE AND BURNING THE MASSES

 Interviews, Metal News  2 Responses »
Feb 142010
 

If you’re a follower of Cameron Argon (a/k/a “Big Chocolate”), Disfiguring the Goddess, and/or Burning the Masses, we’ve got treats in store for you today: breaking news updates, a mini-interview with Big C that includes some info we haven’t seen anywhere else, some hot-shit music to stream, and a cool tour poster. If none of these names means anything to you, but you like innovative, brain-cleaving death metal, then stay the fuck with us and expand your musical horizons!

THE BACKSTORY: Back in 2008, we stumbled across a 6-song DIY EP (still available on iTunes) by a “band” called Disfiguring the Goddess. It immediately grabbed us by the throat and wouldn’t let go — a raw, distorted vortex of brutal, slamming death metal marked by some truly distinctive vocals. We hunted around for more info and discovered that DTG was pretty much the alter ego of a young dude named Cameron Argon.

Since the EP, Argon has generated a handful of additional DTG songs with ex-Misericordiam blaster Phil Cancilla on drums and Joe Broodle on guitar. (We wrote about DTG‘s most recent output back in early December in a post you can find here.) All the music is absolutely cool shit, and it has spawned a cult following based largely on the vocal work of Cam Argon, who the inimitable Sergeant D over at Metal Inquisition has called “quite arguably the best guttural death metal vocalist on the planet.”

Lots of DTG‘s devoted followers have wondered when the band would actually release an album, and others have wondered if Argon would hook up with some other, more established band in need of a vocalist. That speculation was fueled at one point by Argon’s decision to join the Russian brutal slam metal band Abominable Putridity for some live shows in Moscow last summer, and he appears to have recorded one-off vocals for some other bands, including this one for unsigned Indiana blasters Dissever the Tyrant. But Argon has been in no hurry and seems just as dedicated to finishing his education as expanding his death metal horizons. (continue reading after the jump . . .) Continue reading »