Deceitome – Deceitome

When it comes to my enjoyment of Extreme Metal there is often a moment when I recognise that the blistering audible punishment that I happen to be laying my ears upon is filling me with a sense of invigoration. This is a fucking good feeling and is what keeps me returning to brutal Metal in search of the next invigorating fix, it is a slightly healthier hobby than being a crack addict after all.

Deceitome is one such act that drives a much needed rusty nail of stimulus into that specific spot somewhere within my rotting and metal craving junkie-like brain. This Baltic old-school Death Metal quartet hailing from Estonia have once again reared their evil little heads to demolish the catacombs of the Death Metal underground with their new self titled second album.

Self titled albums are a tricky prospect as an artist, it’s your chance to say: “Hey, this is us. We are called; (insert band name here) and this is what we are about.” It is a rather blunt statement and a stunt that you can only pull once. So the music that accompanies it better be fucking memorable. It’s a good thing then that Deceitome sound hungrier than ever on album number two. The lineup has shifted since the last Deceitome release; 2019’s ‘Flux of Ruin’ EP. This time with Raiko Rajalaane on drums (ex Intrepid, although on vocal duties) and newcomer Alex Svart featuring on bass. Anders Melts’ Earth shattering guttural bear growls that harken back to the vocals of earlier Inancation releases sound damn near monolithic on these songs and the absolute smorgasbord of intriguing chainsaw distortion guitar riffs will wet the appetite of even the most discerning of Finnish Death Metal aficionados.

The production of the record has a more open sound than on previous Deceitome releases which complements the grindy guitar distortion as the added instrumental space allows the guitars to really shine and cut through the mix just before they leap out of your speakers and into your skull, spraying your brain matter like around the room like juicy human bolognaise. One particular highlight of the record is just how good the drums sound, in part due to Rajalaane’s stunning performance on the kit but that within the sound of the mix they have a highly organic touch to them which is very satisfying and the cymbals have stunning clarity. Smaller percussive details such as the tasty cowbell hits during the verse sections of the song ‘SnoVVolves’ speak to the attention to detail that must have gone into the tracking of the rhythm section during the recording process.

Whenever the band settles upon a groove throughout the record’s 42 minute runtime I often find myself subconsciously headbanging along to their absolutely devastating sound. Case in point being the slow doomy riffage during the intro of the hilariously titled ‘Feed Me All The Blood In The World’ that progresses into a catchy series of near Death and Roll-esque instrumental passages.

Don’t sleep on this record if you are partial to music from long standing genre heavyweights such as Dismember or Bloodbath or more recent acts such as Gatecreeper as this album is full of moments that could be worthy of inciting some seriously gnarly mosh pits and if Deceitome took a gamble by releasing a self titled record then I’d say it was a gamble that was certainly worth taking.