- Jun 26, 2003
- 376
- 2
- 18
Deceased return with another slab of fetid swamp-gas, this time weighing in at a hefty fifty minutes. 'The Blueprints For Madness' provides another twelve chilling narratives, wrapped in the stylistic binding of band mentors, Voivod.
Deceased, like mid-period Carcass, by this point in their career had matured into a band very much driven by the power of the riff. These musicians use their extensive musical background to craft Death Metal in Heavy or Speed Metal form, creating memorable song structures that find individual personality in the unique lyrical flavour given to each by band vocalist King Fowley. The aforementioned Voivodian influence sees frequent dalliance in minor-key harmonics and strange, off-kilter riff progression, driven to conclusion by the pounding, adrenaline-fuelled heartbeat of a thunderous snare drum.
As opposed to the first full-length, stronger emphasis is placed here on rhythm, particularly in the drumming department with the tempo managing to capture the relentless 'less is more' pounding which makes bands like Slaughter, Dark Angel or Sadus sound faster in a more comprehensible way. In contrast to this general insanity, several atmospheric slower sections lend an epic quality to key tracks, notably 'The Creek Of The Dead' and the strongest offering here, 'The Triangle.'
Where Deceased differ from many of the more redundant Death Metal acts is their treatment of death from a more psychological perspective. As opposed to the latest CDR demo wrapped in an economy printed Rotten.com xerox, Deceased delve underneath the ghastly surface to a world explored in the darkest fiction of Lovecraft or Poe. Far from the academic approach of philosophers such as Feud, Deceased offer a starkly visceral account of Madness: one from the inside; a world where, 'My mind's eyes, they see what I can't see, Imagination enslaves my only life. Fear feeds fear in all minds. In darkness, I witness Disease at work, unfolding my mind.' That they pull this style off with aplomb arises in no small part from their obvious conviction, resulting in a fresh honesty shared by all artists working in an ostracised vacuum away from the tired pressures of scene posturing or Suffocation cloning.
The barrier preventing this album receiving a more widespread heralding is the production, which casts the whole aesthetic into a three-pronged fork and then mercilessly scrapes said object against a blackboard. Guitars in particular acquire a repulsive high-end hiss in the right-channel. Whether this is a strictly a bad thing depends upon one's listening constitution (i.e. the amount of 'no-production' Black-Metal you allow to pass your ears). It certainly distances the music from the 'feel-good' certainty of a Metallica or Iron Maiden release, rooted as it is very firmly in 80's metal sensibilities. Many will be put off by this strange noise-core tinge, hollowing out the sound by increasing the distance between drums and swarm-of-bees guitars whilst completely eradicating bass from the mix. This is a shame because, much like Suffocation's Breeding The Spawn, this album may actually offer the band's most essential, if most challenging, work. I did hear whispered on some obscure corner of IRC that this album might be reworked and re-released in a re-mastered package, although whether this will come to pass remains, at this point, a mystery.
'The Blueprints For Madness' is Deceased's most discordant, Voivodian work, offering some classic songs and good listening for the long dark evenings of Autumn; perhaps a Clive Barker or Edgar Allen gripped between nervous palms as night-time noises filter into the conscience provoking increasingly startling assertions.
Deceased, like mid-period Carcass, by this point in their career had matured into a band very much driven by the power of the riff. These musicians use their extensive musical background to craft Death Metal in Heavy or Speed Metal form, creating memorable song structures that find individual personality in the unique lyrical flavour given to each by band vocalist King Fowley. The aforementioned Voivodian influence sees frequent dalliance in minor-key harmonics and strange, off-kilter riff progression, driven to conclusion by the pounding, adrenaline-fuelled heartbeat of a thunderous snare drum.
As opposed to the first full-length, stronger emphasis is placed here on rhythm, particularly in the drumming department with the tempo managing to capture the relentless 'less is more' pounding which makes bands like Slaughter, Dark Angel or Sadus sound faster in a more comprehensible way. In contrast to this general insanity, several atmospheric slower sections lend an epic quality to key tracks, notably 'The Creek Of The Dead' and the strongest offering here, 'The Triangle.'
Where Deceased differ from many of the more redundant Death Metal acts is their treatment of death from a more psychological perspective. As opposed to the latest CDR demo wrapped in an economy printed Rotten.com xerox, Deceased delve underneath the ghastly surface to a world explored in the darkest fiction of Lovecraft or Poe. Far from the academic approach of philosophers such as Feud, Deceased offer a starkly visceral account of Madness: one from the inside; a world where, 'My mind's eyes, they see what I can't see, Imagination enslaves my only life. Fear feeds fear in all minds. In darkness, I witness Disease at work, unfolding my mind.' That they pull this style off with aplomb arises in no small part from their obvious conviction, resulting in a fresh honesty shared by all artists working in an ostracised vacuum away from the tired pressures of scene posturing or Suffocation cloning.
The barrier preventing this album receiving a more widespread heralding is the production, which casts the whole aesthetic into a three-pronged fork and then mercilessly scrapes said object against a blackboard. Guitars in particular acquire a repulsive high-end hiss in the right-channel. Whether this is a strictly a bad thing depends upon one's listening constitution (i.e. the amount of 'no-production' Black-Metal you allow to pass your ears). It certainly distances the music from the 'feel-good' certainty of a Metallica or Iron Maiden release, rooted as it is very firmly in 80's metal sensibilities. Many will be put off by this strange noise-core tinge, hollowing out the sound by increasing the distance between drums and swarm-of-bees guitars whilst completely eradicating bass from the mix. This is a shame because, much like Suffocation's Breeding The Spawn, this album may actually offer the band's most essential, if most challenging, work. I did hear whispered on some obscure corner of IRC that this album might be reworked and re-released in a re-mastered package, although whether this will come to pass remains, at this point, a mystery.
'The Blueprints For Madness' is Deceased's most discordant, Voivodian work, offering some classic songs and good listening for the long dark evenings of Autumn; perhaps a Clive Barker or Edgar Allen gripped between nervous palms as night-time noises filter into the conscience provoking increasingly startling assertions.
