20 Feb 2017

Deathlord: "Maximum Perversion"


Irrefutable evidence that death metal doesn't need to be fancy
When you get down to business and back to basics with death metal, what you're left with is indisputable. Stomach churning vocals, gut wrenching instrumentals, loathsome melodies and ass kicking drums. It's been like that since day one with Possessed, Death and their lot. There's absolutely nothing abstruse or profoundly intelligent about it, and neither does there need to be. That is indeed the modus operandi of the Dutch band of death metal motherfuckers known as Deathlord. Even the name itself seems to be giving the finger to overly thought out metal.

The warm gusts of burly auditive assaults can seem downright primitive, and tracks like the immense opener War and Into The Depths have incredible impact just from the sheer brutal rhythm that underscores the entire demo. The vocals are nothing if not raw with honesty; They're basically just a guy screaming his guts out, spewing out all sorts of filth about death, gore and even more obscure subjects. Every mother's dream.

"Deathlord pervert the very notion that you have to be smart about your music..."

Lastly, of course, the demo is finished off with a cover of Nunslaughter's Burning Away. At this point the sound and the cover seems almost redundant, like we'd all seen it coming a mile away, and that's what Maximum Perversion is all about; Deathlord pervert the very notion that you have to be smart about your music and not just play whatever sounds awesome. Combine Morbid Angel's ominous melodies and Asphyx's sturdy rhythm section, add dual vocals, and there you have it. That bastard child is Deathlord.

The unceremonious arrangements found on Maximum Perversion viciously deals with any pretension. There is both strength and weakness to be found in that aspect, for were it not for their twists with two very different vocal styles spewed forth in unison by the lead singer and the bassist, their style in itself would have been rather anonymous and forgettable. The rough screams serve as a great identifier for Deathlord, but as Maximum Perversion is presented that remains the only discerning factor.

Deathlord's churning rhythms and steady war-machine beats aren't quite enough to set them apart from similar groups on its own. The guitar work is quite astounding on tracks like Cursed To Live, so the fact that it isn't featured more prominently and given more free reign is puzzling. In the end Deathlord are always ready to attack, and their grasp of slow-burning concepts, steady grinders, gloomy doom-laden bursts or explosions of violent death makes Maximum Perversion better than most, but not as great as the classics.

7/10


Released in 2013 independently

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