Of What's to Come

Deeds of Flesh is an incredibly boring band, they almost always have been. Aside from 'Path of the Weakening' a solid brutal death metal album, they are mediocre and more redundant and bland than most of the "popular" brutal death bands around these days.

On Deeds' last album their tedium reached an all time high, a level of monotony that even Lindmark and his tone deaf posse noticed. They needed to kick things up a notch. In the three years since Crown of Souls the diddly-tech brutal-noodle bang bang sweepy little richard tap dancing style of death metal is ever increasing in popularity. What direction does Deeds' take? Well, they try what Odious Mortem and Decrepit Birth tried recently... a slippery mess of the usual brutal death chugga guitar riffs and some slower attempts at melody and tempo variation. To overshadow their lack of ideas, they "shred" with silly fruitcup guitar solos and some twiddly "tech" riffs.

The aformentioned guitar riffs are not bad, I mean the one song I'm sure you'll sit through will say everything about the album. Why? Because they all sound the same, there is no variation. Deeds of Flesh is still that simple minded, uninspired modern day Cannibal Corpse they always have been, they just continue to dilute themselves to stay somewhat relevant. That said, the major improvements are blatant on this new album. First and most important is the production is finally balanced and at least inching above the borders of mediocrity they've never dared cross. The drums sound good, guitars are reasonably defined, and the bass is along for the ride. It really is just the riff writing that falls flat. I almost wrote "songwriting" but these aren't songs. They are, like most brutal death, fatigued instrumental exercises with no real direction.

It's a samey mess of decently recorded brutal death metal that tries to be technical. At it's best some of these riffs sound like they could have been on Morbid Angel's "Gateways..." album, but a brief semblance to a decent album doesn't cut it. Nice try, but overall another mediocre record from a band with little to no creative ability.