Down the Gutter

Deep Coma is a two piece band from Portugal that formed in 2009. It is nearly impossible to pigeonhole them to one genre but after downloading the genre is tagged as "Schizophrenic Metal", after listening to Down the Gutter this tag seems quite accurate.

The majority of Down the Gutter the bands sound is extremely crushing but on occasion they also throw in some very odd relaxed melancholic interludes that give the album an awkward but appealing flow. Though the album has it's fair share of chugging the riffs featured on this release extremely infectious especially on tracks like "No Soul". With a little less chugging the record wouldn't have dragged on at all but at times you find yourself thinking "alright more chugging...". In this releases case this doesn't happen to be a major problem but the band is walking a fine line. The bass is audible a good portion of the playtime and it certainly adds to the heaviness that the band churns out.

The vocals featured on Down the Gutter have quite a bit of variation in terms of style. Both the members contribute vocals on the album and the approaches range from gutturals, hardcore yells, screams, and drug induced moans (at times reminiscent of Deftones). With the amount of vocal variation here it is really difficult to complain but at times some of the growls sound a bit forced. Other than that the vocal department is covered near flawlessly.

At times the mixing doesn't work too well. On certain tracks the "Compulsive Disorder" the harsh vocals are almost inaudible. Luckily these difficulties don't pop up often. It's unclear if this is how it was meant to sound or not but it definitely wouldn't hurt for the vocals to be up in the mix in spots like the previously mentioned.

Fans of groove metal should dig this album, it also has enough unique elements to attract fans of other subgenres of metal. Even someone just looking for chaotic music with a fairly unique sound should give this a listen, that may be a vague statement but Deep Coma covers a lot of ground with this beefy demo. For such a young band they definitely have solid songwriting skills and although they do have plenty of room for improvement this is without a doubt a solid effort. Even though it is labeled a demo it clocks in at almost thirty minutes and plays more like a full-length.