Relical Conspiracy

In the mid to late 90's you had quite a few ripping bands that never got around to recording a proper full length release, only releasing some demo's and MCD's before splitting up and/or fading into obscurity. Some names that come to mind are Perverseraph, Beyond Fear and Namtaru to name a few. Feel free to add The Deity's Flesh to that illustrious list, a (then) young Dutch death/grind act only releasing this EP before going the way of the dodo.

The band goes right for the throat, coming out swinging like a maniac and hitting the listener over the head with a barrage of blasts, growls and screams, packaged in short songs. Try to imagine the early Deicide totally off their balls on meth perhaps, with some resemblance to Brazilian late 90's death metal hordes like Rebaelliun and Abhorrence, as well as earliest Kataklysm, without actually sounding like a carbon copy. The band incorporates touches of black metal dissonance into the music as well, to create some variation in between the sometimes rather complex sound, because this is not exactly easy listening. The Deity's Flesh try to work in some melodies into their style, unfortunately not always to great effect. Some of these parts knock the balls out of the savage delivery, which is not helped by the somewhat peculiar production and the fact the percussion could've been more up front of the mix. It's regrettable that this makes the music lean over to the chaotic side at times. The wrong kind of chaotic. Take this as a minor point of critique though, the high levels of energy and conviction displayed by the band make sure this cd remains a gripping listen for the majority of its short runtime.

This is not a bad debut and it's kind of a bummer that the band broke up without further releases, as this was a pretty promising first effort. It will take a few spins for the listener to find his way in the remorseless brutality the band displays on their sole release, but given the time this could easily become one of those charming underground gems from the past.