Deprive

And finally, as I near the end of this series, we're brought to present day in the DTG catalog, where Big Chocolate has simultaneously released two albums under the project's name. This is the first of them, Deprive; it's the one that was hyped prior to release (the other one just kind of got serendipitously shat out on the release date), and while I haven't yet listened to its twin album in enough depth to say whether it's better than this one, I've had time to let Deprive sink in amongst my experience with the rest of their discography. My verdict is that it's very good - this is a formidable contender for quality when compared to even the band's earliest material.

Deprive takes the overwhelmingly djenty sound of Sleeper, throws a bit of legitimate BDM influence back into the songwriting, and tops it off with a professional polish that admittedly makes even the band's first EP look kind of starkly unprofessional and ridiculous. This is easily the "songiest" Disfiguring the Goddess release to date, in that the tracks at least try to have a natural sense of flow rather than just flowing through a chain of grooves that eventually concludes the song. It pays off really well; the end result is that you get some interesting variations in song length - the title track and "Swarm King" both clock under two minutes in length, the first time Disfiguring the Goddess has done so since 2008 - and songwriting - "Industrial Quarter" is an oddball track, with its first half being entirely instrumental and surprisingly possessing the depth to sustain itself perfectly fine under that criterion. The songs don't have as much of a problem with melding into an indistinguishable blur because each of them does something of notice or has a really cool, attention-grabbing riff, or sample, or synth, or rhythm.

Sleeper's ridiculously large guitar tone has been condensed a bit, taking the cold, unfriendly digital vibes out of the tone and replacing them with a tone that's just as fat and bass-heavy, but perhaps a bit warmer and livelier. It fits the riffs better too - this wasn't really an issue for Sleeper because it basically didn't have any riffs, just unending djent patterns. But Deprive re-expands the band's repertoire to include some riffs that sound like bona fide BDM riffs at their most intense, and the more metal-influenced side of Meshuggah at their least. The tremolo riff that opens the song "Deprive", for instance, is pretty unarguably full-blooded death metal of some breed or another. There's less outright rhythmic complexity (though I still can't for the life of me figure out what the hell is going on at 0:08 in "The Pathway to Everlasting Nothingness"), and the djents that are present are somewhat less focused on twanging open notes than Sleeper was. The Meshuggah-esque parts here actually sound more like the Defaced from Humanity material, fusing various mixtures of chunky deathcore breakdown chords with slam paces and digitally-chopped-up guitar bits, which makes them at least somewhat preferable to the material from the band's last two albums.

Another godsend for the music's well-being: there are far, far more blasts on this album than any other Disfiguring the Goddess full-length I've reviewed so far. And they're not constantly stuck in the irritatingly incessant 3/4 time signature like on Sleeper, either, which gives you a speedier album as an end product. Though I will admit: at this point, even the slower and mid-paced grooves are so fluidly executed that the band can generate more than enough momentum through the off-kilter syncopated, skipping melodies. And while I'm heaping praise on this album: the synths have increased in presence here, and not a single one is out of place. It's basically the same stuff you're used to at this point - reverby choral moans and jingly melodies - but they're so firmly integrated into the music here that it takes a conscious effort to even notice their presence. That isn't to say they're inessential, because they're definitely a big reason the songs here are so distinctive and atmospheric - but they're not intrusive in the slightest either.

This isn't supremely grabbing music but it's sincerely pretty fucking great with everything taken into account. It's some of the most essential material from the project to date, combining DTG's trademark gurgly vocals with a set of fluid riffs, tasteful djent influences, an appreciated depth of songwriting and a sound that's overall more professional and polished than any of the band's previous releases. Basically, if you used to like the band but they lost you around the time Circle of Nine was released, you'll get a kick out of Deprive. Hell, everybody should get a kick out of this one; it kicks some serious ass and there's not really any getting around that.