Victims of Deception

I love thrash metal. It's the genre that forged my tastes and criteria of what I like and don't. When I was just listening to other bands besides the Big American 4, I looked for which were considered the best albums in the genre; thanks to this, I discovered authentic gems such as "By Inheritance", "Eternal Nightmare", "World Circus" and similar ones. One of the albums that called rapidly my attention was "Victims of Deception", firstly owing to its cover; I loved that kind of futuristic blue-coloured scenario that portrayed. To be honest, to date, I don't know what kind of place it represents; It seems like a factory or a metal-melting plant, but even with this, I consider it one of my favourite cover arts in metal (this was also triggered thanks to my love for blue colour).

But well, this review is for talking about the music instead of the cover art, so let's go on.

I remember perfectly the moment when I was going to play this album for the very first time. However, I just could listen to the first song as I was at school during computing classes, so I had to be as discreet as possible, but that was totally impossible. "Hypnotized" started with that curious discourse which I later discovered it was told by Jim Kones, that horrid and malevolent man who attained to kill hundreds of people by hypnotising them with stupid prophetic discourses (that speech fits perfectly with the song, once you think about it). After that 1-minute discourse, the real album starts. Victims of Deception has possibly the best introduction for a thrash metal album as, during 2 and a half minutes, the album is introduced with a powerful and bombastic sound, thanks to the crushing sound of the rhythmic guitars and the subtle addition of the drums, which give more intensity to the music as it moves on. Some clean arpeggios are added in the form of hues and, finally, some solos are played to welcome the album. From the minute 2:36, the madness begins. That full speed headed riff made me lose the control once I listened to it during classes. The headbang took over me. Never had I listened to such a powerful guitar song until I discovered this album. This is the main point and one of the best parts that I want to highlight from this album: the guitars. The work done by Lee Altus and Doug Piercy is spectacular. The mix of devastating riffs, mind-bending solos and the addition of some hue in the form of arpeggios and ghost notes make this album a delight for every fan of a powerful guitar sound in thrash metal. The tone is obviously influenced by the one used in an album like "...and Justice For All", but amazingly, this album feels stronger in this aspect than the album which is based in. And I mentioned above, the introduction of "Victis of Deception" is one of the best I've listened in a thrash album. Check it by yourself!

The songwriting is outstanding. It's notorious that every (original) song from this album had an arduous process of songwriting as they feel very complete. There are even some progressive sections within the songs, which is a great form to avoid them feel flat and boring. There are interesting interludes, a lot of melodies that injects life to the songs and many rhythm changes throughout the album, such as the accelerated final section of "Opiate of the Masses" (epic and mind-blowing, by the way), the triplet-based change in "Fear of the Unknown" and the intro and outro of "Heathen's Songs". In general, all the songs are outstanding in its own manner and they even feel having their own identity, which is remarkable owing that there have always been lots of thrash bands with similar and exchangeable songs, and the fact that a band writes songs instead of a compilation of riffs separated in several tracks is frustrating sometimes. Heathen is a band that reached this point of having memorable songs on their own.

To finish with the good things, David White is great. He's shamely not very known, and it's a shame as his vocal work in the album is one of the best aspects of if. Yes, his voice is kind of reminiscent to Joey Belladonna's, but how many clean-voiced thrash metal singers do you know? David's more clean approach adds more originality to the album; his work is powerful and is a great addition to the band.

So far, I've told marvels about the album, but there are, unfortunately, some things that didn't convince me at all that impeded me consider the album a masterpiece or a classic thrash release.

I already told that the songs are great owing to David's grand voice and the crushing guitar work from Altus and Piercy. The problem is that I felt the album quite inconsistent, overall in the 2nd part of the album (from "Fear of the Unknown" onwards). It's kind of odd listening to a fast song and that the next track is a ballad or a more mid-paced song (that is the case with "Prisoners of Fate" and "Guitarmony"). The songs are excellent and memorable, of course, I don't deny that, but I felt the album lost intensity with this radical change of rhythm. There's no consistency of listening to various fast songs and after that, a little ballad or mid-paced song to give the listener the chance to rest for another tornado of riffs. No. The songs are mixed and it feels that the album could have had a better songs arrangement.

Some other details that I noticed have to do with the recording and mix of the album. Unfortunately, "Victims of Deception" took the worst aspect of it's inspirational album "...and Justice For All": the bass guitar. It can't be heard in most of the time. If you check the demo version of "Opiate of the Masses", you'll note that the bass guitar can be heard along with the transition melody played by Altus and Piercy; here, it is scarcely noticeable. To be honest, it's an aspect that I didn't notice the first time that I listened to the album, but once you deeply listen to the mix, you'll notice that something it's missing. The weird think is that, opposite to the Metallica album, here, the music is still powerful and overwhelming, how? I don't know, but you'll possibly not notice this aspect at least that you pay close attention to the mix. Also, I'd have liked that the cymbals had been better recorded, as they are (as well as the bass guitar) barely noticeable within the mix, and it's a shame because the work of Darren Minter is actually great and very competent, but his performance as to the cymbals is quite relegated owing to the mix.

Before I finish, I'd like to talk about the "technical" aspect of the album. It always has been strange, to me, that Heathen was catalogued as a technical thrash metal band by everyone who talks about them. I already mentioned this in my previous review (about "Breaking the Silence"), and I repeat it here: this is not technical thrash metal for me. I haven't heard bands like Coroner, Mekong Delta and Watchtower which play, supposedly, pure tech thrash, but I have heard albums like "Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?", "Alison Hell", "World Circus", "By Inheritance", "Rust in Peace", "The Meaning of Life", "the same "...and Justice For All" and others which I don't remember their names at this moment and those albums sound more like technical thrash to me, and many of these bands don't have the label of tech thrash (excepting Toxik and Annihilator). What I mean is that for me, Heathen has a category that doesn't belong to them (god, Megadeth and Artillery deserve that label, to my eyes). I only can suppose that Heathen is called tech thrash because of the numerous progressive moments that the album has, but I neither think that because of those tiny moments, the album should count as a progressive thrash release (it would be a better label, though). Maybe I'm just judging the band with their first two releases and I need to listen to the later material, but in that case, it should be specified that the band played pure thrash metal in their beginnings and tech thrash in the modern times.

I extended a lot with this particular topic, but I really wanted to tell it. Sorry.

To conclude and finish with this review once and for all, "Victims of Deception" is a strong release. It's several steps beyond their debut album and it's, sadly, one of the last great albums that thrash metal left for posterity. It has some details regarding the mix and the song's arrangement, and for me, it doesn't fit inside the label most people they have put it in, but those details don't demerit at all the experience of listening to it. It's powerful, full of strength, with an imposing sound, great vocals and memorable songs for every thrash metal fan. Due to its detriments, it's hard to catalogue "Victims of Deception" as a masterpiece, but it's undoubtedly an unmissable record that, at least, deserves one opportunity to be checked out. Long live Heathen.

(God, not even in my homework do I write that much text quantity).