Review: Converting their highspeed atmospheric grinding death into black metal, Deteriorate aim for the grandeur of Norsk style applied to songs which integrate the hardcore, grind and death metal aspects of American sound into the music, forming a hybrid that mostly works but despite excellent musicality perhaps decays into a confusion of concept so fundamental that many listeners will abandon it.
Formed of the raw speed riffing that distinguishes bands such as Angelcorpse or Naglfar with the melodic overtones found in Emperor or Graveland, this sensual element of primal music breaks between tempos into rhythms that range throughout genres in an attempt to find resolution, often in the most unfiltered and basic rhythms over which melodic phrases combine to harmonize and advance the expectation of resolution through a handful of structural variance points. This shapes a narrative which, juxtaposed with the aggressive chorus and anthemic verse structure presents a thorough transfer of energy through variants which like any break of sustenance into chaos, serve to advance some tension and in classic death metal style, drop some toward chromatic resolutions and abrupt, almost random changes in riff and tempo that have the classic oblivion factor of North American music.
For all of these descriptive factors, the most pressing need to describe any music is to describe the voice within, as abstracted from a hearing and interpretation of the material, which articulates the views of the creative force that inspired the work and its conduits. In this the voice is rapacious anger combined with a lustful gesture toward the majestic and inspiring within its derisive blast, and the result evolves from there to have some sense of manipulation of mood. Hopefully these gents haven't called it quits because their raw skills are impressive: riffing that is so facile it moves gracefully under the tune, stealing focus only when necessary for vast change. This is raw precision and power in the first half of the album.
The second half of this album is a form of standard but reasonable Midwestern death metal that will not appeal to black metal fans at all, and for many, the gliding melodic atmospheres of black metal built early in the album will be not appealing in the context of the band that released the epic "Rotting in Hell," which was less a feast of complex riff salad dynamic shifting as it was the promise of raw ripping speed in tight structures with fast electrically abrupt transitions. As death metal the current release approximates the style of Cenotaph or Entombed with heavy American touches, giving some context to the work that is the first half of this album as a creative progression. For this style, these five tracks represent the power of chaos in texture under discipline of rough master plan. Most will find this enjoyable, but placing it on the second side of a black metal album is a mistake.
