DEIFIED SHREDS: Overcoming The Fractal Deception
Release year: 2021
Label: Iron, Blood And Death Corporation
Sometimes you just know from looking at the cover what kind of music an album is going to contain. I mean, take Greek Deified Shreds‘ first mini-album’s cover. The logo obviously says: death metal. And the cover, with mysterious floating entities and boiling seas and astral lights, combined with the name Overcoming The Fractal Deception. It’s obvious!
I mean, naturally, this is going to be progressive and/or technical death metal. No two words about it, that cover’s a dead ringer for some kind of compositionally ambitious, thematically convoluted stuff.
Of course, I’m dead wrong. Deified Shreds are definitely not technical, progressive or overly complex.
Instead, what’s on offer here is somewhat old school, definitely traditional death metal in a rather brutal and decidedly US vein. Down-tuned, tungsten-heavy riffing, gruff vocals that sound like someone swallowed a litre of gravel, mainly rather mid-tempo tempos, but picking up the pace isn’t unheard of either – slowing down to a lurch pretty much is, on the other hand. Pick any name from the canon of classic 90’s brutal US death metal, and you’ll probably find some parallells in the Greek’s sound. One particular name that springs to mind is Morbid Angel: some moments on Overcoming The Fractal Deception bring to mind both Domination and Gateways To Annihilation.
Treading on well-worn if not positively overcrowded paths, Deified Shreds have luckily put focus on quality. See, if they’re basically pretty much bankrupt in the originality sector, in the quality of the songs and the sheer brutality of delivery, these guys have money in the bank. Man, that metaphor sucks, but you get my point: you’re not going to get anything you’ve not heard a thousand times before here, but you’re getting the same old, same old done very well.
If there’s anything to nitpick on here, the vocals are perhaps a bit too loud in the mix. A bit more oomph in the guitars and the drums would emphasize the heaviness and brutality, but this is a small cosmetic flaw. Musically, Deified Shreds delivers.
As a first release – apparently they haven’t even released any demos prior to this mini-album – this is very impressive. As said, originality is in short stock on here, but that’s the only aspect I can honestly direct much criticism at. If old school, US-style brutal death metal is your cup of tea – and what kind of death metal fan are you if it isn’t? – then do yourself a favour and check this out.
Only Death Is Real 