Deivos - Emanation From Below

DEIVOS - Emanation From Below (EMPIRE - CD 2006)

Through the years Poland has reached the status of one of the most important and exciting death metal countries and while I am listening to so many killer bands from this country I can only be happy about that and proud also, as I’m Polish myself. The number of great bands is countless now and maybe many of them do not get as much deserved attention as many mediocre bands from Sweden, but fuck that… They deserve the support and the true maniac will always recognise the better from worse. And if I was going to recommend you any newer Polish death metal band, then I would definitely go for Deivos. Obviously at the time of writing this review they already have three full length albums and the 15 years long career, so they’re not really that young anymore hehe, but even having all that in my mind and the fact that they’re been signed to Unique Leader Records, it still seems like Deivos are slightly underestimated and unknown, even here in Poland. Fuck, it is about time to change it. And the best way to do that is obviously to listen to their music and “Emanation from Below” is more than a good start, if you ask me, especially since the previous MCD “Hostile Blood” may be too difficult to get nowadays. Anyway, “Emanation from Below” was released in 2006 by Empire Records and you should have no problems with getting it, as quite many copies circle around the internet distributions and auctions, for very small prices. And it definitely is a must to purchase, if you call yourself a fan of brutal and technical death metal genre.

But I think that labelling Deivos as just plain technical death metal would be very unkind and unfair to them, as while listening to “Emanation from Below” I can hear so many different layers in the music than just complex structures and technical masturbation. No way can this band be folded in the same category as some other technical death bands, although definitely they do have a strong technical aspect in the music. But really in my opinion Deivos does everything in the right way, making sure that the songs has some meaning and are listenable, staying away from the unreadable and completely unmemorable chaos with millions of riffs and sounds per track. There’s never really the feeling of “what do fuck is going on here?”, which I sometimes have, when am forced to listen to technical death bands. Of corpse there are some very complex structures and technical parts like the drumming, which is just superb, full of great rhythms, breaks, many fantastic arrangements, but it is not over the edge. Besides, Deivos really fuckin crushes with massive riffing, many slower and damn heavy parts, which often will just force you to bang the head and then they break all the hell loose with furious and maniacal speed. Obviously the whole stuff is as powerful as you can only desire, so I’m into it completely! And you also will, if you’re into the likes of Sinister, Suffocation, Diabolic, Malevolent Creation, Aeon, Hate Eternal and other such killer death bands.

It is really difficult to pick up one or two standout tracks from “Emanation from Below”, as the whole album is very even, very tight and high quality. Maybe because there’s just about 30 minutes of music, it goes through your neck quickly as hell, so you don’t even have to time to think and pick up your favourite moments, so many of them are here! But well, I tried to dismember the music (hehe) and I must admit that there are so many killer ideas there, so many fantastic pieces, so many details that I cannot believe. And it still sounds brutal and straight forward, especially as quite a big part of “Emanation from Below” is so damn fast. Right away from the first song “Blackness Incarnate” it is a total death metal destruction. And you know what? It may sound slightly odd, but I think Deivos takes the influence equally from old and new school of death metal. Sure, they sound technical and have modern, powerful production, but many layers of their songs have the feeling from some early 90’s American death metal albums. And “Blackness Incarnate” is just a great example for that and it is a killer opener. And if you prefer slower and more massive sounds then I recommend you “Realm of Desecration” – what an awesome song, seven minutes long with some almost doomy parts here and there and generally with very dark and obscure feeling. Aaarrggghh, yeah, I am listening to this album like 20th time in the past three days and I must say that it doesn’t get any monotonous and boring, it still shreds and the energy erupts like crazy. I like it a lot.

Standout tracks: “Realm of Desecration”, “Blackness Incarnate”

Final rate: 87/100