DEIVOS - Hostile Blood (Self released EP - 2004)
Deivos is a band, which nowadays is well
established, having three full length albums under their belt. Recently, after
I got the band’s latest CD, “Demiurge of the Void”, I also decided to give a
spin to “Hostile Blood”, a demo or EP from 2003, which I remember I got from
Deivos at that time. I wanted to listen to it, because honestly, despite the
fact that I remember rating it quite high in my fanzine, I think I also did not
actually listen to it for the last eight years or so. So, definitely the
achievement of the third album was a good stimulating point to refresh my
memories of “Hostile Blood”. And I must say that when I listen to this demo nowadays
I am really impressed by it. I mean it does sound excellent, especially if you
think that in 2003 a completely unknown band managed not only to achieve such a
good and professional production, but also composed such a challenging, but
brutal and well developed piece of death metal. I am almost as impressed as I
was, when I was listening to Deception’s demos at the same time (and Deception
is also Polish, what is really great!).
The music on “Hostile Blood” do not sound as 100% matured as from the bands like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Sinister, etc – which would be some of the names, to which you could compare them to. Deivos still was in their infancy pretty much, having only one demo prior to “Hostile Blood” (“Praised by Generations” from 1999), but having that in mind I must say that the technical aspects of this 2003 release are very impressing. Each Deivos members impresses with good technical skills, and that includes damn fast and technical drumming as well as very good bassist’s playing, who comes up with really cool bass parts here and there (which would sometimes sound like from Death’s “Individual Thought Patters”)… And on top of all that – plus the very good sound of this demo – I must admit that the songs are really cool. Even for someone, who may not be 100% fan of technical death metal, they sound good. Deivos did not only focus on technical show off, but also remembered about having as many memorable parts as possible and not just blasts like crazy, but has quite many mid tempo fragments and especially if you listen to “Scarcity of Suffering” it may impress you a lot, with how this song sounds like and how it is built plus what type of riffing, guitar leads, etc. it has. Hmm, I dare to say that it is very rare to hear something so excellently composed from such a young band as Deivos were at that time. At few occasions the band comes up with more complex and technical as hell structures, breaking the riffs and rhythms in the way, which I am not usually a big fan of, but as I already said luckily they never “out do” that, if you know what I mean. And I mean that there’s no feeling of technical masturbation and of too many riffs and sounds per minute, which definitely is good, and that way the music remains memorable and maybe not catchy, but definitely is more straight forward. But you can be sure that the whole music is very tight, very brutal and massive. I do am impressed with such tracks as “Hostile Blood” and the mentioned “Scarcity of Suffering”.
So, I can definitely say that “Hostile Blood” survived the test of time very well. It is really good material, so it is worth to be looked for. I have the first press self released CDR copy, but I know that the Bulgarian Butchery Music re-released it on CD with a couple of demo tracks, so you may be luckily and still find a copy of it somewhere.
The music on “Hostile Blood” do not sound as 100% matured as from the bands like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Sinister, etc – which would be some of the names, to which you could compare them to. Deivos still was in their infancy pretty much, having only one demo prior to “Hostile Blood” (“Praised by Generations” from 1999), but having that in mind I must say that the technical aspects of this 2003 release are very impressing. Each Deivos members impresses with good technical skills, and that includes damn fast and technical drumming as well as very good bassist’s playing, who comes up with really cool bass parts here and there (which would sometimes sound like from Death’s “Individual Thought Patters”)… And on top of all that – plus the very good sound of this demo – I must admit that the songs are really cool. Even for someone, who may not be 100% fan of technical death metal, they sound good. Deivos did not only focus on technical show off, but also remembered about having as many memorable parts as possible and not just blasts like crazy, but has quite many mid tempo fragments and especially if you listen to “Scarcity of Suffering” it may impress you a lot, with how this song sounds like and how it is built plus what type of riffing, guitar leads, etc. it has. Hmm, I dare to say that it is very rare to hear something so excellently composed from such a young band as Deivos were at that time. At few occasions the band comes up with more complex and technical as hell structures, breaking the riffs and rhythms in the way, which I am not usually a big fan of, but as I already said luckily they never “out do” that, if you know what I mean. And I mean that there’s no feeling of technical masturbation and of too many riffs and sounds per minute, which definitely is good, and that way the music remains memorable and maybe not catchy, but definitely is more straight forward. But you can be sure that the whole music is very tight, very brutal and massive. I do am impressed with such tracks as “Hostile Blood” and the mentioned “Scarcity of Suffering”.
So, I can definitely say that “Hostile Blood” survived the test of time very well. It is really good material, so it is worth to be looked for. I have the first press self released CDR copy, but I know that the Bulgarian Butchery Music re-released it on CD with a couple of demo tracks, so you may be luckily and still find a copy of it somewhere.
Final rate: 70/100
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