Deride
First Round Knockout
The Music Cartel
This is my first experience with Deride, and I must admit that I am thoroughly impressed. These guys play old school power metal, with hints of death, thrash, and grind. Their talent and desire to rock the listener out of his/her pants is obvious, as is their aggressive nature as insane lovers of all things metal! Wow! These guys are grrrreat!
First Round Knockout is the kind of title that begs to be contradicted; it’s always dangerous to give your album such an intimidating title, but in Deride’s case, I think their music actually trumps the title! Remember the way fighters used to actually appear frightened to fight Mike Tyson (Michael Spinx, for example) even before the first round had begun? That was, in a sense, even worse than being knocked out in the first round. Tyson’s opponents were beaten even before the fight started. If there is a word for such a devastating and controlling stronghold on your opponent, it’s what should have been used to title this Deride record.
The guitars have no slick production, no fancy overdubs, nothing flashy. What they do have is a precise and crisp ring, very similar to Metallica’s guitar sound on Master Of Puppets (which is in most everyone’s top five of great metal records). The drumming is completely punishing and technical, and the recording quality of the drums is nothing short of perfect. The lead growle/singer is in my top ten all time of tough guy metal vocalists. His voice is so authentic and strained that the integrity of this man is 100% pure and true, and never in question.
“Crusade of Self-Destruction” is so incredibly crushing and ferocious that most listeners will feel the undeniable urge to punch someone in the face upon listening! “Live While You’re Alive” has the sweetest melodic guitar part I’ve heard since the last Enter My Silence record. It flows beautifully into a merciless, stomping power riff that eventually ends the song. Awesome! There isn’t a bad song on the disc; all songs brutalize and beat the listener’s face with the heaviest and most black leather boot to come out of King Diamond’s closet.
My wife, a non fan of metal, describes this record as “angry, suicide inducing, and very disturbing.” If that doesn’t make you want to hear it, I don’t know what will.
The Music Cartel: http://www.music-cartel.com
