Deus Otiosus - Godless (2012)

Danes Deus Otiosus released a fairly competent and engaging debut in 2010's Murderer, and here they follow in its footsteps with another bastard stepchild of the traditional death and thrash metal genres, and in doing so removed themselves from the most easily categorized retro airs that are in many case beginning to induce nausea since they've become so bloody trendy. Now, I understand that nostalgia is an important factor for all music addicts (including those who weren't around when a genre first developed), and it's 'cool' and I myself enjoy a lot of the bands who provide a loving and gloomy glimpse back into the authenticity of the past, but I'm almost at the point where another doppelganger of Left Hand Path, Severed Survival or Onward to Golgotha might shred what little remains of my sanity...

Thankfully, Godless uses old school imperatives only as a guideline and then forges its own path towards a grave and haunting introspection. The meaty, clear riffing patterns offer a hybrid of dark West Coast thrash like Slayer or Possessed and steadier death metal grooves from the 90s, threaded with tremolo picked passages that betray a hint of a Swedish black/death metal influence. Often there will be eruptions of more uptempo melodies you might expect of Deceased (as in "Cast from Heaven"), but they can also creep along with a cleaner, less crushing death/doom aesthetic. The vocals are blocky, brutal, gruff and dark almost like Jan-Chris de Koeijer on Gorefest records like Erase, with a more ominous ringing out at the end of lyric lines. Drums have a loud, crashy, pervasive tone to them which feels creates a very up front, live foundation for the atmosphere of the guitars, and though it's probably the least distinguished element in the music, the bass rides along hurriedly to the guitar progressions. They win points for getting such a clear production to still seem decidedly raw and lo-fi. These aren't exactly the simplest of songs, either, there's a lot of effort in the construction of the riffs and a wealth of variety across the 41 minutes.

There are some genuinely chilling or distinct tunes on the album, like "New Dawn" where they pair up a mournful clean vocal to the tremolo death metal guitar, or closer "Death Dance" with its swaggering, sepulchral bluesy struts in both the intro and bridge; but at the same time, there are a dozen or so guitar progressions here that didn't entirely blow me away. The leads are frenetic and fun, often using a wah wah effect to create a darker groove psychedelia redolent of the death'n'roll niche, and there are definitely points at which Godless took on a tone and atmosphere akin to Entombed's Morning Star or Wolverine Blues. All told, this was also a fraction more enjoyable than Murderer, and worth hearing if you like well scripted death metal with a difference to it, songwriting over brutality, etc. Fans of Dismember, Unleashed, Grave, Gorefest, Desultory, Necrophobic, and Bolt Thrower will no doubt appreciate it.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.facebook.com/deusotiosus.dk

Deus Otiosus - Murderer (2010)

Murderer might only be the first full-length output from Denmark's Deus Otiosus (Withdrawn God), but the band's members have a fair amount of collective experience in other acts like Cerekloth, Hideous Invasion, and the speed/thrashers Victimizer. If you've heard some of those groups, then you'll know that these gentlemen prefer an old school approach to composition, and Murderer is no exception. This is primitive, riff-based death metal with a slight influence from thrash and hardcore, but the guitars and gutturals have an immense amount of punch to them, and they thankfully avoid the trendy, cavernous crawl-core or the outright Swede worship for something more along the lines of Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, or Unleashed with a few traces of their own countrymen Exmortem and Panzerchrist.

I love my riffs, and fortunately so does this band, because each song throttles the listener with at least a few memorable hooks in between some of the simpler, brickhouse punk explosions that provide the framework for excitement. I do feel that the album is front-loaded with most of its better material. For example, "I Have Seen Him Slay" is a swell starting point that showcases everything this band is about: concrete drumming, efficient leads, and copious guitar tone that pummels the note progressions over the top. "Thousand Arms of the Dead" opens with a gut wrenching, war-thrashing riff, and both its closing moments and the entire following track "Wall of Violence" are exhibitions of double bass driven violence. "Ye Pigs of Little Faith" is also a standout on the album, surging between thick thrash chops and moody, plunking bass sequences as it attempts to draw some atmosphere into what is otherwise a level, straightforward sound.

Later on, though, I found some of the material to waver in quality, if not consistency. "Whore Limbs" is a taut death tune with a good breakdown in the bridge, but I didn't get much out of the track "No Life" outside of the bridge/lead. Nor did I really get into the slower bombastic gait of "Ash World", mighty as it might sound. The title track, with rounds out the album, is decent if forgettable, with some pretty uninteresting riffage in the verse and bridge. Of course, writing in such a straightforward style is pretty difficult, since by this day and age so many of the riffs will always feel as if they've been done before, but Deus Otiosus go some lengths to compensate with the loud, rousing production of the record. In all, this is tight execution of 90s death metal serial killer fundamentals with a brawny energy about it that shows some promise. Not entirely original, perhaps, but they lay on the muscle in their tone and dodge a few of the cliches that are currently in overabundance.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/deusotiosus