Deviser - Seasons of Darkness
Holy hell, Deviser is back! The last new material from this Greek Black Metal horde was 2002’s Running Sore album (a CD reissue of the band’s 1996 demo followed the next year), so I was surprised to see this, but very pleasantly so. There is more than a little experimentation to be found on Seasons of Darkness, both vocally and musically. The album intro, “MMXII,” is kind of Techno/Industrial, and there are hints of that sprinkled very sporadically throughout the album. Matt’s normal vocal strategy is raw and raspy, but he also uses a… I guess I’ll say “Gothic Metal” clean voice sometimes, that is generally deep and depressing. At times I’m reminded of Cemetary’s Godless Beauty album, although this isn’t that Rock-oriented, except some guitar solos. There is also somewhat of an almost subliminal Katatonia influence occasionally, and it would probably be impossible for a Grecian band to not be inspired by the dark gods of the abyss, Rotting Christ and Varathron, to at least some degree. From the very beginning, Deviser has always known how to write haunting riffs and create baleful atmospheres, which is essentially perfected here, but every now and then the clean vocals get in the way. A prime example is the beginning of the song “I Die.” The first 45 seconds or so are absolutely beyond belief, and then the clean vocals kick in. It isn’t that they’re executed poorly, because they’re not at all; it’s just a sudden, jarring change. Repeated listens help, but that was quite a shock the first time through. A better use is in the double-tracked clean/whispered-raw vox of “Angel of Darkness,” which really add a disturbing quality to the ominous song. Rare vocal imperfections and even rarer musical quirks aside, Seasons of Darkness is a complex, impressive return for Deviser.
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