After 13 years, Dååth has returned with their new album, The Deceivers (Metal Blade records).
The band, helmed by sole founding member Eyal Levi, returns to a different musical landscape. Metal has perhaps the most loyal fan base of any genre of music, yet the climate is much different than when the band released their self-titled album in 2010. Death Metal is now more regularly integrated with Black Metal and Metalcore. Record companies often market Pop acts as Metal, depending on the thought police of the internet to defend them with cries of gatekeeping, when voices rise against this.
Levi has been active in the business during the band’s hiatus, making him aware of these changes, rather than conform to them he focused on making highly orchestrated Death Metal.
As the album unfolds, it refuses to conform, blazing its path. Sean Z returns to lend his growl to the proceedings.
Their brand of increasingly symphonic Death Metal might not feel as heavy as the band did back in 2010, but this album’s goal is not to establish themselves as the heaviest Death Metal band in the world.
Instead, they remain true to who they are, bringing in like-minded players, including Jesse Zuretti who handles the orchestration, synths, and some additional guitar. Obscura guitarist Rafael Trujillo adds his chops to the fold. On top of this, the album features a who’s who of guest guitar spots from modern Metal bands, ranging from Ice Nine Kills to Archspire. Rather than giving you a play-by-play on what solo is played by whom, we’ll focus on what matters, which is the songs.
The first two songs play to the band’s strengths with grooves allowing their technical prowess to be displayed in a manner that still serves the song. As the listener travels deeper into the album, the tone finds things leaning in a more progressive direction than in past releases. In finding their place in the current musical climate, fans of today’s progressive or Technical Death Metal will find much of what they are looking for here. They also have catchy, more groove-oriented songs like “The Silent Foray.”
It also marks the second time on this album I notice Sean dropping from a growl into a more spoken section that works to create more sonic colors, even if they are nuanced.
Some of the symphonic passages might bring Dimmu Borgir to mind, though the band has employed synths and electronic elements in the past, this album just takes them to a more cinematic place.
“Purified By Vengeance” almost reaches back to the grooves that infected their first album, making it one of the album’s strongest songs. It balances the head-banging riffs and the more virtuosic spectacle the new lineup leans toward. “Deserving The Grave” splits the difference between the two polarities this album is pulled toward and should appeal to the wider spectrum of metalheads. The waltzing melody haunting the background keeps listeners engaged.
Up to this point, we have avoided talk of guitar solos, but the solo at the end of “Deserving The Grave” is hard to ignore, and if you are going to play a metal solo then that is the way to do it.
The last song shows this album places the band at the forefront of modern Metal guitar playing.
This album proves to be an impressive logical step in the continuity of the band’s sound, paying respect to their past while looking forward. Fans of the band should rejoice as it will live up to expectations. There is an entire generation of young teenage metalheads who were not old enough for the band’s last album, so time will tell how this album sits with that demographic. Overall this is a masterpiece the band should be proud of as the hard work invested in it can be heard.
Buy the album here:
https://www.metalblade.com/daath/
9 / 10
WIL CIFER