Sometimes you just know what you are going to get with a band’s new release, before you have even heard a note. It is the notion of a band knowing what they are good at and having no need or even desire to deviate, also known as doing a Motörhead. Case in point is German Death Metallers Deserted Fear, a band who have proven dogged in maintaining their sound for over a decade now. By knowing what to expect the latest album Drowned By Humanity (Century Media) to sound like, the flip side to that coin is that you also know you are in for a raucous time.

Drowned By Humanity dabbles very little in the way of atmosphere, bar the almost obligatory introduction piece, cunningly named ‘Intro’, which chucks enough Gothic overtone and keys to throw newcomers off the scent, before the mid-paced, groove-ridden riff of ‘All Will Fall’ instantly moves in to view. There is a discernible European vibe throughout their sound, with a strong Vader ruggedness in some of their middle paced and rawer songs, whilst the likes of ‘An Everlasting Dawn’ and ‘Reflect The Storm’ bring the guitar tone and melodic sensibilities of early In Flames and Soilwork.

Drowned By Humanity unsurprisingly pulls very few tricks out of its sleeves and ultimately will sound stylistically familiar to most people fond of Death Metal in the last couple of decades, but what it doesn’t offer in innovation nor in complexity, it simply delivers in pure, primal fun. This isn’t an album to be thought-provoking or challenging, but it provides enough hooks and memorable songwriting to repeatedly pull you back in to.

Death Metal has been in a bill of strong health as of late and has seen some of its most evolutionary works in the genre’s history in recent times, but Deserted Fear is proof that there is still plenty of worth and venom in the genre’s more direct artists. Whilst not exactly being a world beater for Death Metal by any stretch, Drowned By Humanity still packs enough punches to leave its mark.

6 / 10

CHRIS TIPPELL