Year: 2019
Total Time: 47:21
Label: Century Media
The German trio are releasing their fourth full-length effort, entitled “Drowned By Humanity”, which is classified as Melodic Death Metal, thus paying tribute to their northern Scandinavian neighbors, with a release seeking to declare who DESERTED FEAR are.
The German band plays an AT THE GATES genre, in the sense that it is traditional Death metal, but grafted on to some of the most modern metalcore elements, mainly in vocals and having melody as their main ingredient. It has a flawless production, mainly a pure one, but not entirely, designed to capture the mood of “Slaughter Of The Souls”, editing it through a more modern perspective. Their motive in their music is the following one: Fast, aggressive and sharp riffs, but also melodic ones(“tribute to NWOSDM”) and the necessary Swedish pseudo-solos within the tracks. The much-known vocals are also present(albeit via a more Metalcore prism), while the band plays mainly at mid-tempo during this disc, but having some fast elements as well(for example, “Reflecting Soul”). The well-known melodic, tranquil intro is also here, and the intense melodic audio interlude, all of them surrounded by a Death Metal chariot trying to melt everything in its path. We can hear some very fine attempts, especially the first tracks, with which the band tries to identify its sound and it’s originality. We hope they succeed into that, because they show some great potential for sure and going forward we can. All of the songs blend in harmonically also. The fact that the disc is a kind of exceeding in duration a bit, does not help all that much, but the quality is super great in the first half and very good in the second one and the whole album is sick!
AT THE GATES are a landmark band in this genre, and they are the ones who have put many of us on the extreme paths of Metal, so any effort that goes into this genre that has a good production and a quality sound, makes us have a good time listening to it. Since we’re talking about a Century Media band, it couldn’t be less than that. But it is much more than the minimum we could bare. Recommended for anyone who loves NWOSDM, but only them. Don’t wait to hear something groundbreaking, “Drowned By Humanity” is a long way off. The Thomas Lindberg-meets-Marcus Bischoff vocals tries to do the trick to modernize the genre, but in the end what is left is the quality, which is great and the atmosphere that has the necessary rotting theme that a Death Metal band need to have, with some modern elements that will make you want to endlessly headbang!
Rating: 8/10
Editor: George K.
Related Link: DESERTED FEAR – Official Page
