Deception continue their journey with a new album.
Three years after their last release, Sindre Wathne Johnsen (guitar/vocals, Blood Red Throne, Celestial Scourge, Todesking), Einar Petersen (drums, ex-Sverdkamp), Marius Ofstad (bass, Lysjakt) and Hans Jakob Bjørheim (guitar, Celestial Scourge, Vorbid) announce Daenacteh, their fourth album.
The album kicks off with Sulphur Clouds, where heavy theatrical orchestrations set the tone for aggressive Melodic Death, to which wild vocal parts are added. The band fully embrace their majestic Swedish roots, just as they do on King of Salvation, which quickly follows with mysterious influences that perfectly fit in the surge, while reinforcing its contrast with the devastating basis. Abrasive leads and visceral screams also play their part, before Iblis’ Mistress allows us a moment’s respite with its piano, followed in turn by heaviness and raw power. The harmonious, haunting approach gives way to a more modern, jerky pattern, then the final abandons us to the distressing sounds of Assailants, which once again anchors itself in heaviness while offering distant, intriguing melodies to complement the vocal eruptions. Once again, Monophobic follows with modern elements coupled with an Old School basis, letting its rhythm welcome the impressive keyboards as it steadily accelerates while Dhariyan develops even more enigmatic backing vocals in mystical parts that stand in stark contrast to the accelerations with their grandiose Symphonic roots. The track is relatively long, but comes to an end to allow Be Headed On Your Way to place its almost cybernetic parts to give the song a technical aspect without forgetting its omnipresent violence, then it’s with the very copious Daughters of the Desert and its ten minutes of jerky Prog patterns mixed with the band’s usual massive tonalities that the album comes to an end, allowing the four musicians to close this fourth chapter in grand style thanks to the richness of their universe as melodious as it is uncompromising, while reserving a short break for us.
Whether Daenacteh was my first contact with Deception, it certainly won’t be my last! The album is overpowering, blending a modern approach to impressive Symphonic Death with more raw, Old School passages. A real gem!
90/100