Follow: Bandcamp // Facebook
Label: Candlelight Records US // EU // Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal
Release Date: 14-07-2023
I am not the biggest fan of the phrase “It riffs” as a justification for rating an album highly. On the one hand, an album “having riffs” is meaningless, as many very bad albums would qualify as a success by that measure. And on the other hand, many metalheads seem to misunderstand what a riff is—or have no actual definition at all. If we assume that a riff is a repeated, rhythmically identifiable pattern that accompanies a song and its vocals, then indeed a lot of metal doesn’t riff anymore. Particularly, Black Metal is very willing to completely drop rhythmic interest a lot of the time and become a thick, soupy soundscape of trebly tremolo and monotonous blast beats only elevated by the type of out-of-genre influence added to it. Deitus connected with me because, other than the Black Metal acts I just described, there is rhythmic interest but at the same time, the band feels little need to leave the boundaries of what black metal is.
Deitus in some ways harkens back to a time when the second wave started to experiment, but before Cascadian Black Metal and Atmoblack turned white academic hipsters on to the genre. The band reminds me of Satyricon’s Nemesis Divina and Rebel Extravaganza in particular, a continuation of that style. There is a slight Death and Thrash influence rounding off the material and it has a rocking, fighting quality to it, especially in how the band approaches guitar solos with a ballsy, Black ‘n’ Roll attitude. The material manages to be both dark and heroic sounding, maintaining a good grasp of both melody and song flow. Experiments like the female vocal-led “Voyeur”, a quasi-Wicca occultist influencer, round off the package of an album that has very little to complain about but a lot to love.
Rating: 7/10
