Sunday, March 3, 2024

REVIEW DEINONYCHUS "DEINONYCHUS"

Having already reviewed the absolutely outstanding and extraordinary debut album "The Silence of December" by Deinonychus (read here), I'm now taking a look at the self-titled fourth album from the year 2000, released by the long defunct Ars Metalli label. Even the simple but extremely effective cover artwork catches the eye; the band logo and album title are placed in the middle of a blurred white-grey-blue shadowy figure, the outlines could represent anything, it's up to the viewer's imagination. Only when the digipack is unfolded or the back cover is looked at does the entire picture become visible, the silhouette of a person working on a crane or similar in some kind of industrial plant becomes blurred and milky. Kehren, who was supported on this album by William Sarginson (also active with Cradle of Filth and The Blood Divine) on drums, convinces once again with his extraordinary vocals, which are characterized by their enormous variety between plaintive screams, profound narrative passages and more aggressive throaty death metal vocals. In contrast to the debut album, the music on this album, which comes with the addition "Deinonychus is about the truth in life..." inside the booklet, no longer has this raw, primal gruffness, but celebrates the darkness in a more subtle way.

The opening track "You died before I was finished" begins harshly, but then transitions into calm arpeggios accompanied by synthesizers and then breaks out into fast black metal frenzy before the song slowly fades out. It’s precisely the integration of these very quiet passages through sometimes more, sometimes less abrupt, but always fitting and enriching changes that represent a kind of unique selling point of Deinonychus' music. "Inspiring Vulnerable Thought" has a slightly subliminal gothic rock feel with its driving beat, while the following "One Day" is a ponderous, tough doom piece with an extremely resigned, apathetic mood with its interspersed piano cascades. "Building the Paradox" takes a more offensive approach again, and the album, which has a total of eight tracks, ends with "Why is it that Angels speak such evil?", which begins slowly and extremely elegiac, before turning to restrained, plucked melancholic guitar and synthesiser sounds in the middle of the track and ending with melodic guitar leads. 

All in all, this is another absolutely outstanding album from Deinonychus mastermind Marco Kehren, which contains the perfect mixture of doomy black metal heaviness on the one hand and a melancholy, sad, sometimes desperate atmosphere on the other. So if you find traditional black and doom bands too lacking in atmosphere and, on the other hand, bands from the dark and gloomy corner too lax, this album offers the perfect synthesis for you.