Unique Leader has been one of my favorite labels for a long time, and any of their outputs are one that I know I must listen to regardless of the band, as most everything they put out generally ranges from good to great. Italian tech-death outfit Deceptionist have their debut album on such a prestigious label, so along the line they must have impressed someone as such an achievement tends to be much more the exception than the rule. Unfortunately in this case, Deceptionist fall below the good mark, much more so into the very average category.
The lyrical theme for the album is one of a time in the future where robots turn on their human makers, and what that type of sceniario would entail. It’s an interesting idea, and follows along the sci-fi path that a good number of tech-deathers have chosen to focus on over the past few years. Unfortunately, it’s a neat idea, but the music is quite boring. Vocalist Andrea Di Traglia is an absolute dead ringer for Cannibal Corpse’s lead singer George Fisher, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely nothing unique. You get the pre-requisite frenetic drum work and riffs that aren’t crazy technical or over-noodly by any means, but much more than your average death metal output. The production is solid, befitting an output on such a quality label.
The album overall has a very Decrepit Birth-light feel to it, however this quartet will need a lot more work if they want to be mentioned in the same category with them. Most of the songs hover around the 3-4 minute mark, with the whole album just above 35 minutes. Easily the most annoying part of the whole album was track 8, “Industrivolutionaction”, which features a warning siren in the background of the song, and instead of fading out goes on through the WHOLE DAMN SONG. Once was enough for that track and I couldn’t wait to hit skip on subsequent listens. Give this LP a try as something to get you by before the next big Unique Leader release, but don’t expect too much when you do so.
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