Danish blackened death thrash merchants, Deus Otiosus return with their 3^rd full length, Rise, and second album with the awesome Deepsend Records. When Graham told me he had signed them a few years ago I had just purchased their 2010 debut, Murderer. To this day I still feel this is their best album. A monstrous display of blackened death/thrash that differs quite a bit from their crunchy sounding death metal brethren from their country. The album is incredibly catchy and one of my faves in the genre. Their second album, Godless, increased the speed on certain songs, adding blast beats and the lyrical content of this album is just incredible. Another homerun of a release and one of the best to come out in 2012. So where does Rise fit? At this stage of the game Deus Otiosus know what type of genre they are in and while they add a few new twists, they know what they like and they do it exceedingly well.

With a line-up intact since the second album I think this helps in making the band gel a little more. “Iron Rule” begins with a nice blast beat that goes into their signature stylized blackened death/thrash gallop. The production on this album is their best yet, with the guitars coming out clean and raw. Henrik coming up with some memorable riffs as usual. Anyway the tune benefits from tempo shifts with faster parts and than around that 2min mark the guitar riffing having a heavy black metal edge to it, however Anders comes roaring in to let us all know his voice has gotten deeper and he is here to rip your soul apart. The song eventually gets into some faster territory and guitar melodies that are just evil personified. The 4min mark repeats an earlier riff that is so old school, has an awesome 80’s feel to it. “Vultures”, at 5minutes, incorporates a little bit of a different style to the mix. Kept to a mid paced crawl, this song screams headbang! I cannot tell you how many times I have cranked this tune up and just headbanged constantly to the riffing and drum pattern on this particular track. It’s infectious and really calls to mind all those memorable riffs back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Such a delight to hear this track and so happy a track this great was created by Deus Otiosus. Love it!

The album cover continues along with the black/white imagery, like their last 2 efforts. This one has some ginormous ocean monstrosity rising from the depths to create some tsunami or something against a harsh dark sky landscape. The booklet is nicely designed, with lyrics and I love the group pose, a little goofy, the band trying to display their evilness, but I always smile at pictures like these. So there you have it, one of the best albums of 2014 and my favorite Deepsend release for 2014, thus far. Deus Otiosus have unleashed a scorcher of an album, in Rise, with no intent on slowing down and just creating kick ass albums, the band continues to set themselves apart from the pact due to them having an original sound. So pick this bad boy up or be prepared to Stand up and Fight!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments