Deviant “Larvaeon” CD

I recently realized that I don't really own as much death metal as I thought I did, and most of what I've held onto over the years falls into the early-90's classics of the scene's heyday. But every now and then a contemporary death metal release will still catch my ear, and Deviant has done so with "Larvaeon".

Deviant is a relatively young new Swedish band that's only been around since 2002, and "Larvaeon" is their debut release—a full-length for The Spew Records—after a self-titled demo CD in 2003. What you'll find here is a good chunk of raging death metal with plenty of blasting speed and low vocal growls, but no shortage of memorable riffs, and many of the songs hit in bursts of fewer than three to four minutes apiece to keep things moving along. The quick lead breaks and generally intense nature of the material certainly points to the old school death metal classics, but they throw in dashes of frantic technicality or fleeting melodic flirtations more at home in the modern age as well—alongside some slower tempos and thick dissonance that really hits the spot with me. So overall this record achieves a strong balance that should appeal to a wide variety of death metal fans.

Deviant "Immaculate Rancidity"
Deviant "Larvaeon"

Dig it? Then buy that shit:

Relapse Records
Willowtip