Dehuman [Belgium]
Black Throne of All Creations
2012
Full Length
Kaotoxin Records
Death Metal
My exposure to Belgian extreme metal has been rather limited, with the few bands that I have encountered so far being rather impressive, such as Enthroned and the related project, Emptiness. Dehuman hails from the same lands, and with Black Throne of All Creations the band unleashes their brand of death metal. With the album being around 5 years in the making after their first demo in 2007, naturally expectations can be rather high.
The melodic approach that the band takes in their style of death metal is immediately obvious as the album opens with Apocalypse and Perdition, with an extremely melodic lead section that introduces the listener to what would be the band's style to come for the rest of the album. However, it doesn't take long before the band goes into full speed, and Andrea's Martin Van Drunen-styled howling vocals brings in the aggressive edge to the music. Throughout the album, the band often fuses the speed and brutality provided by drummer Laye and melodies by guitarists Matthias and Raphael together, into a rather progressive brand of death metal. The progressive elements are further heard on the odd time signatures that can be incorporated at times, and the shifts in pace that the band often includes on their songs, constantly throwing surprises at the listener. Eyes of a Thousand, for instance, contains some of the heaviest moments on the album with the doom-pace and the heavy chugging, and presents a pretty different sound from the rest of the album.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of impact in the album, as the album rather long to really build to its climax, and the band often breaks the pace and flow of what would have been powerful songs when least expected, such as on Apocalypse and Perdition, breaking the train of though in the listener and resulting in the song sounding rather messy and aimless. Furthermore, the band sounds rather suppressed on the album, and this mainly due to the polished production quality. Though the instruments all get to shine on the album due to this, the true energy and aggression that is contained in the band cannot be truly unleashed.
Black Throne of All Creations, while not exactly an appealing album, is nothing offensive though. There are moments on the album that are really enjoyable and would attract fans of the more melodic style of death metal. That said, the album is still, a rather good release for a band's debut.
Dehuman on the internet:
MySpace
Kaotoxin Records
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