Deeds of Flesh - Mark Of The Legion (2001)

If you are not familar with Deeds of Flesh at this point I recommend clicking out of this review and go pick up 'Inbreeding the Anthropophagi' or 'Path of the Weakening.' Both of which I find superior albums of this deeds era.This album I deemed as the begining of their current phase of a bit more techincal direction. It was still plenty of classic riffs tremlos that they utilized in their first albums but there was def a slight shift in some more inventive riff ideas and dare say tempo changes. Overall the album is a classic constant roll of double bass as the guitars gut and churn out thick nasty lurching palm mutes and tremlo pick bursts. Vocals hold down the standard low dry gurgle, not extremely energetic sounding till it's paired up with the higher back ups, but def is more than adequate. There is nice bit of duel guitar play instead of all the stringed instruments hammering along side of each other. Makes the riffs sound all the more 'ill' sounding so to speak. [1]

Here we have another mind blowing CD from the kings themselves. Everyone knows that Deeds of Flesh means fast, brutal and technical metal. Well this CD is definitely not an exception. Chunky guitars, mega fast drumming and sick deep grunts make this CD what it is.The drummer has incredible stamina and his blast beats are not to be taken lightly. Fast picking riffs are used to add some melody to the songs whilst heavy/meaty riffs are used to keep it sick and brutal. The only bad thing is that some riffs may tend to be a bit similar to each other. They repeat the same riff quite a number of times in the same song but do it in a way that it sounds great.Sound quality and production of this album are pretty good. The cover art is once again by Jon Zig, and one can easily notice by the cover art that the theme of this album is based on warfare. [2]

The production on this album has one major flaw and it's that the snare is way too quite. It's like the ever disappearing snare. When I pulled it out this morning and was listening to it in my truck it took till the third song for the snare to make a significant impact in the mix. Such care was taken to make sure you can hear every nunance in the guitars as far as their picking patterns and squeals. The kicks sound fantastic and the cymbals and toms are great and clear, it's just like they turned the snare down I guess afraid it might be distracting. Marring an almost perfect deeds release. The other distraction is in the middle of 'Spewing the Profligacy' the oddly placed spoken word sample. Does nothing to further the song and just about cuts it into two for no reason other than to do so. [1]

My favored track out of all is 'Fullfilled in Warface' has all the classic riffing from their older days, plenty of pinched harmonics, duel guitar interplay, doubled up high and low vocal sections all wrapped up in the shortest song on the entire album. If you are to listen to any track on this album to get a taste of what the rest sounds like I highly recommend this one as a starting off point and then dive into the longer tracks for more delightful meaty death. [1]

Tracks

1. Cleansed by Fire
2. An Eternity of Feasting and Brawling
3. Mark of the Legion
4. Spewing Profligacy
5. Fulfilled In Warfare
6. Contest of Wills
7. Master of Murder
8. Ideal Genocide
9. Drink the Blood

If you like it, please buy it on their official website/merchandise.

Deeds of Flesh - Mark Of The Legion (2001)

This review published on Metallum by shaolinlambkiller and pestilent
Source [1] [2]