Every now and then, a decent progressive technical band from Canada pops up in my life, and here we have Deviant Process from Québec. “The container is more important than the contents”, proclaims the guitarist. I like that. With tech metal bands the moment of complex brilliance can be over dominant, and you lose sight of the whole thing. For “the container” I read the whole structure. Nice line and hopefully nice album. Let’s find out.
The meaty “In Worship, In Blood” opens the album. It’s a complex affair and bewildering, especially for an opener. There’s no gentle easing-in here. Colourful instrumental work accompanies a growly wall of noise, slowing down only at the end as the song deliberately and for the first time runs out of battery. Creepy guitar vibes, not unlike Ephel Duath, start off “Emergence”, but the pace and layers of complexity soon crank up and it’s a mass of colourful drumming and flailing guitars. An epic moment threatens towards the end but passes away unexploited. The lyrics are dark and provide little illumination. This evidently is the theme as “Asynchronous” is similar, as its title suggests. Musically it is highly charged and of course strongly technical, but in spite of the colour it is dark and sinister as it rumbles along like a heavy and violent storm. So does “The Hammer of Dogma”. The problem for me here is that it has all the ingredients – the energy, the power, the flourishing technicality, the tempo change – but having worked through this formula, I was struggling to work out what this all led up to. Behind the thunderous and growly darkness, the music is like a winding road. “Syrtis Magna” builds up nicely and takes us down this sophisticated road, indulging in rare delicate fantasy and mixing it with more customary ferocity. The self-indulgence is fine but it was sending me into a stupor as if the band had run out of ideas. We’re soon back on our journey down the dark and twisty path. You can’t fault Deviant Process for range of content. “Homo Homini Deus” is fast and furious, but also progressive in the way of Opeth. “The Blessings of Annihilation Infinite” reminded me of “The Hammer of Dogma” – there’s something of everything here and it’s all very impressive technically and in-your-face. If as a listener I want energy and skill, it’s here but what’s missing was anything epic or magnetic. It’s too rich to be just a song but I’m not connecting anything other than a bunch of guys playing flamboyant metal music. At the end there is a cover of an old Obliveon song “Cybervoid”. It’s well done, and interestingly the song has a character which I felt was missing from Deviant Process’s own creations.
“Nurture” is a decent album but I’m not sure if Deviant Process know what they want to be, or maybe they’re not communicating it. As a listener, I’m at odds with what the guitarist said. There’s plenty of ethereal content here, and so I was dazzled by the technical virtuosity as anyone could be, but I couldn’t really tell you what the goods were in the container.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
Leave a Reply