Warfare Machines

Wars tend to follow a pattern. Beginning amid a maelstrom of military shock and awe, virulent public outrage and round the clock media coverage, they inevitably lose steam; drained of monumentum as generals switch brute force for strategy, the media turn elsewhere and the public loses interest. In this respect, Deinonychus’ latest opus of blackened doom, an album entirely devoted to war, is a perfect example of form matching content.

Things begin promisingly enough as first song proper, “Carpet bombing”, kicks off with the sort of grim, mid-paced assault of double-bass drum precision that Samael perfected on “Ceremony of opposites”. But having crafted a great riff, Deinonychus have no idea what to do with it and the song lives up to it’s name; pounding away aimlessly until it decides to give up and fade away. The album plods on from there, with very little distinguish one song from another, though the ferocious attack on “MG-34” does spice things up briefly.

While competent, Deinonychus spend too much time wavering noncommittally in a no-man’s land between doom and black metal and the result is more distillation. Inevitably, “Warfare machines” ends up sounding safe and predictable.

One thing I need to point out straight away- these guys have a really good band name. Why isn't there a metal band called 'Velociraptor'? Basically, what I am saying is we need a lot more dinosaur-related band names.

Deinonychus share some traits with their carnivorous dinosaur namesake, as well, but these aren't all positive. Deinonychus try their best to sound brutal, and from a quick glance they definitely seem so, but after a bit of a look into the band (and the dinosaur) it seems that despite all the anger and the impressive bone structure the reality is a lot more boring then you'd hoped. However, it's not all terrible, as there as some redeeming features of both the dinosaur and the band.

Lets talk about the two Deinonychus's, then, and compare some features.

Speed.
The Deinonychus has gained a reputation as one of the fastest dinosaurs in existence. Early estimates of femur bone length by archaeologists predicted a very fast moving dinosaur, similiar to the modern Ostrich in speed. Movies like Jurassic Park helped encourage the idea that the Deinonychus was a very fast dinosaur, capable of very quick acceleration and incredibly sprinting speeds.

Unfortunately, it turns out that it;s not quite the case. Indeed, the Deinonychus was not very fast compared to other dinosaurs, and certainly not as fast as the ostrich. A good way to see this is with the foot-tibia ratio. In modern, fleet-footed birds like the ostrich, the foot-tibia ratio is .95. In unusually fast-running dinosaurs like Struthiomimus, the ratio is .68, but in Deinonychus, the ratio is .48. Thus, the Deinonychus isn't anywhere near as fast as you'd hope.

Luckily, Deinonychus are capable of some pretty good bursts of speed. While for the most part the band resembles a sauropod more then anything else, when they get galloping it's a pretty impressive sight. 'Mg-34', probably named after some sort of machine gun, is quite fast and really apocalyptic, basically turning the whole thing into a big storm of black metal. Unfortunately, like many animals (and perhaps the Deinonychus), they couldn't keep the speed up for very long before sinking back into the same mid paced plod. Oh well.

Predatory Behaviour
The Deinonychus was originally thought to have a pretty devestating method of getting it's prey, allegedly gripping its prey with its talons while delivering disemboweling slashes with its sickle claws. That's pretty sweet. The name doesn't mean 'Terrible Claw' for nothing.

Unfortunately, as with most things about this dinosaur, the truth to it is a lot more disappointing. Turns out that their big claws were not used to slash but rather to deliver small stabs to the victim. LAME.

The band doesn't do much better. While original appearances suggest a rather violent death at the hands of these guys, it's not quite as good as you'd hope. After the huge, dismembering riffs of Carpet Bombing, the whole thing just gets fairly slow and boring, very depressing, sure, but for a dark depressed feeling there's plenty of other bands that do it better. Everything's pretty painful and brutal, but it's closer to get stabbed lots then getting disemboweled. A pity.

So basically these two Deinonychus's are actually quite crap, despite initial appearances to the contrary. However, not everything about these guys (and dinosaur) are bad, so lets try to be positive.

Cool things about these guys

The Deinonychus, despite it's many various faults and general crappy ness, is a pretty important dinosaur. Before the discovery of it, dinosaurs were generally thought of as large, plodding giants.. basically the only thing going for them was the fact that they were really freaking huge. However, the discovery of a small, agile predator revolutionised the way scientists thought about dinosaurs. There has also been speculation about the whether the Deinonychus was warm blooded, which has ignited a lot of controversy about that as well. Basically, the Deinonychus made dinosaurs interesting again, which can only be a totally awesome thing.

Deinonychus, meanwhile, also have their plus points. Sure, their whole 'mid paced dirge' thing gets old fast, but these guys have their moments, and when they get their sound right, it's a fearsome thing indeed. 'Carpet Bombing' has some really, really huge riffs, quite memorable and quite unique- not totally out of left field, but the fact that I don't know how to describe them is surely a good thing. The vocalist has some champion growls, all low and hoarse and full of disgust. 'Mg-34' and 'Nerve Agent' are both also worth mentions being full of huge riffs and general disgust of mankind. It's also good to see a band follow it's own sound- while there's nothing groundbreaking here, there aren't too many bands that sound like this, which can only be a good thing. If they keep working at it they could be awesome (or perhaps they were awesome in previous albums, I dunno.)

SO, to conclude.

Deinonychus is a pretty disappointing dinosaur. Despite him looking like some awesome predator dude, turns out he's more like a bird with a big claw. Nonetheless, he was pretty instrumental in creating a lot of new interest for Dinosaurs, so I should go easy on him.

50%

Deinonychus is a pretty disappointing band. Initial appearances suggest a fearsome slab of heavy, dark doom-y stuff, but after the first few songs it all gets pretty boring. Has it's moments, though, and these guys sound pretty passionate. Perhaps their other albums sound better.

55%.





Note: I got all my Deinonychus (the dinosaur) facts off Wikipedia. If I am wrong don't blame me, go to Wikipedia and correct it so that others don't make the same mistake.