Deinonychus

I'm now taking a look at the self-titled fourth album from the year 2000, released by the long defunct Ars Metalli label. Even the simple but extremely effective cover artwork catches the eye; the band logo and album title are placed in the middle of a blurred white-grey-blue shadowy figure, the outlines could represent anything, it's up to the viewer's imagination. Only when the digipack is unfolded or the back cover is looked at does the entire picture become visible, the silhouette of a person working on a crane or similar in some kind of industrial plant becomes blurred and milky. Kehren, who was supported on this album by William Sarginson (also active with Cradle of Filth and The Blood Divine) on drums, convinces once again with his extraordinary vocals, which are characterized by their enormous variety between plaintive screams, profound narrative passages and more aggressive throaty death metal vocals. In contrast to the debut album, the music on this album, which comes with the addition "Deinonychus is about the truth in life..." inside the booklet, no longer has this raw, primal gruffness, but celebrates the darkness in a more subtle way.

The opening track "You Died Before I Was Finished" begins harshly, but then transitions into calm arpeggios accompanied by synthesizers and then breaks out into fast black metal frenzy before the song slowly fades out. It’s precisely the integration of these very quiet passages through sometimes more, sometimes less abrupt, but always fitting and enriching changes that represent a kind of unique selling point of Deinonychus' music. "Inspiring Vulnerable Thought" has a slightly subliminal gothic rock feel with its driving beat, while the following "One Day" is a ponderous, tough doom piece with an extremely resigned, apathetic mood with its interspersed piano cascades. "Building the Paradox" takes a more offensive approach again, and the album, which has a total of eight tracks, ends with "Why Is It That Angels Speak Such Evil?", which begins slowly and extremely elegiac, before turning to restrained, plucked melancholic guitar and synthesiser sounds in the middle of the track and ending with melodic guitar leads.

All in all, this is another absolutely outstanding album from Deinonychus mastermind Marco Kehren, which contains the perfect mixture of doomy black metal heaviness on the one hand and a melancholy, sad, sometimes desperate atmosphere on the other. So if you find traditional black and doom bands too lacking in atmosphere and, on the other hand, bands from the dark and gloomy corner too lax, this album offers the perfect synthesis for you.

originally written for https://systematicdesensitizationzine.blogspot.com

This album can be summed up in two words: weird and depressing. This perhaps one of the weirdest bands I've ever heard. But it's definitely weird in a good way, and it's not funny weird. This is just bizarre-sounding doom metal.
The vocals are very original, unlike anything I've ever heard before. The closest I can compare them to is something like Nattramn from BM band Silencer, except deeper. Some vocals are tormented yells, like a soul being tortured. Other vocals are just straight death metal vocals, except much lower. And others are so deep they hardly sound human. And yet still others are just talking in a very deep voice. And STILL others are clean vocals sung very deep, like Peter Steel of Type O Negative. There are so many different vocal styles on this album it's really amazing.
The songs themselves are incredibly depressing. The guitar work is nothing flashy or show-offy, but it suits the music well. The clean guitar parts and the bass parts are really what stand out. Periodically the drums and heavy guitars will stop and and a clean guitar and/or bass will play some depressive but beautiful sounding arpeggios. Subtle keyboards provide ambience in the background.
Nothing on this album is incredibly fast or heavy, but it doesn't need to be. The music fits exactly what the mood is supposed to be.
My favorite song on this album is definitely "Balaam Wore Black". The song begins with a deep talking voice with a tortured sounding voice mimicking the original vocals in the background - very scary and bizarre.
The song names are very strange as well, "You Died Before I was Finished", "This, A Murder of Crows" and "Why Is it Angels Speak".

Overall this is a very original album that is like nothing else I have heard before. It will make you depressed, but I doubt you'd say they sound too unoriginal. If you are into doom/death metal, Sins of Thy Beloved, Silencer, Bethlehem, Aarni, Nortt, My Dying Bride, or any similar bands, this album may appeal to you.