April 2026 - Feature Release - The Horde Edition
A new month means it's time for a new feature release for The Horde and this time I'd like to recommend "Path of the Weakening" (1999) from Californian death metallers Deeds of Flesh. This disc was in fact my gateway drug into the world of brutal death metal and remains a beloved favourite. Characterized by a greater emphasis on melodic flow (or an absolute shit-ton of blast-beats & tremolos to put it another way!) "Path of the Weakening" should be a nice entry point for anyone with more of a black metal background looking to dip their toes into this beautiful subgenre.
https://metal.academy/releases/14971
Nice choice. I was a fan of Deeds of Flesh's earlier work during the mid-to-late 1990's but missed "Path of the Weakening" after my defection to the electronic music scene, only discovering it upon returning to metal in 2009. It's a very solid BDM record though & I'd suggest that it's some of their best work. My own band Neuropath is often compared with them.
Deeds of Flesh are a blast. Anyone who admires the technical brutality of Suffocation, Decrepit Birth Dying Fetus or Defeated Sanity would struggle to find much to dislike with the quartet who put together Path of the Weakening. Released at the end of the 90s, this album is played with the vigour of a band releasing their debut album in 1989 or 1990 when the world was just warming up to the wonder of death metal. It is a record that has aged well too, still managing to sound relevant nearly three decades after its release. The band are still active some thirty-three-years after their inception and run Unique Leader Records, the label ran by the late vocalist/guitarist for the band Erik Lindmark.
With my interest in death metal starting to pique again, it is records like this one that remind me of just why I was drawn to this style of music nearly forty years ago. There’s something to be said about bands who can take an already arcane form of music and not only squeeze every drop of brutality from it whilst also keeping things interesting at the same time. On Path of the Weakening, Deeds of Flesh make no attempt to provide any accessibility to proceedings, however. Yet there is a clarity to those riffs. Even though the listener will experience multiple changes to tempo and time throughout the album and individual tracks even, they remain prominent, not being allowed to get lost in the mix or indeed the listeners experience either. Given the barrage of percussion that is going on at times here, this is even more of an achievement. I can see there was a returning drummer on this record and Joey Heatley managed to make an impact on his return without going overboard and dominating proceedings.
There is underlying groove toa lot of these tracks also, again this is something which helps the interest levels for me. Vocally, we are treated to consistent death metal fare. Cruel shrieks dash out at you from seemingly out of nowhere, yet we are never to far away from the guttural gurns that dredge up untold hells from the underworld itself. I am unsure why I have not tapped into Deeds of Flesh before this feature release. I could see as I streamed the record that I had saved one of the tracks (‘Summarily Killed’) to my Liked Songs, which could also easily mean this was a nomination for me in The Horde playlist at some point in the past. Either way, I am glad I have completed the full listening experience now as I may well have found a new cult favourite.
4/5
From the time I first heard 1995's "Gradually Melted" E.P. back in the underground tape trading scene of the mid-1990's, Californian brutal metallers Deeds of Flesh became a regular contributor to my more extreme musical moments. They joined an elite collection of bands who were shaping my musical taste & directing my own creative endeavours as their sound seemed to indicate a close artistic affiliation with my own. A couple of solid full-length albums later, I would drift away from the metal scene for around a decade, only returning to it with any level of commitment in 2009 when I would very quickly attempt to make up for lost ground. In order to find my feet, I wasted no time in catching up with the five subsequent albums that Deeds of Flesh had released during my defection with this third record "Path of the Weakening" being the most well-known of them. That experience would see me returning to the album semi-regularly over the years as it's never failed to deliver in terms of tight, relentless brutal death metal, a style that perhaps speaks to me more than it does to the majority of extreme metalheads out there.
Deeds of Flesh had been a band for around six years by the time "Path of the Weakening" hit the shelves, having been put together by guitarist/vocalist Erik Lindmark (Disgorge), bassist Jacoby Kingston & drummer Joey Heaslet back in 1993. Heaslet had taken some time out after 1996's "Trading Pieces" debut album, only to return again & replace Brad Palmer (Scythe) who had only contributed to the one full-length release in 1998's "Inbreeding the Anthropophagi". "Path of the Weakening" also saw Deeds of Flesh bolstering their sonic arsenal with a second guitarist in Jim Tkacz who had formerly been a member of fellow Californian brutal death metallers Vile, giving Deeds of Flesh a four-piece lineup for the first time. The results are very impressive too with the group pulling off a precision display full of tightly-executed death metal riffage, complete with techy rhythmic ideas & a plethora of high-quality palm-muted, tremolo-picked riffs. The album would be self-produced so it's not terribly glossy with the guitar tone perhaps lacking a touch of brightness but there's no doubt that it suited the bands image & concept at the time which was important given that "Path of the Weakening" would be the first release for Deeds of Flesh's own record label Unique Leader records.
The tracklisting on "Path of the Weakening" is seriously consistent with the boys generally sticking to a fairly limited formula. It certainly works though as I don't find myself waiting around for more restrained tempos until they drop the only slower tune right at the end in closer "A Violent God". Opener "Indigenous to the Appalling (Mutinous Human)" is an absolutely fantastic example of the BDM genre & is arguably Deeds of Flesh's signature tune to this day. I don't think that any of the other eight songs included ever get close to reaching those lofty heights again but they also never hint at dropping below a very solid degree of quality either so I never feel my interest waning. There are no wanky guitar solos or generic slam sections to be found here as Deeds of Flesh clearly possess a deep understanding of what it is that they're trying to achieve. Heaslet's drumming can be a little repetitive but his execution is really strong so it's hard to be too critical while Lindmark's dark death growl is unanimously effective in taking the listener to the darker end of the metal spectrum.
Ultimately, Deeds of Flesh have produced the sort of death metal that I find myself craving most on this record & have done a great job at it too. Perhaps the riffs aren't consistently catchy or unique enough to see me ever being tempted to claim "Path of the Weakening" as a classic release but I'm never left wanting either. A bit more variety of tempo would perhaps have added another dimension to the album but it's hard to complain about a release that so clearly & emphatically champions the same cause that I myself once promoted myself.
For fans of Defeated Sanity, Suffocation & Disgorge.
4/5