Deceased... - As the Weird Travel On (2005)^{Release ID: 4106}

This is my first experience with material from this band Deceased. Many fans of the band might have discovered them as early as 1997's Fearless Undead Machines, but I've only just found this band via this album As the Weird Travel On, almost two decades after its release. It's a weird yet great and underrated gem that mixes pieces of speed metal, heavy metal, and death metal into their own brand of deathly thrash, worshipping horror films and literature in their lyrics are aesthetic, while staying more underground than the buried dead. It's amazing how this band can be at the height to their evolution despite not releasing any full albums in the 80s.

Though this album is far past when mixing death metal with thrash could be considered a milestone, this is quite a timeless sound, one that I have much more leeway for now than in my more melodic teenage years. There's more complex structure in the heaviness and melody, without going technical or progressive. Half the amount of songs each range from 6 to 8 minutes in length. The riffs and different tempos are catchy, though sometimes predictable. Still there are fresh things that often appear like a great rhythm, a tasteful lead, or background keyboards in the gloomy night. Guitar duo Mark Adams and Mike Smith do some grade-A leads and solos that are close to Guardians territory, but you're still reminded about the album's rightful place in The Horde and The Pit. In fact, fans of Morbid Angel might like this more than fans of DragonForce.

"The Kept" opens the album, blazing through a hypnotizing 8 minutes. This can mark a modern classic, sounding joyful yet menacing. There's barely any gloomy atmosphere, instead just metal triumph as their deathly thrash throne still stands. "The Funeral Parlour's Secret" has bit of a progressive structure like Opeth, though the sound stays nice and firm at their usual deathly thrash. The intense hyperspeed of "A Witness to Suspiria" is filled with rock-on rhythms while firing away with deathly blast beats, all performed by drummer Dave Castillo. RIP

"Unwanted Memories" has an unwanted intro, but it's made up for by the killer deathly thrash, a mix of brutality and melody that metalcore band Hatebreed would adopt in later albums. "Missing a Pulse" also mixes the melody of old-school Voivod with the heaviness and speed of Demolition Hammer. "Craving Illness" has a post-apocalyptic-sounding intro, though the walking dead rises in a vicious eruption to tear any human survivors apart.

"A Visit from Dread" is perhaps my favorite highlight of this album. Right from the start, aggressive riffing crashes through with some melodic mid-tempo parts, and you will be headbanging right through the catchy chorus. After some heavy rhythm, a guitar solo plays that is one of the most haunting I've heard in the more extreme genres, even more so with the background synths. That song has everything you could ask for in deathly thrash, not just in the top-notch riffing. "Fright" is the intriguing 8-minute closing epic, though it can't beat the darkness of the previous track.

All in all, As the Weird Travel On can pin your back to the wall with blissful yet destructive horror-film-inspired deathly thrash metal. The ghastly lyrics accompany the melodeath/speed metal parts melded into their highly unique sound. Some might think of this as an Iron Maiden-ized Rigor Mortis or a more melodic Merciless. Quite accurate, though King Fowley and co. keep themselves steady in their unique direction of genuine coherence. And they certainly add more fame to the Swedish death metal sound despite being from America. I would've never had the courage to explore this band, album, or metal genres a decade before this review, but now I do. It's great to hear such energetic speed with different ideas of horror, like Helloween but far more brutal. So get ready for this f***ing fright night, metalheads!

Favorites: "The Kept", "A Witness to Suspiria", "Missing a Pulse", "A Visit from Dread"