I had never heard of the Deviant before, but it said extreme metal, so I signed up for reviewing it. Not knowing what to expect and having no info on the promo or accompanying the promo I just pushed play… I was immediately blown away!!

 

A short search on the internet teaches me the Deviant is from Norway, came out of the ashes of 122-Stabwounds and almost everyone in the band used to play in Gehenna. E.N. Death and Blod played in both bands, Dolgar played in Gehenna (still does actually). Since I hadn’t heard anything about Gehenna for a while I assumed the band died a silent death, but it appears Sanrabb used to be part of the Deviant as well, but decided to focus on Gehenna again and released the black metal masterpiece WW in 2005.

 

Confusing? Never mind. I’ll start writing about Ravenous Deathworship now.

 

The Deviant sound like more modern Norwegian bands: an aggressive, dark mixture of death and black metal with an unbelievable fat sound. Names that come to mind: Zyklon (without industrial parts), Immortal (last 2 albums), Gehenna (quiet obvious), Khold (some of the slower parts) and Blood Red Throne. Yes indeed, this is typical Norwegian metal at it’s best!

 

I love the drum sound, very up front in the mix and really ass-kicking. Guitar riffs are catchy without losing impact. A fat bass sound and screaming guitar solo’s. Vocals that sound a lot like Abbath (Immortal.) (According to a friend of mine the vocals sound like Angelcorpse, but I’m not too familiar with their music, so I stick with Abbath.)

 

I don’t know what else to say…

This might very well become one of my favourite extreme metal albums of all time, also because of the great production. Right up there with Mysery Index’s Retalliate, Pig Destroyer’s Prowler in the yard and Zyklon’s World of Worms. I think that’s about the biggest compliment I personally could make about an album.