Deinonychus was one of the early trailblazers when it came to fusing the raw, abrasive qualities of black metal and crushing weight and atmosphere of doom. Throughout their initial fifteen year run the group shifted from album to album, sometimes bringing in more of a depressive black metal sound while other times letting the tonality come closer to death/doom and funeral doom. Following Warfare Machines in 2007, founder Marco Kehren would lay the band to rest for a decade before returning with Ode to Acts of Murder, Dystopia and Suicide. That effort saw him teaming up with drummer Steve Wolz and Empyrium’s Ulf Theodor Schwadorf for an album that recalled Deinonychus’ ugly and abrasive black metal roots while also retaining the denser doom tonality of more recent efforts. That lineup has been retained for this year’s Fatalist, which continues from the foundation laid by its predecessor and somehow manages to get even uglier and twisted.
Given the title of the previous album, it’s quite the achievement that Fatalist comes off as bleaker and more destructive as you listen. Opener “Prays to God, Sleep with the Devil” gives you a good idea of the type of journey you’re in for with this material, as despite its slower and methodical pacing the crushing low-end, abrasive edges of the guitar, and haunting keyboards keep a sense of tension that makes it feel as though you’re heading into an increasingly more dangerous place. It’s an effective piece of black metal and doom that seamlessly takes the skull crushing density of the latter and fuses in the abrasive, barbed wire laden riffs of the former, and even when things fade out and then shift towards a bit more melody the tension doesn’t let up. From there Deinonychus moves between more black metal forward compositions and doom-oriented ones. The title track is a more direct and faster attack that’s very second wave sounding, but the keyboards inject a bit more nuance to the performance. “The Human Heart is a Cemetery” and “Beast Throne” approach the opposite end of the spectrum, peeling back the colder black metal in favor of low-tuned riffs and a booming sound that’s somewhere between death/doom and funeral doom. Fatalist comes across like a natural culmination of the styles Kehren and company have explored to date, but it still makes tweaks to the tone and transitions in ways that are different. The production also plays a large part in making the material effective, as Schwadorf has ensured that the sound is bleak and jagged without obscuring some of the finer details. Admittedly both “A Cross to Bear With Sorrow” and “Lucifer I Witness” are a bit overstretched and start to run out of steam before their conclusion, but the bulk of the material avoids this issue and keeps the listener on the edge of their seat.
Whether you’re familiar with Deinonychus’ back catalog or have heard Marco Kehren on Bethlehem’s 1998 album Sardonischer Untergang im Zeichen irreligiöser Darbietung, the extremity of Kehren’s vocal performance is a constant you can expect from anything he’s involved in. Fatalist is no different as within the first few minutes you’re met with tortured shrieks, screams, and everything in between. The performance itself has a considerable amount of intensity and grittiness, but it’s also bolstered by the mixing/mastering as the vocals tower above the dense instrumentation without completely overpowering it. There’s also quite a bit of variety from one song to the next, as “Prays to God, Sleep with the Devil” has some of the most psychotic sounding gurgles and screams while “A Cross to Bear With Sorrow” uses more spoken word mixed in with the screams to maintain the tension. When it comes to anything black metal adjacent, this more tortured and violent approach complements the music well and helps to set bands apart.
Deinonychus may not be quite as widely recognized as some of the other black metal bands of this type that formed later in the 90s, but three decades later they continue to deliver music that draws you in with equal amounts of bleak, tense atmosphere and pure violence. This latest effort builds naturally upon its 2017 predecessor, showing that this latest incarnation of the group continues to branch out while sounding just as razor sharp as in their earlier days. It may have a few moments that run for longer than they need to, but this doesn’t take away too much from the impact and this album is worth diving into for those who like the bleaker, nihilistic side of the genre. Fatalist is available from Ván Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg