Hey you! Yeah, you. I’m going to make the assumption that you’re a metalhead, otherwise why the hell would you be here reading this? As a metalhead, I’m more than sure you’ve had to put up with and defend the music you love against attacks from non-metalhead parents, friends and (in)significant others about what you listen to being referred to as nothing more than a bunch of noise. I’ve had this oh-so-clever argument thrown at me since I was a kid and it never fails to get me wondering just what the hell is wrong with the physiological pathways between some people’s ears, brains and mouths.
On the other hand, go ahead and toss on some random goodies by these Costa Rican-via-the Philippines wholesale worshippers of the fictional entity below and, y’know what? Maybe some of the ass-hats on the outer periphery of our social circles have a point. Maybe we not only have to wonder and worry about the flesh and blood and bone human life forms who create the cacophonous maelstrom of sound Deiphago does, but also about how is it that they think what they do is like a regular Wednesday afternoon around the office. Furthermore, what about the likes of me; people who enjoy the band regardless of the fact it can be a painful struggle to listen to? What’s the collective loose screw count up to at this point?
That count is set to only reach higher tallies with the release of the thunderfuckers’ fourth album. To put it mildly, Deiphago at the best of times, sounds like Blasphemy jamming with Brutal Truth at the confluence of a wind tunnel, airplane hanger and shit-soaked sewer from 1986 Belo Horizonte preserved in a mixture of crumbling concrete and jizz lobs from the spiky schlong of Satan himself. Pure chaos. The twister scenes from Twister musically transposed. The outsider art interpretation of a vacuum being gang raped by a jackhammer and a tree shredder. Total fucking blower bass, axe slashing, pounding everything armageddon all done not just in the name of intense worship of the fictional ruler down below, but the plague of eradication her and her cronies are set to unleash on an unsuspecting, but fully deserving, mankind.
Fans of this trio’s brand of sonic mephitis may be dismayed to hear that the Filipino antichrists have made a step up; on Into the Eye of Satan, there’s a more discernible quality to the production value. Definition in (some) parts of Sidapa’s guitar vomitorium exists in the Celtic Frost-ish “Bloodbath of Genocide,” “Serpentine Anti-World” and the machine gunning, Hell Awaits-referenced six-string cilia slaughter of the hilariously titled “(6x6x6)/3.” There’s even instrument separation to be had that has the bass assuming a commanding role somewhere between Voivod’s War and Pain, Black Witchery’s Upheaval of Satanic Might and Lemmy’s tone drowning in bleach and tobacco and being set aflame with a blowtorch.
On the surface, it sounds like a sloppy mess, but the cannon fire drumming acts like a call to arms with ballistic stops and starts that flirt with the precision of 90s tech/chaoscore and death metal blast beats to which a support structure, albeit a completely chaotic one, is erected around the tumult. Deiphago’s latest heads down the slippery slope of becoming more musical while simultaneously pushing the outer reaches of how to become less-musical at the same time. Sidapa’s lead work is pure atonal chaos that can either be a summons to the opening of the Portals of Hell or something to throw your head back and laugh at, depending on your mood. Is he randomly hitting strings and holding frets to create the themes and anti-melodies of “Red Dragon of Chaos” and “Ritual Death of the Enemy” or is there a method to his mascara-ed, bullet-belted madness? What about “Calculated Acts of Cruelty’ which actually sounds cohesive and almost harmonious? Is thist the ultimate act of calculated cruelty in Deiphago’s world? A riff that a transcriber will be able to notate and a detectable layer?
Don’t fret my friends; the chaos remains. It’s just been shifted slightly to the right-of-centre. And we’re laughing at them as much as we’re cowering in fear. Tell all the normal people in your life: yup, it’s fucking noise and I love it.
7/10
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