Kev Rowland

Zero Tolerance Magazine have always been big supporters of De Profundis and so, when discussions turned to how best to celebrate the first ten years of the band’s recording history, they decided to give something back to their loyal fans and the avid readers of the magazine. Rather than release their retrospective compilation, ‘Decayed: 2007 – 2017’, in the usual manner, De Profundis chose to work with Zero Tolerance to give 10,000 copies away, free, with every newsstand copy of issue 79 of the prestigious magazine. ‘Decayed...’ features nine remastered songs selected from across the De Profundis discography and one exclusive new track, “An Orgy Of Grotesqueries”.

I am somewhat surprised to have not come across these guys before, as their take on Death Metal (also heavily influenced by Black Metal) is a feast for the ears. Even when putting this on for the first time there is a realisation that something isn’t quite the same as the rest, and it is only with careful listening that one realises that bassist Arran McSporran is doing something virtually unheard of in extreme music, namely he is playing a fretless instrument. This is something that is normally heard far more in jazz and blues, but the warmth of the sound (even though still played with the aggression one would expect in this genre) gives the music a quite different edge. Add to that great vocals, and powerful highly interlinked riffing backed with a barrage of drums and I am incredibly surprised that these guys have been around for ten years and haven’t become a major name. Zero Tolerance magazine says that De Profundis are “one of the UK’s best underground metal bands”, but surely it can only be a matter of time before they make it out of the underground into wider recognition. This is essential listening.