Time Signature Don't fuck with the dead...

Genre: death metal

Having more than survived the perils of releasing a sophomore album in the form of 2012's "Godless", the Danish death metal act recently released their third full-length album "Rise".

If "Godless" was a death metal masterpiece, then we need a word for something that's even better than a masterpiece. On "Godless", Deus Otiosus went back to the roots of death metal, shaving away anything that resembled contemporary death metal cheese, and started molding the core of death metal proper into something truly amazing. On "Rise", the Danish deathsters take their music to an even higher level. The listener is treated to old school death metal riffs, and this album has a stronger thrashy edge than the predecessor, which works brilliantly. Intertwined with these death-thrash elements are occasional blastbeats. Unlike many other extreme death metal acts, Deus Otiosus do not overuse blastbeats, so every single grindcore-oriented passage hits you like a bullet train. What is more, they are not afraid to inject a bit of melody into their onslaught of death metal madness, as heard in 'Fall of the West'.

Apart from their mastery of old school aesthetics, Deus Otiosus understand the power of the riff and they are not only excellent riffsmiths but also excellent songwriters, and the musicianship is top notch. The production is unpolished, but not lo-fi and suits the music very well.

"Rise" is another bull's eye from Deus Otiosus, and, frankly, this is one of the best death metal releases I have ever heard.

adg211288 As a reviewer, I like cover a variety of different metal genres, but I think every reviewer probably has a few areas they're less comfortable reviewing in. The death metal genre, with the exception of the technical and progressive kinds, is one of mine. Not because I don't enjoy the genre, but because I find that a lot of the artist's music tends to blur together pretty quickly, making it hard to tell one artist from another. I find it rare to find anything that really stands out enough in either a positive or a negative light in order to write much about it. Rise (2014), which is the third full-length album by Danish death metal act Deus Otiosus, is therefore a nice surprise, being instantly attention grabbing and memorable. Not descriptions I can apply to most death metal releases I (try to) cover.

Stylistically Rise is death metal with an occasionally overt thrashy edge to it, as in a track like Iron Rule. The production is neither overly raw or given too much modern polish which allows the details of the riffs to stand out without losing any grit along the way. The vocals tend to veer between being easy to discern the lyrics and not, which is a small issue as it does make some songs stand out over others, but I don't think that Deus Otiosus have any weak tracks on their hands here. The songs generally stick with me long after the release has come to an end, especially ones like the opening Rising War, Walk The Shadows and my personal favourites Don't Fuck with the Dead and Fall of the West, the latter of which I think is actually quite an epic sounding track.

While bands like Deus Otiosus don't really offer up anything to break any moulds, they prove that they know what they're doing and have produced a strong album made up of plenty of interesting and well played riffs that instantly makes the band stand out from the crowd of other death metal acts, especially the ones that pointedly try to be old school. In short, Rise is some really excellent and highly recommended stuff. 4.5 Stars.

89/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/deus-otiosus-rise-t3661.html)