Deceiver-Thrashing Heavy Metal

Pulverized
2009

Swedish band Deceiver decided to reform just to release "Thrashing Heavy Metal" as their final album. Although I had actually never heard of them prior to this release. The sound of this disc generally lives up to the album title. At least it does by say 1985 standards of thrash. Deceiver sound like a combination of Mercyful Fate, Kreator, Sodom and Holy Moses among others. The sound is more heavy than fast. The best aspect of this album is the amount of effort that the band puts into trying assemble heavy walls of sound. They also frequently establish this style early into many of their songs. There are several shortcomings surrounding this release as well. While Pete Flesh is a decent guitarist, his vocal range is fairly limited. He just cannot transcend a rather basic approach. Although the band manage to keep the heaviness level going, they have trouble letting out blasts of speed. On occasion they let loose with a strong barrage of killer thrash. However they spend many moments just staying at a mid-tempo pace and never really building enough upon that foundation. I kept expecting them to shift gears, but that just does not happen as often as it should have. Deceiver hit on some solid fundamentals, but there isn't really enough here to make them stand out from the pack. Although it's an above average effot, I cannot imagine that too many people will care all that much that this band has broken up again.