Review Summary: Brutal death that evades most of the genre's pitfalls, Perceptive Deception also happens to be one of the catchiest albums in the sub-genre.
It goes without saying that many bands in the brutal death metal scene are derivative of each other. Increasingly over recent years the sub-genre has often become quite clouded with bands that attempt to emulate the technicality and darker edge of genre-pioneers
Suffocation, or, although this is less commonplace now, the similarly influential (although not nearly so good)
Devourment. The reasons for that trend could be quite easily traced; even before now, the main brutal death metal bands of the 90s New York Scene were all extremely similar to the pioneering native band themselves, while in recent years a deliberate shift away from the straight slam styles that became popular in the mid 2000s has led to many bands attempting to move towards more technical styles reminiscent of the genre pioneers. Unlike those scenes, the death metal scene in the Netherlands managed to provide a greater level of originality than those areas, helping it to stand out along with the California scene. Heading the scene were
Pyaemia and
Disavowed. While shot for shot, the two bands' (extremely small) discographies are practically equal, the latter's
Perceptive Deception album is nonetheless an excellent contribution to the international scene.
Disavowed's sound is broadly comparable to many of the stereotypes of the genre but thankfully avoids the common issues that lie with them. There are occasionally much slower sections to the band's songs, but almost strangely the band manages to make the typical slamming riffs feel much more energetic, and while there is technicality present in the sound, the main style of riffs for the band are extremely fast tremolo picked riffs that keep the speed up. Overall that's likely the biggest difference that many listeners will find; this album feels faster than most others in the genre, and thus the added energy simply makes it more interesting. The band's riffs are considerably catchier than the genre norm, too, and the pulverizing, tight drum performance undoubtedly gives the band an edge over its competitors.
The album's songs also happen to be very good overall. While most of the songs are similar sounding, the riffs are always distinct from each other in a way which similar bands actually often fail to achieve. Additionally, the subtle differences between each help to keep the album from becoming dull. The slower tracks on the album, such as
Reason Rejected and
Critical Emulation are still extremely fast and technical, and as such the qualities of the album are prevalent in all of the tracks. There aren't any weak tracks either, and overall the pacing of the album works well.
While it's still unlikely to convert any people into fans of the sub-genre, Perceptive Deception is one of the essential pieces to a brutal death fan's collection. It's fast, furious, and energetic in a way that few other bands have matched. Pick up this along with Pyaemia's
Cerebral Cereal if you have literally any interest in brutal-death.
