The steepest hill to climb in Death Metal today seems like it isn’t crafting a great album as much as it achieving sustainable recognition and market share. Does Dead Shores Rising (Century Media) get Deserted Fear’s foot in the door?

Yes and no.

Death Metal since its inception (sometime in the mid-1980s, feel free to argue Death vs. Possessed amongst yourselves) has been a fickle and crowded field. Hence all of the subgenres (sub-subgenres?) that exist under its catch-all banner. You’ve got melodic death, technical death, doom death, Gods of Egypt, whatever Agoraphobic Nosebleed is doing, and Lord knows whatever else is being cooked up in dingy practice spaces across the world.

On moments like ‘The Fall of the Leaden Skies’ and ‘The Edge of Insanity’ Deserted Fear rides the line between prime Dark Tranquillity melodic fury and the rhythmic pounding of Arise (Roadrunner)-era Sepultura. ‘Towards Humanity’ and ‘The Path of Sorrow’ further demonstrate that these young Germans have a sweet tooth for the Gothenburg school of riffing (the latter being a bonus track featuring guest barks by none other than At the Gates’ Tomas Lindberg). It’s also got the backing of a respected label like Century Media and a pristine Dan Swanö sound mix.

And while it seems like all the pieces are in place for a solid extreme metal experience, there are minor stumbles from this young Teutonic act. For example, do we still need album intros? ‘Intro’ feels like it lasts a day and a half, while not gelling with the rest of Dead Shores Rising. The prior mentioned ‘The Fall of the Leaden Skies’ would function sufficiently as an opening salvo/shotgun blast. And then there’s the fucking ‘Interlude?’ What’s it for other than to tell me that I’m past the halfway mark? That and I could’ve used more lead guitar work from Manuel Glatter and Fabian Hildebrandt to accent the aggressive riff work.

Deserted Fear has got the skillset to make a dent in the death metal world, it’s all a matter of making minute adjustments and shoring up the songwriting a tad bit.

7.0/10

HANSEL LOPEZ