Thrashing Heavy Metal

Some album titles go out of their way to be as ironic as possible; if, for example, a pastoral, gently introspective, folk-oriented singer/songwriter — someone who had a lot more in common with Janis Ian than with Dark Angel or Exodus — came out with an album titled Thrashing Heavy Metal, you would know that the artist was really big on irony. But in the case of Deceiver's Thrashing Heavy Metal, one is getting exactly what is being advertised; this Swedish power trio (Pete Flesh on lead vocals and guitar, Crille Lundin on bass, and Flingan on drums — really does provide heavy metal that is decidedly thrashy. The material on this 2008 recording is thrash metal with a strong awareness of death metal as well as power metal and punk. Most of Thrashing Heavy Metal's death metal appeal comes from Flesh, who embraces a twisted, damaged vocal style that is somewhere between death metal's stereotypical "Cookie Monster" growl and Motörhead founder/frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Of course, Kilmister isn't death metal, but Flesh brings elements of Kilmister to the ever-growling "Cookie Monster" — and his growling is the most extreme thing about Thrashing Heavy Metal. If Flesh's extreme vocals were replaced by a more conventional thrash or power metal vocal style, melodic but hard-driving items such as "Graveyard Lover" and "Machinery of God" would be described as straight-ahead thrash metal — not thrash metal with a death metal influence. But Flesh has a lot of personality, and his presence is a definite plus. That said, Thrashing Heavy Metal isn't terribly original; Deceiver are hardly the first band to combine thrash metal with a death metal vocal style. Nonetheless, the material is generally solid and well-executed on this enjoyable, albeit derivative, effort.