Deceased
Luck of the Corpse


3.5
great

Review

by Robert Davis USER (306 Reviews)
January 24th, 2014 | 36 replies


Release Date: 1992 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A grim first album for Deceased, but certainly an enjoyable one too.

Although they now tend to be lumped with other cult status death metal groups, Deceased predate the likes of Suffocation and Cryptopsy by a few years or so. Having a career that dates back to 1984 (a mere year after the legendary Death formed), Deceased have seemingly been around for quite a long time, though long forgotten by the mass media as the first group to sign up to long-running label Relapse Records. Though the band's earlier years were rooted more or less in thrash metal and the early stages of death metal, Deceased have become heralded as a successful cult band thanks to ambitious albums such as Fearless undead Machines and As the Weird travel on.

It is a genuine shame then, that the band's first album, grimly entitled Luck of the Corpse and featuring a front cover which takes its image from the 1963 film Black Sabbath, isn't as widely recognized by salivating fans of death metal as it should. As the front cover and song titles would have you believe, Deceased on this album come across as a band completely obsessed with death. Sure, that's what death metal was originally all about, but you only have to listen to the grim nature of the recording and the somewhat muddied production to understand just why the band chose to call themselves Deceased.

Instrumentally, if you can ignore the shoddy production issues which plague this album, it proves to be very solid and consistent indeed. The vocal delivery is guttural and at times demonic ("Haunted Cerebellum" itself wouldn't sound out of place in The Exorcist), the guitar work has a lot of interesting twists and turns, and the drum work, shared also by long-running vocalist King Fowley, explodes and batters its way through every song. The guitar work here is the focal point of the band's musical output overall, explosive songs such as “Futuristic Doom”, “Psychedelic Warriors” and the very well written “Birth by Radiation” made all the more terrifying thanks to those sometimes beautifully executed solos and crunchy riffs. Together with the rumbling bass, the instrument itself having one or two brief solos on “Futuristic Doom” and “Feasting on Skulls” and machine-like drum rhythms, it all makes for quite a solid rhythm section which for the most part doesn't let up.

That said, there are one or two songs where the band are clearly trying to progress beyond the basic conventions of thrash and death metal, yet unfortunately fail because of a somewhat directionless sound. Also because of the usual production issues, songs such as the mundane “Decrepit Coma” and “Feasting on Skulls”, you can never really hear how much effort is going into the instrumentation, and it all sounds a bit forced or rushed, especially when you know the band can stretch three minutes into five minutes by taking their time and craftig an ambitious opus.

However, it's all still solid enough for fans of early death metal to enjoy, and you can't argue against the superb likes of “Haunted Cerebellum” and enigmatic Grindcore-esque closer “Gutwrench”, and for the most part, Deceased sound like a band already prepared to take on music of a more complex fashion, something that would take control of the group's musical direction on successive albums. Put simply, Deceased's first album sets out to do the same thing any other band within the same sub-genre probably wanted to do: Have fun by playing solid death metal. If you're interested in how Deceased sounded in their earlier days, give this a listen.



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user ratings (67)
3.7
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
linguist2011
January 24th 2014


2656 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Full album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6KWEcKoF7k



Don't know about anyone else, but I think Deceased to be one of the most underrated death metal acts out there.

TheSpirit
Emeritus
January 24th 2014


30304 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

i agree with that. they are one of my favs... this review is interesting. i completely disagree with the fact that at this point they were trying to do something "more" than just straight up dm ... thats true of all their albums except this one

Voivod
Staff Reviewer
January 24th 2014


10937 Comments


Excellent work Robert, pos.

1992
January 24th 2014


160 Comments


this looks good, gotta check

pos'd

bloc
January 25th 2014


70683 Comments


Forgot about this one

DikkoZinner
September 10th 2014


5370 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Impressive album

facupm
October 21st 2014


12020 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

its good but nothing amazing, and kinda inconsistent

SIMBOLIC
August 14th 2015


6741 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Grim/10 very

SIMBOLIC
August 15th 2015


6741 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

so great songs but a few ones that sound bored yeah i get that

enedwaith
November 5th 2015


1865 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

this one needs some love.

evilford
November 5th 2015


66973 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

yeah holy shit this has a rev damn sweet

enedwaith
November 5th 2015


1865 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

yeah dude also i was watching the oldschool movie black sabbath the other night and recognized this album cover in it. it's a still from the first act in that film



this album is fuckin dope though. epitome of straight OSDM. so guttural and gruesome

evilford
November 5th 2015


66973 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

haha sweet. and yeah agreed

DeadGuy
November 25th 2015


1233 Comments


Hell yea this shit rules
I somehow overlooked this band
the thrash/grind influence is great

enedwaith
November 26th 2015


1865 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

m/ stupidly underrated.

enedwaith
January 29th 2016


1865 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

soooo fuuucking uuuunderraaateedddd

Spacesh1p
June 15th 2016


7716 Comments


Sweet album, cover is awesome too.

TheSpirit
Emeritus
October 29th 2016


30304 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

King Fowley came into my work today, he was so surprised somebody recognized him

Deathconscious
December 1st 2016


27459 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

fun album.

Spacesh1p
December 1st 2016


7716 Comments


And a great cover.



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