Taken their name from an old Dismember-song (or was it Carnage???), Deathevokation were born (created by Götz Vogelsang) nine years ago in order to pay tribute to the Old School.
All right, I am repeating myself once again. At the one hand, we have hundreds of re-releases from the late eighties / early nineties lately, sometimes including bonus material, then again nothing but the purest pre-historical material itself. At the other, there are tens of bands from that era that reformed lately, or still continue what they did back then. And tertio -and I think that’s both a blessing and a curse nowadays- there are so many acts that want to pay tribute to the glory days of Old, lacking any form of modernism and progression, and denying trendy or catchy additions or sounds that make the opposite. When it comes to this first (the re-releases) and the last category (the bands that play to honor the essential proto-bands that made the scene worthy to exist) I have to be honest and to say that there are really hundreds of bands and projects that are at least as convincing and interesting as these bands that gave form to the scene. And within this list, please welcome Deathevokation.
The Chalice Of Ages was originally released in 2007 via a label run by a close friend of Götz, Xtreem Music, owned by Dave Rotten. It was recorded at Shiva Industries by John Haddad (known for his work with Murder Construct, Abysmal Dawn, Lightning Swords Of Death, Exhumed, Hirax, The Funeral Pyre a.m.m.) and mastered in Germany at MegaWimp Studios. And the first disc of this re-release contains that fabulous album in all its glory.
What this album stands for is a timeless yet extremely Old School-inspired form of Traditional Death Metal, with a focus on the European scene, rather than the American one. The songs are melodic and technical, and they balance in between the extremes of slowly-pounding and nasty-blasting, yet with a convinced Doom-laden vibe for the better part. The whole sounds rather epic, but that has to do with the specific melodies and rhythms. Nowadays we do have several bands that pay tribute to this kind of elementary superiority, but when it comes to Deathevokation, the comparisons to the likes of Asphyx, Carnage / Dismember, Funebre, My Dying Bride, Demilich, Morgoth, Utumno, Bolt Thrower, Fleshcrawl, Unleashed, Demigod, Nihilist or Torchure (!) aren’t just a coincidence. This stuff for sure is beyond imagination, and extremely highly-recommended because of the monolithic and gargantuan persuasion and craftsmanship!
Besides, the production is exactly what it must sound like: rough, dense, sleazy, cold and unpolished, yet not under-produced nor garage-record-sounding. On the contrary, I guess Unisound, Academy, Abyss and Sunlight aren’t but possible interfaces.
Oh yes, the album comes with a cover by long-lost and pretty unknown yet slightly cultish Dutch entity Antropomorphia (Chunks Of Meat), and for once it might sounds at least as interesting, or maybe even slightly more convincing, than the original!
And another very important addition: the duration, both of the album, as well of the songs: lengthy! It isn’t that usual at all to have pretty long tracks when it comes to this kind of late eighties / early nineties material, but Deathevokation’s compositions sometimes last in between five and ten minutes, and that’s rather remarkable. But this pretty long duration for sure is a blessing!
The second disc is a unique bonus for it consists of hard-to-get stuff from the three splits the band did. I can’t say much anything about it, because the stuff we (Concreteweb) did receive does not include that material (unfortunately!). I for sure will look after this stuff, because I am convinced it rules. But as said before, I can’t and bla, bla and even more bla… It consists of their contribution to splits with bands like Lie In Ruins, Graveyard, Mandatory and Kingdom, as well as some live material, and now I’ll shut up…