Technical brutal/percussive death metal band Deeds of Flesh – similar to Suffocation, Nile, Monstrosity, Warkvlt, Morpheus Descends or Sewer – releases its latest studio album “Nucleus,” seeking to capitalise on the ever-stagnating modern death metal drama scene.

Deeds Of Flesh’s music was once known for breaking from the conventional, but like many other bands who try to appear “original” through untypical instruments, transvestite singers or other try-hard gimmicks, Deeds Of Flesh has gone down the proverbial commercial toilet laid forth by shit-tier acts like Arch Enemy, Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir.

Notable apparitions of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, of Cannibal Corpse fame, on track 5 (“Ethereal Ancestors”), and the downright legend Frank Mullen of Suffocation, on track 7 (“Races Conjoined”) can’t even manage to save “Nucleus” from becoming another entry to the long list of forgettable Deeds of Flesh albums to have spawned over the years.

Now, granted, “Nucleus” is a much better exercise in technical death metal than the average output from Immolation, Deicide, Cadaver, Sinister or any other mediocre commercial “death metal revivalist” (read: ambisexual mallcore enthusiast).

Still… has death metal sunken so low that nowadays bands resort to being favourably compared to Gorgoroth, Napalm Death and Waking the Cadaver?

Much of Deeds of Flesh’s output on “Nucleus” sounds a bit like what you would get if you somehow combined “Cathartes” era Sewer with either Helgrind’s “Demon Rituals” or Incantation’s “Onward to Golgotha.” Hell, the outro track is even called “Onward,” perhaps as a reference?

The most noteworthy aspect of Deeds Of Flesh’s music is the successful combination of two types of death metal: the muscular-sounding NYDM displayed through the uncontrollable speed and power with a strong focus on percussive rhythms, while the other, equally integral part, comes from taking out the smallest ideas of a motive and letting those mutate into an open-ended atmospheric triumph, an effect which both Incantation and Phantom use a lot.

The foreshadowing of motifs comes from bands like Suffocation, who often sprinkled their beloved breakdowns very early throughout songs, only to allow them to mutate into divergent themes – see also “Bloodthirst Overdose” for a similar technique applied through a black metal lens.

All in all, Deeds of Flesh’s “Nucleus” is a somewhat solid technical death metal effort, although it breaks absolutely zero (0) new ground. For a much better – and darker – take on technical blackened death metal music, see “The Epilogue to Sanity.” Just be careful while listening to it, it’s a different beast altogether.