Praise God!! Finally a Melodic Death/Black Metal band that I can enjoy. It seems how hard it is to find Melodic Death Metal in the Christian scene.
I bought this album hoping to find good black metal, but what I got was beyond my wildest dreams. Imagine Melodic Death Metal combined with an occasional shrill Black Metal, really good growl vocals, if only there were more versatile vocalist like Miika Partala, and more bands like Deuteronomium! I can't believe my ears...I can't be listening to this kind of music...it's too good to be true.
The opening track "Street Corner Queen" got me hooked on this band, great melodic death, straight out riffs with great vocals, what more can you ask for in a band? The only other band that I'm so impressed with lately is Ebony Tears from Sweden. However Deuteronomium beats Ebony Tears any day. Fast pounding drums, and fast crunchy guitars will definitely get you on your feet moving and start you moshing alone in your room (imagine that...haha moshing with yourself?). "Druglord" starts off with bass and vocals which sounds like the vocalist is whining, but the shrieking that follows made me think that this powerful voice belongs to a madman...one that doesn't take care of their vocal cords. The whining 'don't care about your' vocals comes back in..with INTENSE GUITARS AND DRUMMING that follows back in the chorus....arggggggggggg i'm going out of my mind!!!
"Spell of Hell" starts off with atmospheric keyboard/piano with short marching drum style. I would expect an instrumental for this, but wait...what's this??? It becomes a real crazy and intense black metal song. What else can Miika do with his voice?!! Melodic black metal unlike the usual black metal which focus on keyboards, this track focuses on the melodic (and real heavy) guitars. It slows down after a bit before reverting into the heavy and very intense riffs which fades out!!! Killer track!
"The Fall" another great blend of masterful shredding, pounding drums with the melody that sets this band apart from the rest of the crowd. Very melodic and masterful stuff complete with shrieked vocals that will certainly make this a hot favorite among the Christian Scene. Clean vocals come in at the end of this song, great effect from shrieked to clean vocals.
"Empty Shell" sounds more like a hard rock/metal song which is a surprise. I expected a whole album of melodic death, but this song is very nice IMO. Very nice melody again on the part of the song-writer. Nice breather from all the heavy stuff.. It has a nice ring to it. This is the singalong track of the CD =)
"Human Nature" kicks the album back on track on the melodic death path. Fast vocals on top of trippy guitars, which pack a punch, trust me! The song slows down a while (again) in which the vocals are just heard. Then it turns into a rap song(??!!!) Hahahhahaa...it caught me the same way with the Dead Pharisee's album. I'm laughing away. Next it then turns into reggae!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha I never thought this would happen on this album.
"Bonsai People" is a really weird track. Funny distorted vocals, slow hip-hop sounding guitars, hey what's going on? Here the chorus comes in and this song transform magically into a killer tune. Another different style on this track. VERY different! "Black Raven" which comes after "Bonsai people" talks about the devil and how Christ came and defeated the devil (the black raven). Crunchy riffs dominate this song and quick drumming makes this an outstanding track.
"C.C.R" Christ Church Rising is what this C.C.R stands for. It talks about the rapture and the last days. In the vein of the other Melodic Death songs.
"III" I think it's written like that, a mid-paced black metal track with clean-vocal effects that echo the shrill voice. But to my surprise it turns into gentle plucking of the acoustic guitar, this creates a lot of atmosphere for this track. By the way this track is in finnish, so I don't understand what is being sung/shrieked. I believe it is a worship/praise song to God.
The last track "Northern Praise" is a slow tune with enchanting female vocals. This girl's voice I believe is better than Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering fame. Such a soothing voice. This voice belongs to Eeva Vehniainen. Wow, this track is THE highlight of the whole album! (note-what makes this a really special song, is that the lyrics are praise and worship material)
The bonus track "Blue Mountain" is taken from the Tribal Eagle EP. Shrieked vocals coupled with the same mesmerizing female vocals. In spite of the vocals, this track leans more into the melodic death than actual black metal
If you were to get only 1 album in 1998, this is the album to grab!
9.5/10
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Josh SpencerAaaaahhhhh....how refreshing this album is! Street Corner Queen is for every metal fan that gets tired of the every-song-the-same tendency of most extreme metal bands, as Deuteronomium joins Necromanicide in the "let's play as many styles of hard music as we know how on one album" approach. Except Deuteronomium does a much, much better job of it. This is unquestionably one of the best…Dead Zine 1998Reviewed by FetusBand Quote:"Deuteronomium is like a box of chocolates; you'll never know what you get" Well that pretty much sums this first LP up. This CD contains a cocktail of: black metal, gothic, metal, hard alternative, doom, forest metal, hardcore, thrash riffs, and..well..reggae (arrggh!). I could only hear a trace of death metal (vocals) on one song. Don't let all these genres scare you away; this is a…Similar sounding releases
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