Denmark continues it’s hard-dragged streak of death metal diarrhea as we get another shit-hot release in the form of Deiquisitor‘s second full-length. Formed by ex-members of black metal band Blodfest who’d also worked together in Wolfslair, Deiquisitor would function as a duo until 2015 when Purification Kommando vocalist/guitarist completed the trio on bass. Though their previous projects aren’t necessarily well-known outside of Europe, Deiquisitor‘s members have largely been active in the Danish black/death metal scene since the early 90’s and their sound focuses in on the remarkably brutal scene that spawned their artistic tendencies. Their 2013 demo and 2014 ep ‘Hexagon Vortex’ were instantly recognizable due to the frantic brutal blasting of Bestial Butcher aka Henrik Christensen and you can clearly hear his style in both black metal and death metal projects he’d played in over the course of his career. The brutal pacing of the drums astonishingly never intrudes upon Deiquistor‘s guitar pyrotechnics, as it often does in brutal death metal bands, and in fact shapes the intense sonic personality of the band even more.

Deiquistor‘s self-titled full-length debut from 2016 was a murky, brutal morass of blackened, circular guitar work set to a firing squad of blasts. The band’s aim towards an unearthly and brutal form of death metal was, and continues to be, fairly unique. For all of the attention given to calling it ‘old school death metal’ their debut full-length felt fresh in an era of occult, dissonant, and atmospheric death metal. The foundational blasts from Christensen‘s kit continue to set the bands sound atop a far more brutal throne than you’d expect on ‘Downfall of the Apostates’. On this second album the band shirk some of their blackened guitar fidgeting and match the drum intensity with a bigger, more aggressive guitar tone melting away a layer of atmospherics for the sake of bigger, ballsier guitar riffs.

Driven and armed with better honed tools of destruction, Deiquistor‘s bones apex as raw and ripping as Exmortem‘s ‘Labyrinths of Horror’ and with the fury of any Centurian or Nox album. Guest vocal spots from Taphos and Phrenelith members offer additional layers of vocal interest but all is caught in the thrust of the record’s densely storming barrage of riffs. If you’d heard ‘Deiquisitor’ and found it impenetrable and murky this second album varies the pace slightly, but fosters greater impact due to higher quality production and mixing. I don’t want to give the impression this is as brutal as say, Azarath necessarily. So in terms of blasted out drumming, the performance is far more varied and impressive a la Ahret Dev‘s ‘Hellish’.

So, if you hadn’t gotten the idea by now ‘Downfall of the Apostates’ is relentlessly delivered but weaves a web of guitar riffs that’ll surprise and thrill when you’re along for the ride. Deiquisitor have their own pocket that is right in between Deeds of Flesh ‘Path of the Weakening’ and Immolation‘s ‘Here in After’ where the brutal and the thoughtfully intense form some kind of special hybridized genius spawn. It is definitely the sort of death metal record that seems to improve more and more as I leave it on repeat, with zero to no gripes in terms of production tics or annoyances.

Entrenched in peripheral madness. 4.0/5.0

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