(written by Islander)
In case anyone is still puzzled by the meaning of the Finnish band DET‘s name, they’ve spelled it out in the title of their forthcoming debut album: Destructive Elite Terror.
The album is set for release by Dying Victims Productions on that most metal of dates, October 31st. It follows up DET‘s 2022 demo Death Night, their 2023 demo Vengeance, and their 2023 split with Krusifoitu. What we bring you today is the opportunity to hear — and get revved up by — the entire album.
This Helsinki band’s lineup includes current or former members of such outfits as Excuse, Asphodelus, Ranger, and Cryogenic (among others). What they’ve turned their talents to in DET is (to quote the preview provided on behalf of Dying Victims) music that lies “somewhere between the crudest early speed metal, contemporaneous proto-black metal, and the very earliest death metal.”
Their new album packs 13 tracks into its 36-minute runtime, almost all of them (past the Intro) clocking in at between the three- and four-minute marks. The Intro piece is a sinister symphonic scene-setter punctuated with strange percussive bursts, and having used that to put a bit of a chill on listeners’ skins, DET then launch straight into “Annihilation“.
Like that opening attack, all the song titles except the closing title track consist of single words, each one of which points to fiendish, violent, horrifying, and bloody subjects. The music itself explains why.
In the case of “Annihilation“, DET discharge maniacally sizzling and swarming riffage, vampyric snarls, scalding screams, magma-like low frequency turbulence, and skull-cracking beats. As DET switch up the tempos and the riffing they channel alternating moods of madness and despair, all of it shrouded in an occult atmosphere.
They also provide other twists and turns, including a throbbing bass solo that sets up both a diabolically throbbing new riff and a guitar solo that seems to deliriously wail, which in turn sets up a final resurgence of the song’s wickedly addictive opening motifs.
“Annihilation” provides a pattern of sorts for the songs yet to come. As confirmed by those ensuing songs, it demonstrates DET‘s talent for creating riffs that are as hook-laden as they are devilish, and for leaning into rhythms that aren’t fancy but have a primal, punky, reptile-brain appeal, coupled with truly vicious, always-ugly, come-for-your-throat vocals that enhance the music’s evil supernatural auras.
What the ensuing songs also demonstrate is a proficiency for melodically changing the mood-state from one song to the next, and frequently within each song. Through those nearly-always sizzling (and sometimes blaring or moaning or skirling) riffs, they conjure sensations of orgiastic delirium, blood-lusting cruelty, hopeless agony, ghastly horror, imperious malevolence, and pernicious spellcasting.
(Throw a mental dart at the track list, and wherever it lands you’ll see what we mean, though “Vengeance” is probably my favorite example.)
And while the hammering percussive patterns might seem primitive, they’re quite compulsive, and quite effective in keeping listeners on the edge of their seats. Adding to the songs’ dynamism, the vividly burbling bass notes are nimble, the soloing is fire-bright (sometimes frantic and even convulsive — listen to “Sinister”, “Bloodshed”, or “Possessor”! — and sometimes impressively fluid), and the judiciously used noise samples frightening.
Moreover, the album has the kind of authentic “garage band” production that’s in line with the album’s overarching ethos — not fancy, deceptively stripped down, but with an immediacy and a feral spirit that’s undeniable.
All in all, Destructive Elite Terror is a hell of a wild romp — wicked through and through, wickedly addictive, and tailor-made for a Samhain night (and sweaty mosh pits). Listen now:
DET is:
Atte – Bass
Miikka – Drums, Vocals
Jari – Guitars, Vocals
Destructive Elite Terror brandishes cover artwork by Goatprayer, and Dying Victims will release it on black vinyl and a special neon yellow vinyl edition, with insert, poster, sticker, postcard, and download code (a patch is also included with the special LP edition). Dying Victims will also release a CD edition with sticker and obi. Find more info via the links below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/destructive-elite-terror
https://dyingvictims.com