(TheMadIsraeli returns to Deus Invictus with a review of their most recent album, Staged in Awaiting.)

Featured in a random music post I did fairly recently, Deus Invictus are an Atlanta band I stumbled upon in one of the downloading sprees I go on every so often to see if I strike gold. When I found out they were Christian I was even more intrigued, since I’m a Christian who thinks Christian music SUCKS THE BIG ONE IN SPADES, including most so-called Christian metal. Yes, I know, there is Extol, Mortification, Living Sacrifice; all three of them are excellent and legends in what they’ve done, especially for the more religiously inclined who love metal as much as any non-believer, but we need more bands like those.

Deus Invictus impress me with their combination of Cynic-like experimentation, Pestilence-like songwriting, and Death-like riffing and mood. A rather ambitious debut awaits hearing in Staged In Awaiting (2010), bringing torrential hailstorms of riffs of almost every sort within a progressive death metal framework. You won’t hear many albums this well put-together and well thought-out these days that are this diverse and this jarring.

Opener “Alas, The Anvil” starts out with a jazzy, clean intro that then drops like an atom bomb straight into an assault of Cynic-style dual guitar interplay and counterpoint. The rest of the song, like the rest of the album, is a total blur of awesome. My head is still spinning from it, but I think there was, like, a shitload of tempo changes or something. Lots of distorted-to-clean transitions and uh, tasteful use of sparingly utilized clean vocals, but mostly a pretty set-in-stone death growl with some serious power behind it. There are even some Opeth-ish-like-esque sections on this album that change the mood up nicely. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »