122 Stab Wounds

122 Stab Wounds - The Deity of Perversion
Head Not Found, 1996
Genre: Black/Death Metal

1. Intro
2. Reign Alive
3. Hunting Humans
4. Hymns of Misery
5. Cathedral of the Pagans
6. The Torture Art
7. Holocaust Breed
8. Divided Thoughts.
9. Reginae Noctiluca
10. The Deity of Perversion

The first and foremost reason for me getting this album is because I had heard that it held members of Gehenna.  Little did I know, it was only a member featured on Gehenna’s album “Murder.”  So it is not like this person has had a long career with the band, plus it was also the bassist, whom I am told was not a major writing force on “Murder” since Sanrabb is in furious control of that group, thus the line-up changes.  Just one of the things I have heard about Gehenna, I have never spoken with Sanrabb personally, but I am told he is difficult to work with.  So naturally, finally, being a Gehenna fan I sought out this album.

For a band found on the Head Not Found record label I find this a very curious release.  Since they were mostly known for Black Metal releases and this band being from Norway, I was expecting at least something Black Metal.  However, it sounds more like this band is probably from Sweden, even though they are not.  They have a very old school Death Metal feel to their compositions.  The guitar tone at times reminds me of early Entombed, but only marginally, because Entombed is much thicker for tone.  122 Stab Wounds typically uses the thinner guitar tone used for Black Metal music, so I would venture to say these are a bunch of guys who typically play Black Metal, but for this decided to play some Death Metal.  Also, there is the use of atmospheric keyboards throughout the album, however, they are not a major aspect of the music and are only used once in a while, and they do not drive the music in any way, shape, or form.  The keyboard intros on this are some the eeriest things I have heard with a keyboard, I love it.  It reminds me of the intro used on one of Mysticum’s demos, which was very excellent.  The vocal performance is more akin to a mid-range growl instead of being totally high range Black Metal or low range Death Metal.  So it adds a good feel to the vocal performance, however, they are not very varied.  Lyrically the band is not too bad.  I had expected something silly with such a name about murder and death, when in fact they focus more… well I’m not sure, but they have a more occult feel to them rather than the general lyrics about death and so on.

“The Deity of Perversion” overall is a very interesting album.  It honestly took me a couple listens to get into, probably because it was not what I expected.  But mostly it is a very good representation of atmospheric Death Metal in my opinion.  So if you are expecting something brutal and highly technical, you will not find this here.  However, I think it is an interesting approach to Death Metal, which would be the added atmospheric feel to the music.  I certainly have not heard anything like this yet.