Wicked Deception are an underground thrash metal band from Joliet, IL. Their goal when they started out as a band was to create an aggressive blend of death and thrash metal. After one listen to their first full-length album Incite the Riot, I must say mission accomplished!
Their throwback, raw and unrefined thrash tones remind me of the early works of Sepultura; from 1987's Schizophrenia to 1991's Arise. Incite the Riot writhes with that primordial intensity, aggression, and raw sounding tonality that is harder and harder to find in modern metal. Many of the earliest albums of thrash metal had this kind of sound to them. Wicked Deception take this potent foundation of riffs and add a death-metal inspired hardcore scream as their main vocal element, which is where I'm drawn to make the Sepultura comparison.
The opening track, 'Retribution', dives straight into their signature sound. The raw, fast-tempo riffs assault your ears, while a deep-grooved and brutal rhythm is established by the drums and bass guitar. Raspy, mid-range screams from Brian Huguelet deliver the message aggressively with a Max Cavalera-esque style.
'Slavedog' slows things down a little in terms of tempo, but they keep the song's riffs heavy and aggressive all the same. They throw in a few spoken-word lyrics, which remind me a bit of Faith No More's Mike Patton. The song carries a theme of struggling for independence, and rebelling against authority.
'Unconscious Terror', again following the slower-but-heavy song structure, has one of the most memorable riffs on this album. They take a few seconds to include a technical and classic-thrash sounding guitar solo before this song ends.
The final track, '(No Life in Your) Darkness', features melodic guest vocals by Jennifer Skorniak. She sings melodically for most of the song, adding a diverse new element to Wicked Deception's pallet. Fear not though metal-heads, for she also can scream hardcore with the best of them, and adds this element at the choruses.
In conclusion I may be tempted to call Incite the Riot a 'melodic-death-metal' album, but that seems a bit short of accurate to me. What this style of metal really reminds me of is a time from metal's evolution when death-metal had not yet fully differentiated itself from thrash or speed-metal. All the comparisons I've made to early Sepultura were for a reason: this is the era of this band's primary inspiration. For anyone who ever loved the purest, most evil roots of what thrash metal was like in the old days, check out Wicked Deception. They are out to prove that some beasts never die...
Recommended Tracks:
-Retribution
-Slavedog
-Unconscious Terror
-Awakening Hatred
-(No Light in Your) Darkness
Follow Wicked Deception on:
Myspace
Reverbnation
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