CREDIT: COURTESY OF DESEVER
Metal heads looking for an album that's melodic and aggressive can listen to Desever.

Few in London’s metal scene thrash as hard as Desever does. As a devout metal fan, my expectations for bands are typically pretty picky and I feel bad saying that but heavy metal isn’t exactly the kind of music that can be compensated. Genres with simple instrumentation and production are made up for by the quality of the song writing and delivery.

Desever’s self-titled EP is a great debut for the band. It encompasses a variety of sub-genres that fans of old school thrash metal like Slayer, Metallica, Exodus will certainly enjoy along with fans of progressive metal – Wintersun, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and groove metal – Pantera, Lamb of God and Exhorder.

The EP is a good length, each song not dragging out past five and a half minutes, which means that it’s listenable in one sitting. The production is great considering the kind of gear they have access to and the hands using it.

Even better, it is constructed with great attention being drawn towards the guitar melodies, which includes, yes, the bass guitar. It’s great when the bass has its moments and not even necessarily in terms of upfront riffs but just how well it locks into the drums because that is what the instrument is supposed to do.

Vocally, Jeff Berridge is diverse in application using everything from high shrieks to throat tearing yells that almost borderline with hardcore punk music. Many metal bands stick to only one style, which is fine if the band’s genre calls for it, but for music like this that is more melodic and constructed, it is important for the vocalist to diversify his delivery.

Metal is one of those genres, much like classical, electronic and jazz, to name a few, that requires a fair amount of nit picking. Everything from instrumentation to the recording process to the band’s attitude, metal is powerful and heavy hitting.

It can’t be compensated by weak arrangements and sub-par recording values. Some exceptions apply but mainly for stylistic reasons.

Desever has proven that it is possible to do all of this correctly in a relatively short period of time before even getting to the point of releasing material. Many heavy bands are trapped in a void of uncertainty because of their desire to go all out, hoping to release some titanic debut album that blasts them out of the local music scene into the ears of international metal fans.

It’s not awfully surprising because it attracts a lot of creative geniuses, but it really takes some creativity and effort to showcase that genius. A lot of metal heads tend to be incredibly well balanced in how they interpret music. They are attentive in how something sounds tonally and skilled at recognizing small details. This is thorough across all genres that unsurprisingly are huge influences to metal.

For the metal fan who is looking for something melodic yet aggressive with an acute attention to details, Desever’s EP is definitely worth listening to and I am excited to see what a full release will work up to be down the road. Judging by their motivation and energy thus far, it’s going to be really good. You can listen to the EP at the band’s bandcamp page desever.bandcamp.com, and/or buy it for a mere dollar – or more.