Plague Angel
Raped By Lies
5.1
At barely ten minutes long, Raped By Lies is the shortest album I’ve reviewed thus far. For what it’s worth, that running time (or lack thereof) is kind of a plus. It’s not that Plague Angel is bad, really—just that their brand of “been there, done that” death metal is completely and totally inessential to all but the most rabid of collectors. (Despite the obvious Marduk reference in the band name, there is no blackness to be found on this one.)
It’s almost like Plague Angel set out to make the most generic death metal demo possible. Everything is acceptable, but nothing is great. The riffs are solid but they’re more like the examples of death metal you’d see in a guitar magazine than like actual throat-slitting, eye-gouging death metal riffs; the drums are tight, but there’s nothing particularly snappy about them; the vocals alternate between a grunt and the occasional high-pitched scream, like…oh…seventy-five percent of death metal acts. There are no guitar leads whatsoever. Parts of this mimic Floridian death metal and other bits evoke European bands. There are a few toe-tapping moments of catchy riffing, but they’re as fleeting as the record itself. I won’t waste your time with a detailed breakdown of the songs, what riffs are better than others, because it’s quite simply not worth it for either of us. Let’s just say that every riff here, good or bad, is similar to a riff you’ve heard somewhere else and we’ll leave it at that, mmmmkay?
For lack of anything else to say, I’ll say this again: it’s not that Raped By Lies is awful—but it's not good either. And more importantly, it's unnecessary, especially if you happen to own any records by Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation or Grave or Torture Killer or [insert name of moderately successful death metal act here]... (And if you don’t own records by at least two of those bands, what are you doing?) I appreciate what Plague Angel is trying to do, if only for the very basic reason that I really enjoy death metal, but I can’t see myself listening to Raped By Lies very often, if ever. On the positive side, since it’s short as shit, by the time I really got bored with it, it was over. (How’s that for a good recommendation? “Hey, kids, check out Raped By Lies! You won’t have time to hate it!”) Either way, it didn’t leave me wanting more.
No matter what, if Plague Angel wants to build a career, even in the minor leagues of metal, they'll need to come up with something a little more noteworthy than this.
