Denata
Art Of The Insane
4.6
I wasn’t really that impressed with Denata’s last album Deathtrain, and although Art of the Insane incrementally increases all the elements of a competent death/thrash metal album, they are still a band that fails to excite me.
A better production, better artwork and better sings doesn’t necessarily mean much better results though, as Denata still run in place for much of Art of the Insane with a grimy thrash tinged death metal effort that barely breaks one beat or pace for the entire album. Whereas similar themed bands such as Dew-Scented or Defleshed make their songs ooze with energy and ferocity, Denata seem to be doing it by the numbers with little or no flair. To their credit, the production that sank Deathtrain is vastly improved, and the guitars now have a far more suitable crunch, though not as razor sharp as the aforementioned bands. The problem though is still predictable unimaginative songwriting that lacks any of the jack hammer, scathing retorts of their peers.
Throughout the twelve songs contained on Art of the Insane (including a cover of Celtic Frost's "Morbid Tales" and a hidden track), not a single one warranted a rewind or left an imprint on memory. The only thing I remembered was how blah it was. The increased professionalism that sees the use of samples and acoustics (“Prophecies”, “Satanic Thrash Hell”) do little to cover up the rest of the albums misgivings. The songs barely break the same galloping pace, only broken up by maybe a few intro bars here and there (“A World of Lies”, “Below the Surface”), and the drummer isn’t challenged whatsoever as the songs chug along with almost freakishly familiar gaits. New drummer Ake Danielsson must get literally bored out of his mind flailing along mindlessly to Denata’s characterless anthems of thrash banality. New full time vocalist Tomas Anderson (for those that don't know they used two virtually identical throaty singers for Deathtrain), rasps and rants his way through typically ripe death thrash territory like Jack the Ripper ("Whitechapel Murders") and Satanic Death thrashing, (erm... "Satanic Thrash Hell").
I hate to come down on such a persistent band, and even if this album improves over the terrible Deathtrain, Denata still have a long way to go to even begin to think of being compared to their 80’s thrash idols or their Swedish death trash peers The Crown, as they simply don’t belong in the same league, and maybe don’t even belong on a Record Label. Sorry guys, thrashers lash away.
