ETERNAL DEFORMITY „The Serpent Design”

Eternal Deformity plays tremendously varied death/doom metal with lots of keyboards adding perhaps a gothic touch to their sound. Their original style has earned this group from Poland numerous spots in various underground printed ‘zines and a fair amount of positive press on the web. However I’m not buying it, after trying to listen and really get into this CD, I can’t see the light.

The intro ‘Malleus Malefficarum’ opens with an electronic/industrial introductory and you can tell Eternal Deformity are going to rely heavily on keyboards, which is actually a good thing because it fits their diverse ambience. Meanwhile I find the odd, echoing, spoken vocal verses ruin an otherwise great track 2 ‘Follow Me’. But Eternal Deformity somewhat redeem themselves on ‘Star Sailor’ with a great medieval intro thanks to their keyboard player, but the vocals are a bit muddled on what could otherwise be a great Rotting Christ inclined track. ‘Uncontrolled’ is an attempt at a Type O Negative sound, I think, but the vocals are a bit off on an otherwise great musical track, the following track, 5th on the CD, has the same problem. Tracks 6 ‘HS 32 (NEW WEAPON)’ and seven ‘Field Of Glory’ on this ten-song outing bring in heavier gurgled vocals while tracks 8 and 10 are my favorites on this hit and miss effort. But track 10, ‘E.D. Rhapsody’ is just over a minute and 30 seconds, the song I really started enjoying is simply too short.

There is nothing terribly wrong with SERPENT DESIGN, it’s just not my style of metal and I actually think the CD is a bit too varied for its own good. Overall, diverse music leads me away from enjoying the overall performance, but numerous conflicting reviews will tell you otherwise.