Progressive death metal outfit, Dååth, has emerged from its thirteen-year hiatus with a new album, The Deceivers, set for release May 3 via Metal Blade Records.
The Deceivers is at once a devastating reminder and giant leap forward that showcases the technical wizardry and brutal intensity that the Atlanta, Georgia-bred band is capable of. Band founder/guitarist Eyal Levi has overseen an overhaul of the lineup, though importantly Dååth still features force-of-nature vocalist Sean Zatorsky, who has fronted the band since 2007. Together they are now joined by Kerim "Krimh" Lechner on drums, Jesse Zuretti on orchestration and guitar, Rafael Trujillo on lead guitar, and David Marvuglio on bass.
"Now Dååth is more orchestrated, more over the top. We have more melodies and they're beautiful," Levi says. That's what The Deceivers is: Monstrously heavy but beautifully orchestrated, blessed with melodies that will haunt anybody fortunate enough to hear it. The nine tracks were produced by Levi, with Andrew Wade doing vocal production, John Douglass engineering, Jens Bogren mixing, and Tony Lindgren mastering.
Guest guitar solos are contributed across numerous tracks by Jeff Loomis (Nevermore, Arch Enemy), Mark Holcomb (Periphery), Dean Lamb (Archspire), Per Nilsson, (Scar Symmetry, Meshuggah), Spiro Dussias (Platonist), and Dan Sugarman (Ice Nine Kills), with renowned video game composer Mick Gordon (Doom Eternal) contributing sound design and synth to "Purified By Vengeance."
The album title is the continuation of a theme that began with 2007's The Hinderers and continued with 2009's The Concealers. "Those titles are about the outside world," Levi says. "They're not about us. While they touch on the self-destruction and self-deception, we all occasionally fall victim to, this album is a scathing critique and exploration of certain societal elements. The deceivers and obstructers in life. Those who impede your progress through subterfuge and manipulation."
That critique of the modern world is on full display in the single and video "Hex Unending", which features the lyrics, "Cleanse me, Rid the malignancy, Commence deliverance, Severance, From this wretched hex unending." "It's about shedding skin, cleansing the old me; reinventing, and carving a new path vocally, physically, and mentally," explains Zatorsky. "This song needed to be front and center on the record."
Zuretti further elaborates, "'Hex Unending' is a track that combines all of the many eras of metal music at its peak - there's catchiness, groove, power, virtuosity, and uncommon creativity coursing through its veins. It's the sound of 2024 - it's perfectly polished yet organic, it's modern arrangement and composition leads you on unexpected paths - if we were to bet, this track will propel true metal back into the forefront of heavy music."
Watch Dååth's "Hex Unending" video, directed by David Brodsky and produced by Allison Woest for My Good Eye: Music Visuals, below.
The Deceivers will be released on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:
- Mineral (US - Ltd. 300)
- Transparent Blood Red Base w/ Opaque Black Smoke + Heavy White Splatter (US - Ltd. 200/EU - Ltd. 500)
Find pre-orders here.
The Deceivers tracklisting:
"No Rest No End"
"Hex Unending"
"Ascension"
"With Ill Desire"
"The Silent Foray"
"Unwelcome Return"
"Purified by Vengeance"
"Deserving of the Grave"
"Into Forgotten Dirt"
"Hex Unending" video:
"No Rest No End":
Dååth began their journey in 1999 and stayed busy for just over a decade before its 2011 hiatus. In that time, the band released four studio albums - Futility in 2004, The Hinderers in 2007, The Concealers in 2009, and their self-titled LP in 2010. Tours with Cattle Decapitation, Dark Funeral, Cynic, Nile, Slayer, Dragonforce, Goatwhore, Chimaira, Dying Fetus, and Devildriver followed. Dååth also landed a coveted spot on Ozzfest playing before tens of thousands of fans in outdoor amphitheaters across the US, in addition to the infamous and long-running metal tour Summer Slaughter.
After twelve years on hiatus, Dååth found their ideal new home at Metal Blade, signing to the label and wasting no time creating new music, cover songs (Death's "The Philosopher" and Morbid Angel's "Where the Slime Live") and reissuing previous albums. The first new song from the revitalized Dååth, "No Rest No End" (released ahead of the album in February 2023), features guest solos by Spiro Dussias and now-Dååth member Trujillo, who impressed Levi so much while guesting on the track that he was invited to join the band.
Dååth lineup:
Eyal Levi - guitar
Sean Z - vocals
Krimh - drums
Jesse Zuretti - orchestration, synth, guitar
Rafael Trujillo - lead guitar
Davis Marvuglio - bass
(Photo - Stephanie Cabral)
