DETERIOROT – Awakening

vote
6.5

• Bands:
  DAMAGED
• Duration: 00:36:47
• Available from: 10/21/2025
• Label:

• XtreemMusic

Streaming not yet available

With “Awakening”, Deteriorot continue along the path of rebirth inaugurated with “The Rebirth”, confirming here the desire to finally remain more present in the scene after years of silence and releases delayed beyond belief. Just two years after the previous full-length, Paul Zavaleta's band releases a new work composed of twelve tracks that reaffirm loyalty to the old school death metal verb, the one with a murky imprint made in the USA, comparable in tone to old colleagues such as Incantation, Immolation and Rottrevore, with some openness to European suggestions.

The formula has not changed and perhaps a revolution could not have been expected: Deteriorot's trademark remains that intertwining of lowered and cavernous riffs and more evocative inserts, sometimes veering towards a melancholy that refers to the Finnish school of the early nineties. It is precisely in this balance that some of the best moments of the album are found: “Horrors in an Everlasting Nightmare” and “Haunting Images from a Past Life” alternate viscous and slowed down passages with oblique melodic lines, which evoke both Abhorrence and early Amorphis, giving depth to a writing otherwise anchored to very classic riffs and patterns.

Not all the tracklist, however, reaches the same level. In fact, while listening, the impression becomes clear that “Awakening” proceeds in fits and starts: alongside mature and well-polished episodes there are more cheesy songs, which seem to have emerged too quickly from the compositional process. “Deliver Us from Fiction” represents a rather clear example of this trend: an enjoyable piece in itself, but which indulges in homages to Bolt Thrower that are so direct that they seem more like a divertissement than a conscious declaration of intent. From a band celebrating thirty-five years of career it would be reasonable to expect less citations.
Other uncertainties are then concentrated especially in the final part of the album: “The Spirit”, short and tight, is based on two tight riffs but lacks a precise direction, appearing almost like a filler disconnected from the context rather than a necessary chapter. The instrumental outro “To Sleep” doesn't work any better: cut abruptly, it seems like the draft of an idea that never found fruition. All things considered, it would have been preferable to close with “In Silence”, a lilting and painful episode in which the group demonstrates its ability to dose death-doom accents with coherence and measure, sealing the album with a solemn note.

Overall, “Awakening” therefore reflects the dual nature of Deteriorot: on the one hand a band capable of evoking a suffering mood with competence, with a strong tradition and a timbre that places it naturally in the genealogical line of certain American death metal. On the other, a group that continues to betray a certain discontinuity and lack of refinement, almost a chronic inability to fully express its potential.
The new work may not disappoint certain enthusiasts obsessed with the underground at all costs, but as a whole it cannot be seen as a proof of definitive maturity, capable of imposing itself outside a small circle. In short, the Deteriorot remain true to themselves, for better or for worse: a reality that has valid ideas, but which seems content to reappear from time to time rather than refine its style once and for all.