DEADLY MAGIC – As Nightmares Gorged The Earth

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7.0

• Bands:
  DEADLY MAGIC
• Duration: 00:23:24
• Available from: 12/20/2024
• Label:

• Dying Victims Productions

Streaming not yet available

We are now at the end of the year, a time generally dedicated to drawn conclusions and more or less positive balance sheets, but it is also time for debuts: we therefore present on these pages a brand new band made up of five elements – four Germans and one French – called Deadly Magic .
Born from a precise desire of the guitarist and singer of Messerschmitt (those from Westphalia obviously, not our Romans), Maik Jegszenties, to slightly change the course regarding the musical proposal to be adopted, that is to lighten the raw thrash/speed of the parent band and change it in a techno thrash hybrid that dialogues a lot with power/progressive (where by power we mean the American one of the Eighties), they arrive at the first EP after at least four years of hidden writing work by of the mastermind: it all started when Covid decided to put a spanner in the works and the good Maik, on a forced break, took all the time necessary to elaborate and refine the four songs that we find in the grooves of “…As Nightmares Gorged The Earth”.
The next step was to recruit worthy adventure companions and record everything: a process that lasted practically four years, but which has now generated the much desired fruit, released on the Essen label Dying Victims Productions.
For these Deadly Magic, Maik chose Thorben Schulz as lead guitarist, with a past in the thrashers Rezet, the historic Messerschmitt producer Yannic Zwinscher on bass, Daniel Behle on drums and Alexis Roy-Petit on vocals, the latter current singer of the French Hürlement and ideal uvula for the genre chosen by the band – try it for yourself.
Starting from “Another I Beckons” we immediately notice crystal clear instrumental references to Megadeth of “Rust in Peace” and to Voivod, we notice a great structured, creative, technically remarkable song, capable of evoking dark atmospheres, like the beautiful artwork, which now envelop the listener and now they shake him with heavy and fast blows of the blade.
If we were in the presence of four similar songs we would be talking about a real jewel, already from the group's track of the same name however the level drops and the schematic repetitiveness and writing ideas of the good Jegszenties increases, whose songwriting is certainly ambitious in bringing us breaks, interludes, changes of time and anything else that might 'complicate' the usual linear progression of the prototype thrash piece, but the results don't always make our eyes shine.
Great help comes from the singer Alexis, practically a vocal double for Geoff Tate, author of a practically impeccable performance which finds its peak in “When The World Stood Still”, the most powerful composition of the lot (except for the accelerated final ), and in the final phase of the last “It Ends Where It Began” reaching Himalayan heights. In the last two songs mentioned, the predominant influences become Queensrÿche and above all Metallica of the late 80s, the techno-thrash leaves room for more classic sounds and melodies with an immediate impact, but the quality is not lacking, some passages easily remain in memory without sacrificing any effort to 'go in depth'; the production is also exactly what is required for jobs of this type, clean and well balanced.
We therefore have an EP produced and played by expert musicians, some of whom have been active in the scene for over twenty years, who could gain great satisfaction under this moniker, but it all depends on understanding the real intentions of the leader: he will want to keep Deadly Magic as a mere alternative whim to the parent company or does it intend to consistently build a real path of improvement?
If this were not the case, it would be a great shame, since, net of some functional 'adjustments' to the flow of the songs, in this “…As Nightmares Gorged The Earth” we already start from an indisputably high level.
Listening is recommended for all users of heavy metal without fear of contradiction, but lovers of purely 1980s sounds will find something special for them.