After the first wave of extreme metal in Victoria, BC, Deranged unexpectedly emerged and literally cleared the playing field. Taking their influences directly from the tape trading underground, their openness towards new and extreme sub-genres led to a potent hybrid of death/thrash metal. Their second demo “Place Of Torment” heralded massive progression and rave reviews; it is that which we focus on. All four songs were transferred from original 16 track analogue masters at the legendary Fiasco Bros studio, remixed by critically acclaimed engineer Kurt Ballou at GodCity, mastered by Audu Obaje at WE2, and finally cut at 45 rpm for highest fidelity. This flawless masterpiece stands tall next to any worldwide contemporary and would have been huge had they received a record deal in the 80s. Includes a generous 16 page booklet with interview, flyers, art, photographs & lyrics. Ferocious Canadian death / thrash metal. 500 copies.Our take: Place of Torment is a vinyl reissue of this Canadian band’s 1989 demo, their second and final tape (Deranged had no vinyl releases). This is a total ripper… blistering, technical thrash metal with darker, mid-paced death metal passages and a snarling vocalist who sounds a little like Blaine from the Accüsed. I’m not sure how the original demo sounded, but Kurt Ballou remixed this version and it sounds great, reminding me of lower-budget productions from labels like Noise and New Renaissance and not “beefed up” or made to sound like anything other than what it is. There are only four songs, but they are dense and complex, with slight prog elements a la Metallica or Megadeth, and to me that’s the perfect amount of music for something like this, where a longer LP might feel same-y by the end. As usual with No Echo, the packaging also includes a lot of contextual info and ephemera, further deepening the pleasure of exploring this band’s world.
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