Death metal has become pretty typical around the world, with musicians from one scene borrowing from another and ending up with fairly consistent results. My first real foray into international act Hyperdontia thus doesn’t shock too much, since elements mix from several European varieties and their North American counterparts, leaving Deranged at no particular extreme. That doesn’t make the experience boring, however, with 4 strong tracks on offer that pull out all the tricks that those options offer to entertain and pulverize. Indeed, Hyperdontia veer from straightforward to rather technical and from pretty fast to relatively slow, though common enough markers like Cannibal Corpse and Incantation will point you to the effect of these variations. Even when busting out tricky basslines and strong palm-muted riffs, cuts like ‘Deluded’ maintain a sense of groove that should satisfy easily, since nothing is that hard to get to grips with here. Order of the day is riffs and growls, with my favourite of both coming in the massive half-pace passage during ‘Gagging in Convulsion’, following which one of the EP’s tastier leads gets the honour of revelling in relative calmness. The effort as a whole doesn’t have a great deal of lead guitar, with the sonic scope remaining consistently low, though the busy compositions will keep the listener's attention anyway. Honestly, if you really like death metal it’s super easy to choose your next listen these days. Even though Deranged doesn’t offer quite the same variety as a full-length might, it proves that Hyperdontia understand more than just the fundamentals of good death metal and can easily be added to the list of household names if a great album comes along in the future. Considering today is actually the release day of Harvest of Malevolence, let’s hope this is the temptation that fate needs.
