Deserted Fear – Doomsday (Hateful Fred)

Next to groups like Heaven Shall Burn, Deserted Fear belong to all those bands that propagate the horrible cliché of the funny East German in the world. You don’t believe me? Then check out the latter live. Why does an East German band always have to be likeable and funny? Since when are Ossis considered funny anyway? We are talking about the same people who had to live under the yoke of a dubious government for 40 years . However, because the dialect is funny, the people must be too. Bullshit. You’re almost thankful for bands like Tokio Hotel, who were never funny and never wanted to be. Still, our reputation as the funny folk from the dark part of Germany endures. To quote Spongebob and Patrick, “It is and remains a mystery.”

So let’s get to Doomsday and wow, I want to yawn right there. I mean, Deserted Fear have always made interchangeable music with corny lyrics and completely overused song titles. But to choose the title Doomsday after so many albums is poor even for the Thuringians. Of course, songs with such creative and revolutionary names as “Fall from Grace” cannot be missing. Morbid Angel called them … they also do not know what this is still 30 years after the release of Blessed are the Sick.

To paraphrase my actual problem with Doomsday in more detail, let me ask you the following question: If someone had shown you a song from this album without saying who you were listening to, preferably “Part of the End” or “Follow the Light that Blinds,” would you have thought it was Deserted Fear? Or rather any of those random Impericon Metalcore/ Melodic Metal bands that spring up like mushrooms and usually open for some other forgettable group?

Deserted Fear have generally approached the sound of modern Metalcore and Melodic Metal groups in recent years, apparently to pick up all the kids in their mid-twenties. Or Hard Rock dads who, after decades of excessive consumption of AC/DC and the Scorpions, think that this is now the really hard shit. But it isn’t. It’s well done craft, no doubt, and of course many riffs are really awesome, I would never deny that. But calling something like this Death Metal is just going too far for me. Sure, it’s heavy, has pressure and a lot of double bass, but seriously: Bury Tomorrow, Emmure, Bleed From Within, Breakdown of Sanity and who knows what else have all that. And I think you wouldn’t necessarily call those Death Metal.
Of course, Doomsday has its qualities, of course it’s highly professionally produced and of course the fans will be happy. But an original masterpiece, and as such it will be praised again by some magazines and hobby connoisseurs, it is not.

Let’s put it this way: many will want to call Doomsday the Elden Ring of the Metal scene, but it is rather a Call of Duty. I couldn’t care less which one.