READER’S CHOICE: THE EASTERN EUROPEAN GENERIC TECH DEATH EDITION

The latest of my ongoing effort to actually listen to all the bands you guys send us…

• Deivos, who were suggested by “ComicBookGuy93,” are a tech death band from Poland. They’re about to start a tour with Rotting Christ, which should give you some sense of whether or not you might enjoy their music. Anyways, they’re not bad, but I’m not sure I hear anything to distinguish them from the trillions of other tech death bands out there. I can certainly think of at least one another Polish DM band I’d much rather listen to.
• As their band name, young age, and clothes might suggest (see above pic), Before the Murder, who were suggested by “N,” are basically an aspiring Sumeriancore band; what sets them apart is that they’re from Slovenia.Unfortunately, that’s really the only thing that sets them apart. Still, they’re much better than I would have thought, given what they look like.

The bottom line is that these bands need to find their own musical identity, something which will make them stand out from the pack. There’s a fine line between utilizing genre tropes and relying on genre clichés, and right now, I’d argue that both of these groups are on the wrong side of that line.

-AR