Victims of Deception
| Victims of Deception | ||||
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| Heathen studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Roadrunner Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
10 (11) |
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running time |
64:41 (bonus version 68:21) |
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| occupation |
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Heathen, Rob Beaton |
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Studio (s) |
Studio D, Sausalito , Cloud Nine Studios, Chico , Bayview Studios, Richmond , Hyde St. Studios, San Francisco |
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Victims of Deception is the second studio album by the US thrash metal band Heathen . It was released in March 1991 via Roadrunner Records . It is the last studio album before the preliminary band breakup in 1992 and The Evolution of Chaos, which was released in 2010 .
History of origin
After the release of Breaking the Silence , the band got problems with the record company Combat at the time, as well as with management and lawyer, the latter were changed. The new attorney helped Heathen terminate his contract with Combat because the company had committed breaches of contract. The band sent demos to major labels , who also expressed interest, but put the band off. The atmosphere in the band got worse, one after the other, the former bass player "Yaz" Jastremski, drummer Carl Sacco and singer David White left the band. After a transition phase with ex- Exodus singer Paul Baloff, who according to guitarist Lee Altus was "not the right one" for the band, and White's return, a deadline was set for the label search. When no major label was found, the group signed for Victims of Deception with Roadrunner.
After Jastremski had not found a suitable successor after Jastremski left, Heathen decided to have the album recorded by blind illusion bassist Marc Biedermann, who was considered one of the best bassists in the Bay Area . Also had Jason Newsted of Metallica and Primus bassist Les Claypool made the short list. Shortly after the album was released, a new bassist, Randy Laire, was hired, like the recently hired drummer Darren Minter from Sacramento . Laire was killed in a car accident in late 1991.
The band did most of the production themselves, as they were n't satisfied with the sound of Breaking the Silence . Sound engineer Rob Beaton developed into a "sixth member of the band" in the course of production and had "many good ideas". Thaen Rasmussen can be heard as a guest guitarist with Guitarmony and Prisoners of Fate . Singles were Kill the King (a rainbow cover version) and Prisoners of Fate . Originally the planned title of the album was Opiate of the Masses , but after the album Oppressing the Masses by Vio-lence from the previous year this was dropped.
In 2006 a re-release, limited to 2,000 copies, was released as a digipak by Metal Mind Productions .
Texts
As the band name suggests, the band took a critical look at religion, for example in the piece Hypnotized , for whose intro a sermon by the evangelist Jim Jones was used. The song is about preachers who use religions to enrich themselves. Opiate of the Masses is about dictators like Saddam Hussein , inspired by the Second Gulf War . At the time, Altus supported the Allied war against Saddam and was critical of arms exports from Western countries.
Track list
| # | title | Originator | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hypnotized | Altus, White | 8:36 |
| 2 | Opiate of the masses | Altus, White | 7:51 |
| 3 | Heathen's song | Altus, White, Sanguinetti | 9:26 |
| 4th | Kill the King | Blackmore , Dio , Powell | 3:34 |
| 5 | Fear of the Unknown | Altus, White | 7:09 |
| 6th | Prisoners of Fate | Altus, White | 6:21 |
| 7th | Morbid Curiosity | Piercy, White | 6:28 |
| 8th | Guitarmony | Piercy | 3:31 |
| 9 | Mercy Is No Virtue | Altus, White | 6:28 |
| 10 | Timeless Cell of Prophecy | Altus, White | 5:23 |
| 11 | Hellbound | Bonus track, Tygers of Pan Tang | 3:40 |
reception
Victims of Deception received very good reviews. Frank Trojan from Rock Hard wrote that compositionally the album “fits into the elite of the really great without any problems”, but above all because of the guitar work of Piercy and Altus. In addition there is the “crystal clear but extremely brutal production, which is the icing on the cake, so to speak.” 9.5 out of 10 points are “almost too little”. The editors rated the record at number 1 in the monthly "editorial charts" before Sepulturas Arise . Victims of Deception also appears in the magazine's best list of 500 titles published in 2004 , here on rank 136. Thomas Kupfer spoke of a “firework of musical quality and precision”. In the Metal Hammer Uwe “Buffo” Schnädelbach awarded the highest number of points with seven. He counted Victims of Deception among the "best speed / thrash releases of the last twelve months". Songs like Prisoners of Fate could also have been penned by Metallica. In the magazine's “Soundcheck”, however, the album only took eleventh place. Sepultura, Mind Funk's self-titled record and The Almighty with Soul Destruction landed much further ahead.
Web links
- Victims of Deception at Allmusic (English)
- Victims of Deception on MusicBrainz
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Uwe "Buffo" Schnädelbach: Ready to Strike , in: Metal Hammer, No. 4, 1991, o. Pag.
- ↑ totentanz-magazin.de: Interview: Heathen - Die Metal-Evolution ( Memento from January 1st, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ www.rockhard.de: Review Victims of Deception by Frank Trojan
- ↑ Rock Hard: Best of Rock and Metal , p. 167.
- ↑ Uwe "Buffo" Schnädelbach: Review Victims of Deception , in: Metal Hammer, No. 4, 1991, o. Pag.