“Into the Burning Lands” opens with nice guitar harmonies and a hopeful feel.  Like, I could see a crowd bouncing up and down to this song. Members Simon Mengs (Drums), Fabian Hildebrandt (Guitars), and Manuel Glatter (Vocals, Guitars) have all been together for a while, and they gel. At a little prior to the three-minute mark, with the nice heavy chug groove.  The song then shifts to more of that melodic tone and honestly, super, duper vanilla here, folks.

“Storm of Resistance”, with the battle charged lyrics, has cool vocals and you know I am hearing a lot of Gorefest influence, but not the sicko grinding death metal Gorefest, that is the best, but rather the Erase – Chapter 13 era.  This song is a melodic death and roll romp, and at times Manuel gets into some lower register growls, but it’s not until song #5, “Embrace the Void” that there is really any type of fast part.  The opening is a gallop, old school in nature, and I wanted this moment to keep continuing, yet the song shifts to more of that slower melodic style.  The guitar work is well done, and I appreciate the musicianship on this.  There is a lot of emotion played in this song.  It does have some depressive melodies.  This is a really good song – the best one here.

“At the End of Our Reign” has more of that hopping up and down vibe.  With the isolated vocal moments, then right into the chugging groove, this moment has a big feel to it.  Like I could see these moments, in a live setting, being highlighted with white lights coming on to accentuate these moments as the crowd is headbanging in unison.  Very cool guitar harmonies all over this song. The album ends with the title track.  Again, very melodic, guitar harmonies all over the place, and more of the mid-paced groove.  The song is one of the better ones on this album and a few moments of downbeat heavy chu,g, and when Manuel goes deeper in his vocal range, those are the moments I tend to like the best.

Veins of Fire is a fair-to-middling Deserted Fear album.  The band is shifting towards more of a melodic flair of death metal, which, while some may appreciate, the songs on this are just vanilla.  There is no really great song on this.  There is very little resembling the Deserted Fear, which I originally enjoyed.  I think the band can do better, but when bands usually shift to certain styles later on in their album discography, that is usually the continuing trajectory of their sound.  A let-down album in my opinion.

The production and song writing has vastly improved from My Empire, making Kingdom of Worms a much more dynamic and memorable record. The production is bigger and beefier and the songs, while still straddling old school structures (Vader, Asphyx and country mates Morgoth still come to mind), there’s a sense of confidence and growth. The change could be attributed to new vocalist /rhythm guitarist Manuel Glatter who replaces Mahne and his Marc  Grewe/Martin van Drunen worshiping rasps. His voice is a little deeper and more commanding and it effects the whole release.

There’s also a slightly heavier thrash influence on Kingdom of Worms, but it’s still certainly good old death metal. The riffs hammer and stagger with energy and precision and just a little more added dynamics to make them stick a shade more than the debut. And just those subtle improvements and changes elevate Deserted Fear from merely OK to pretty damned good.

Tracks like the title track and the rather impressive chunky standout “Call Me Your God”, offer up faster,  visceral, thrashing death metal, while the likes of “Wrath on Your Wound”, “Shattering the Soil” and “Last of a Fading Kind” offer up a more restrained and even melancholic sense of war mongering  melody and some down right catchy groves for “With Might and Main” and “Mortal Reign” At times, I even get a bit of a God Dethroned vibe as heard on the fiercely melodic “The Agony”.  There’s even the obligatory atmospheric interlude in “Torn With Hatred” to break the album up a little bit. None nne f it truly breathtaking or groundbreaking but a

Of the label’s  recent releases (Considered Dead Thornafire,and Arroganz), the improvement made on Kingdom of Worms by Deserted Fear makes it one of the labels better late 2014 releases, a nice change from musty old school nostalgia and a band certainly on the upswing.

What you play in Deserted Fear and how long have you been in the band?

This is Fabian Fabian Hildebrandt, Deserted  Fear’s guitar player. Mahne (guitar and vocals) and I have been in the band ever since (2007), so we are the founders of DESERTED FEAR. A bit later Simon (drums) joined the band and we started practicing in our very own rehearsal room in 2010. This was the time we started to play live and released our first demo.

Tell us how the reaction has been regarding My Empire, your debut on FDA Rekotz, last September?

The reactions are outstanding and we’ve been totally surprised! There was a whole bunch of really good reviews, interviews and booking requests – this is amazing! At this point, we want to say thank you to FDA Rekotz and Clawhammer PR for this phenomenal piece of promotion! And of course we want to thank all of our fans for their great support.

How do you differ from some of the bands, playing this style of death metal, in your country and other parts of Europe? What are some of your musical/personal influences?

I think it’s quite difficult to speak about yourself – we just play Death Metal the way it should be played. We just refresh it a little and that’s it. Being a German band may be useful according to our sound haha. Our influences are US bands like Obituary as well, as European bands like Dismember, Asphyx and so on.

What was the concept regarding the album? Explain to us the fantastic artwork that adorns the cd and what the name Deserted Fear means to your music?

Concept, huh?! To be honest: We wanted to entitle the album FIELD OF DEATH and we told the cover artist to draw something with tanks. While he was working on the artwork, we finished the song MY EMPIRE and he came up with a totally different drawing. This artwork fitted the theme of the song as well, as our whole style of metal. Furthermore we are very big fans of such drawings. Well.. DESERTED FEAR.. There was never something like a concept behind the name. It sounded cool and there was no other band with a similar name.. and that’s it hahaha!

Have you been touring around your area and any plans for a summer tour?

We really would like to tour! We played a little tour (3 gigs in a row) in February – a quite cool experience! But it would be even more interesting to start a real big one across Europe. We’re doing a lot of club shows through Germany on the weekends. It’s fun all time and we meet plenty of cool and interesting people. Unfortunately there are no concrete plans for a tour yet – things aren’t so easy these days…

Do you currently have any ideas for another release and how will the new music compare to the debut?

We already started writing new songs and things are working out pretty fine. 2 – 3 songs are finished yet and they fit us very very well. Like on MY EMPIRE we have no clear line to work on – we just go with the flow and see what happens. We are very excited about the outcome and hope to release in 2014.

How did you go about securing Dan Swano when recording your debut? I can imagine he costs a lot of money; did the label help out with paying for the recording? How did Dan enhance or help with what you were trying to get across on the recording?

We just wrote an e-mail and asked him about the expenses and the other requirements. He listened to our material and was absolutely hooked later he made a really fair offer we agreed on. We received no money from FDA but that’s the current way of business in our sector of music. Dan did a great job and gave us some extra advice during the recording sessions. We all had a lot of fun working on MY EMPIRE and so I think we can count on him for the second full length.

What do you guys do for fun in your spare time and what kinds of jobs you have? Is Deserted Fear a long term commitment? Where do you see the band in 5 years?

For sure DESERTED FEAR demands a lot of time but it’s still a hobby and we handle it in that effect. Mahne and I are playing a lot Basketball and Xbox, mainly Basketball games ha ha. Our bass player Albi has his own music project which takes a lot of his time beneath DESERTED FEAR. Mahne and I are working as precision engineers, our drummer Simon is cemetery gardener and Albi is a student. We have no clue in which kind of future DESERTED FEAR is marching. We don’t think in that long periods. We’re just doing our stuff day by day and rehearsal for rehearsal. We don’t want to rush anything – once again: It’s still a hobby and we want to have fun with DESERTED FEAR. If the fun level remains constant, I see us in different clubs across Europe promoting our third full length or so.

Do you support your death metal scene and where would you like death metal to go in the future? How can you, as a band, help in moving the scene forward?

If our spare time allows us to visit some local shows we take those opportunities and visit the gigs of other bands. Unfortunately a lot of local metal scenes are diminishing and we can’t tell why. We hope that bookers, bands, club owners and visitors don’t be down in the mouth if some concerts aren’t working that well, keep up the good work and support the local metal scene!

Any final thoughts/comments for the readers?

Thank you for the interview and the opportunity to introduce ourselves.

Infernal hailz out to all of you readers!

Prost, Fabian & DESERTED FEAR

https://www.facebook.com/desertedfear

http://www.desertedfear.de/

http://soundcloud.com/desertedfear

http://fda-rekotz.com/gx/index.php?language=en&XTCsid=747b09394b40006df6b1e3581e935b30&

Sound wise, My Empire goes for a more modern, polished American sound with just a hint of Hail of Bullets crunch, so there’s no full on  throwback buzz or hum, but song writing/riff (and logo/artwork) wise, the band has certainly has some more retro bands as their primary influence. Guitarist vocalist Mahne is obviously a fan of Martin Van Drunen/Marc Grewe with his oft use growl and howl though the riffs he plays are more a mix of Vader and Morgoth.

This mix comes together pretty well and delivers and solid death metal album that’s neither pure old school or a soulless modern death metal album. The songs have energy and oomph and stand confidently astride old school moments of rumble and groove, with a few modern blasts and solos here and there wrapped in a very modern, if slightly overly clean sound.

However, I’m not utterly blown away. As competent as the band are and as enjoyable as this release often is, I just haven’t felt the need to reach for it voluntarily (unlike the labels new Revolting album) . Despite some cool moments here and there such as the grooves in “Battalion of Insanities”,  end of “Pestilential”, opening rumble of “Nocturnal Frags” and “Scene of Crime” , it seems plonked in the middle of solid but familiar blasting. I get the impression that these youngsters were so excited to write and record and show their influences they simply got a little too crazy with the songs to where they are a little…..rushed? Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to like here, but it’s pretty disposable. I just want to grab the band a say ‘settle down’, ‘cos there is a ton of potential here if they can just hone in on their sound a reign things in a bit.

This release reminded me a lot of Fisthammer’s album from earlier this year. A group of talented and energetic guys wearing there influences on their sleeves but with a modern edge, but like a teenager getting some action, it’s a little over excited, a bit all over the place and over too quickly despite the enthusiasm.