Deviated Instinct – Liberty Crawls to the Sanctuary of Slaves

Deviated Instinct as we all know were part of the underground anarcho-punk scene in the eighties but evolved into very much their own infamous style. With a more metal, gritty bass ridden sound and along with others invented crust. When listening to them I can’t but help think of the early crust scene. It’s not that it sounds old, far from it. But it’s the name ‘Deviated Instinct’ itself that I just associate with lots of homebrew, the Brew Crew, Hackney squatters, Hellbastard, Concrete Sox, matted hair and some very good times. And of course meeting the odd silly person who rubbed margarine into their pants to give them a smelly crusty look! But now it’s 2012 and some of those early crusty bands are very much of that time and some even unlistenable now. Most bands release a couple of classic records and then after a while it can sound dated, or the band just go shite. But there are a few bands who surpass all that and still keep their vigour. Deviated Instinct are very much one of those bands, with this their first proper release in something like 21 years!

It is great to hear such big production quality on ‘Liberty Crawls to the Sanctuary of Slaves’. I think the production is probably the best the band ever has had. Recording was done by Bri Doom, clean but at the same time not overproduced so still has that raw feel to it. The song ‘Blunt Instrument’ starts this record off. It has a down tuned mid paced sound to it with a tortured menacing growl of the word “rising”. Really bleak sounding riffs powered along by pounding drums interweaving it with heavy chugging guitar.

The next song, ‘Architect of Misery’ opens with dirty Discharge styled riffs, then slows right down into a more eerie low guitar riff and somber tempo. The sound still very dirty and intense with the drums very up-front and loud. This EP does not rely on past glories, but stands on it’s own. Leggo’s voice is as aggressive as ever. Mid’s heavy thrash-like riffing, Snapa’s deep heavy bass and Tony Sheppard beating the living shit out of the drums are a great combination.

The dark leaden ‘Thorn in Your Flesh’ you can hear for yourself through their bandcamp page and is outstanding. It’s feedback leads nicely into ‘Blandscape Slavebait’ which starts with ghostly echos and dreary guitar and builds into a heavy droning sound with great raspy backing vocals. Then ends with a great off-key melody towards the end.

Bonus download tracks are ‘End Times’ (from the split with Summon the Crows) and ‘Judas Cancer’ from the same recording session. ‘Judas Cancer’ is an updated version of ‘Cancer Spreading’ from the “Terminal Filth Stenchcore (demo)” / “Welcome to the Orgy (ep)”. Personally this is one of my favourite songs by them and now has a much bigger, heavier sound and the great line “man is the cancer, the judas cancer, corporate locust must feed”. Heavy as fuck, Deviated Instinct at their best.

Also worth mentioning is the artwork. Mid once again has done some fine illustrations and layout on this release and at this stage is a well known master at it. ‘Liberty Crawls to the Sanctuary of Slaves’ is being released on June 10th as a limited 4 track 12″ EP available from the bands own Terminal Filth Records and Nakkeskudd Plater in Europe and Profane Existence in the US and download by DIYload. The download also includes two new bonus tracks.

http://diyload.com/
http://www.terminal-filth.com/
http://www.nakkeskudd.com/
http://www.deviated-instinct.co.uk/
http://www.profaneexistence.com/