Band:	Souldeceiver
Album:	The Curious Tricks Of Mind
Style:	Death metal, Gothenburg metal
Release date:	April 2011

01. Hundred 25
02. My Closest Embrace
03. Suiciding
04. Mary Ann
05. The Pressing
06. Phase C
07. Icon Of Your God
08. Relapse
09. Bone Sacrifice
10. Eternally

Once again Italy proves to have a huge shitload of thrash and death metal bands, ranging from the modern Gothenburg-ish melodic stuff to the über brutal style. Souldeceiver are on a quite classic Gothenburg side, with aggression, melody, and some thrashy influences thrown in for good measure. They're not really copycats of the genre's staples, but they do use the same general recipe: crunchy riffs, melodic leads, harsh and raspy vocals, and almost no clean vocals nor keyboards (only a few here and there, used to great effect). Yes, I'm not talking about the modern, catchy and mainstream stuff - one has only to listen to "Relapse", with its old In Flames feel.

The Curious Tricks Of Mind, already their second album, is a bit less of 40 minutes filled with really good riffs and solos, like in "Suiciding", or in "My Closest Embrace" (with its pounding, great bass and rhythm guitars). Guess what, both players are definitely good at their craft - same goes for bass and drums, actually. And the vocals are on par with the rest, that is, aggressive and good. The sound, quite heavy and crunchy, compliments nicely the music. Songwriting-wise, it's definitely enjoyable. Each song has, or tries to have, it's own identity, whether be it by a bit of sound tweaking ("Bone Sacrifice" sounds more 'modern', if you know what I mean) or by adding selected hints of other musical elements ("Mary Ann" with its strange intro and clean vocals, or "The Pressing" and its ambient stuff and samples).

So, there's nothing wrong? Almost? Indeed, almost. This album just lacks that all-too-famous 'little something' that would transform it from good to great. And so, you myself find your mind wandering here and there, but not concerned by the music anymore, because of that little spark or something. Is it a whiff of danger? A hint of passion? I don't know.

Anyway, don't judge this album by its horrendous, retch-inducing cover! It is a surprisingly consistent and enjoyable album, well crafted and played; a melodeath job well done. Not the album of the year by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice surprise nonetheless. Just to quote my esteemed colleague who nailed the phenomena to the point: "That's all from a point of view of a nit-picking critic. From the viewpoint of anyone who doesn't have to write an entire review, it's a Gothenburg melodeath album. Just that. It's not bad at all, in fact, I'd take this over any number of indistinguishable Gothenburg acts out there, but it still doesn't leave too great of an impact." That said, I guess fans of the style should check it out, at the very least because they're not another In Flames/Soilwork copycat.