top of page
Desoration
NON
Review by Craig Leahy
Woah, yea man, like, howsit I guess?
This is a weird one for me man, so if this reads a bit sloppy, go find another music reviewer that keeps accidentally only reviewing Christchurch metal albums, because not gonna lie, I’m on some existential shit right now. Way up in my head reminiscing about life or whatever.
Like, fuck man, I’m getting married in 2 weeks. How insane is that?
Can you imagine what it’s like being my wife dude? Like I’m out here road-testing Gone for Smokes jokes on that poor woman, but she also needs context on what the fuck a Borer is and why the joke is funny, like that’s something she lives with day in day out, and you KNOW if she doesn’t laugh I tell her she just doesn’t get it. Bro, and she STILL wants to marry me.
But man, as much as I’m looking forward to getting married to this woman, it really sends you on some nostalgia trips man, like thinking about the people I could have accidentally married during a coke bender or whatever. Just out there one day then BAM I accidentally marry office girl who wanted to hook up because my laugh reminded her of Seth Rogen (that happened and I still don't think my laugh sounds like his), or SMACK I accidentally marry the tourist girl I matched on tinder with who after one date you find out she lives in a van just as she’s asked if she could move into your flat (also happened, she was awesome, didn’t let her move in tho, that’s wild behaviour).
Oh man what if I accidentally married the girl who used to tease me for listening to Joe Rogan (it was 2014 and covid hadn’t broken his brain yet) and thinking Elon Musk was just a weird harmless dork shooting his shit cars into space (it was 2014 Grimes hadn’t broken his brain yet) dude, this fucking girl is actually out there RIGHT NOW telling people ‘oh I just to date this dork who was really into Joe Rogan and Elon Musk’ bro like, in 2014 that was just kind of loser behaviour, in 2026, that’s some dog whistle shit, how many people think I’m in the manosphere now?
Fuck, am I in the manosphere?
Anyway, fuck all that, I’m not marrying those people, Elon Musk is a nazi and Joe Rogan hasn’t been the same since Biden signed an executive order making it impossible to tell if a video is AI or not, you see those videos about how pandas learnt how to cook ramen? Bring that shit up Jaimie.
So, today, instead of writing my vows, I’ve got some opinions to share.
Alright man, let’s have a chat about this new Desoration record, ‘NON’.
So back in December I get an email from the Wix email service that I get when someone submits an album to review. I have no idea why, but the emails all come through in Russian or something and the only thing in English is the band name along with whatever message they’ve sent me. At this point I don’t even really notice them because they look like the shittest scam you’ve ever seen
​
​
​
But this one, amidst the cool Russian propaganda, I see the name Desoration. Fuck man, immediately interested. I’d heard the single and seen the hype over on that shit NZ Metal Facebook page we all punish ourselves with for some reason (yea man some divorced dad telling you Damage Inc is the most underrated Metallica song is really the enrichment your shit life has been needing up until now), so I’m keen as fuck to give this thing a spin. I jump into the email and man, I gotta say, guitarist Hannes had provided a link to the album stream, an EPK full of shit about the band, big ol’ band photos and a 4k version of the video for the song ‘Those who Dwell in Darkness’.
Truly, the most professional shit I’ve experienced running this god forsaken hell hole of a website, considering the usual experience is getting a 4am drunken DM from some fuckin’ slob with a Dropbox link that stinks of Lion Browns and zero context. I start downloading the album, I notice there seems to be an overarching theme to the album so I start trying my best to figure it out, clearly a lot of attention has been given to this thematically and I want to make sure I absorb as much as I can before my first listen.
I give the EPK a read and learn as much as I can about where they came from, what the general vibe of the band is and what exactly it is they are presenting with the album. I watch the video a few times then really soak in the vibe of the band photo. I sit back in my not gamer-chair and ponder for a bit. There’s only one question comes to my mind…
Man, are these cunts tough or are they fuckin’ nerds?
Within minutes, I DM their singer Aean and ask ‘Hey man are you cunts tough or nerds?’. Aean took the time to explain the overarching concept of NON to me in detail along with some of the themes the band touches on, which really painted a picture on what this band is about, and look, it’s complicated, turns out you can be both. These guys are tough as fuck, and like, yes, they're almost certainly fuckin' nerds.
Except their bassist, Amanda. She seems effortlessly cool, even though she probably had to take Pokemon cards off at least one of these boys at the photoshoot.
Tell you what though man, by the time ‘Beyond the Veil of Sleep’ started on this thing, it was scratching this ultra specific nostalgia itch I didn’t even fucking know I had.
​
Desoration label themselves as Symphonic Metal which, look man, I’ll be brutally honest, in my experience basically means, unless your band name is Emperor, it’s going to be some whack Jim Henson ass Warcraft bullshit I’m just not interested in, but my god, that is in no way the case here. Desoration throw back to when bands like Amon Amarth, At the Gates, fuck or even Kataklysm were actually good, but they never actually sound like any of those bands. If this album had come out in 2005 when I was 17 living in Nelson, I would have a Desoration tattoo on my forearm right now, and I tell you what, I’m fucking stoked this album didn’t come out in 2005 because I’m 99% sure I’d regret that tattoo placement.
​
In Desoration’s EPK, they spoke about forming back in 2020 but struggling with their sound and it not quite clicking until they amended their lineup, blackened their sound and added symphonic elements. The Symphonic Metal tag feels comes from the structure and instrumentation here, these songs have a lot of movement, the guitars have well thought out passages just dripping in technical prowess, stank face inducing chugs all generally leading to impassioned, almost emotive choruses. There are big, very tasteful synth layers on every track, that never seem to feel like too much of a gimmick to me, and they’re never overbearing. Like you know when you’re listening to a big fat band that has synths on it then you rock up next to a bunch of tradies at the traffic lights and you have to quickly turn it down so they don’t hear some ugly fuckin’ wizard guy listening to some loser shit? Absolutely none of that is present here, Desoration explore these sounds while still being very much grounded in an almost blackened melodic death metal context, super tastefully done man, really appreciated this take on the genre. I’d like to say I go back and give Symphonic Metal another try, but I don’t think I’m getting hardguy punch riffs like this on some fuckin’ Kamelot record somehow.
NON doesn’t waste much time getting into the violent, precise and targeted blackened riff salad attack from the single ‘Those Who Dwell on Darkness’, I say doesn’t waste MUCH time because this is still a Symphonic Metal record so of course there’s a 73 second intro that sounds like a scene setting stinger from some Alien franchise spin-off film or something.
Every member of Desoration feels like tailor built for this band, god damn all their contributions are noticed – I’m going to start with the rhythm section, because despite what every asshole guitarist in the country will tell you, a metal band ain’t shit without a stacked rhythm section.
Bennet on drums is an immediate standout in the mix, his drumming is tighter than the moderation on the Megadeth subreddit after that Ride the Lightning cover dropped, and at all times is playing exactly what the song needs, he does have flare and obvious technical ability, but his playing never takes over, fuckin’ perfect addition to this style of music. Amanda’ is the Desoration bass player, however she has made it known that she actually did not play bass on this recording, bass duties on NON were handled by guitarist Hannes. The bass playing here is extremely syncopated with what Bennet is doing, the performance is extremely on point and added a fuck tonne of depth to the more melodic, chord-based passages like the chorus in ‘Deadened and Scarified’, fuck that halftime feel during chorus and into the outro kills me every spin, Aean growling ‘Deadened and Scarified’ over this is some caveman shit, this song kills so hard.
Now that Amanda has assumed bass duties, I'm really looking forwarding to hearing what Amanda brings to the next record. Let her pick the theme so it's not some Witcher 3 concept album or whatever these boys have planned next.
Joining Bennet and Amanda we have Hannes and Jack on guitars, and after what they said about blackening their riffs being one of the keys to fine tuning their sound, I’d really love to hear what they sounded like prior to this record – Because the blackening of the riffs here is such a focal point of their playing, they are as locked the fuck in as you could want two guitarists to be, the ferocity and depth in their playing isn’t even something you really notice first listen, each spin of ‘NON’ had me noticing more about their playing and actual depth of skill-set, they’re melodic when they need to be, they’re pummelling 95% of the time and both of the boys on top of all this also lay excellent solos that, in keeping in theme of everything else I’ve said, never feel overdone. Don’t get me wrong, ya boy loves a 9 minute guitar solo, but these songs never needed that style of playing, these solos are perfect for what is being presented. Killer shit, and boys, hit me up when you’re ready to drop your 47 minute prog concept opera ‘No Riffs, Only Sweeps’ because ya boy will review it.
I think Aean is the secret weapon for keeping this band grounded in the death metal world, I’ve always been a fan of Aean’s projects so I’m a little biased, but his vocals on this are fucking STAUNCH man, just guttural, well-articulated gorilla ass death metal vocals. There’s no frills, no gimmicks, just a big tough nerd being a big tough nerd and he’s mad at you for some reason. The album also features vocal guest spot for everyone’s favourite overachiever and social assassin Stuart Henley-Minchington on the tracks ‘Excoriating Reality’ and ‘Interitus The Herald of Ruin’ (fuck who names these songs how is my wife supposed to remember these names when I have a Desoration joke in 6 months) , playing contrast for Aeans ‘return to monkee’ vocals by adding ‘spent three days at the Twisted Frequency Festival where’s my fuckin’ cappuccino’ high screams. Alongside old mate Stu, on both of these tracks we also get an always welcome addition of WWF Hall of Famer and pre-workout influencer Vincent Henley-Minchington. Vince is the hardest death metal vocalist in the fuckin country at this point so anywhere he pops up is instantly appreciated, his snarls are genuinely hard as all fuck on these tracks.
I just quickly want to touch on this being a concept album, I asked Aean to elaborate on the story a bit, he actually ended up sending me the story mapped out with how it ties into the album, the album portrays a story in four parts – Introduction, Decline, Transformation and Invasion. Each part speaking to events happening in a fictional world crafted by Aean, I’m not actually sure how to summarise the concept as it’s insanely detailed and reads like a spec script for a new Event Horizon sequel, which now that I say that, Aean writing a spec script to a 29 year old sci-fi film is the most on brand thing I’ve ever heard and might actually be the genesis of this entire album.
But I do hope Desoration have some plan for releasing or introducing listeners to this world, as it’s super detailed and clearly a lot of love and attention has been given to it.
The thing I really loved about NON the most, is that as the album went on their songwriting opened up quite a bit, almost like the track order was the order the songs were written in or something? Like by tracks like ‘Corporealisation Threshold’ ‘Singularity Ritual’ and ‘Black Dawn’, their structures and phrasings seem to have opened up, it felt like they were experimenting a bit more with what they can get out of this insanely precise and hardened sound they’d crafted for themselves. It’s really cool hearing these tracks open up, because as much as I loved my time with this album and it will continue to be in my rotation for the foreseeable future, it gives me mad hype for hearing whatever these gigachad fuckin' nerds do next.
​
​
I just realised I’ve been typing non-stop for fucking ages now, and I wasn’t joking earlier, I literally have to write my vows so I’m going to leave it there, and if I mention our return to the singularity in my vows, I swear to god I’m going to freak the fuck out.
So, long story short, do I recommend this album? Hard fucking yes, admittedly I’m a bit biased because I adore Aean, have loved all of his projects and think he’s a wonderful boy putting wonderful art into a shitty world, but at no point during this review did I feel uninspired or never dreaded having to listen again, all I felt was pride for a beautiful boy doing awesome things alongside a crew of killers all at the top of their game, and after reading about how this band struggled defining their sound prior to this lineup, let me go on record and say – You all absolutely have. The album kills, you should all be proud of it.
Now get out of here you big dorky losers, go work on your relationships with your parents, they miss talking to you and they deserve a quick phone call not about the singularity.
​
​
bottom of page