Deviated Instinct
Welcome to the Orgy

It was the usual late winter afternoon, harsh and dense with frost, one of those events imbued with magic and goodness. To warm my chilled limbs I chose a record store, but the situation was not the rosiest: not a single beautiful girl in sight, and not a molecule of good metal records. I spent some time browsing, just to keep the shop assistant on edge, until a tender family unit approached me. I looked at the child, he looked at a Savatage record and said, "This is real music." Soothed by the notes of the sweet Hardcore rap that the shop was blasting, I had to turn towards the Punk music shelf to shoo away the gnat that had flown into my eye at the sound of those words. And there it was—enchanted fate? A sign of destiny?—the miracle happened: amidst so much junk, from Green Day to Blink 182, a magnetic album by Deviated Instinct: the diamond rising from the muck. And not just any album: the compilation "Welcome To The Orgy", a namesake box set of the ’86 EP that encapsulates the fundamental developments of what was, quite simply, one of the most influential and important Crust bands in history.

"Welcome To The Orgy" essentially includes three works by the English band: the aforementioned EP (which was also the first ever vinyl released by Peaceville, not peanuts and figs) and two LPs: "Rock'n'Roll Conformity" ('88) and "Guttural Breath" ('89). Despite the limited time span, it’s possible to get a more than precise idea of the various evolutionary turns the band's musical proposal went through (which disbanded after seven years of activity; not a short time, by the way, for a Crust band), a proposal that oscillates now more, now less between classic Crust and Death metal.

Let's go in order: "Welcome To The Orgy" is the band’s first work, an EP consisting of four dark, furious, gloomy tracks: a true concentration of the gloomiest gloom. The dirty singing of Leggo alternates with the growls of Mid against the background of a terribly Lo-Fi recording (undoubtedly a strength) and a mid-tempo that occasionally gives way to the canonical outbursts. Add to all this the most distorted bass you've ever heard, at least in this sphere, and you'll get a nice little post-meal burp disk, just the way I like it.

In "Rock'n'Roll Conformity" the style changes but not the spirit: the fury is the same, however, channeled into a cleaner, more worldly sound: darkness gives way to rabid lucidity. Listen, for example, to the beginning of "Pearls Before Swine": a tender music box, a symbol of bourgeois mystification (according to me), overshadowed by an insistent chainsaw used to fell the bullies and fascists from the neighborhood! In any case, an evident stylistic turn has occurred; and frontman Leggo (his way of singing cannot be defined as "growl," they're pure and simple snarled shouts "in your face") describes apocalyptic scenarios interspersed with rare moments of irony (the conformism of the title goes to hell: these guys would opt for a baseball bat over typical rock stars).

Finally, "Guttural Breath": no title was ever more fitting. It is indeed a guttural breath that comes from Mid's vocal cords, who took up the singer role following various changes in a constantly beleaguered lineup. Consequently, the whole assembly changes once again. I wouldn’t even be able to define this last work as Crust: here we are faced with a sort of "Crustened death metal," if you will. Want a concrete reference? The last Darkthrone in death sauce, there you go. Mid's guitar aligns with his growls, becoming heavier, and Adam's drumming slightly hits the accelerator harder. "Guttural Breath" is proof of how, in the ’80s, the thin line between Crust and Death was, all things considered, rather blurred.

"Welcome To The Orgy" is a compilation that cannot be missing from your collection if you're a fan of the genre: it will offer you, as already mentioned, the evolutionary journey of the group's proposal, following a "bell curve" trajectory, first moving away from Death then fully plunging into it, and, simply, you'll be able to enjoy some great music. The Deviated Instinct reunited in 2007, but I believe that they have already said what they needed to say; let us consider this summa as the testament of a group that has set a school in which, curiously, the eponymous song of the title is actually missing: one of the sporadic ironic moments in a work that really contains very little irony.