Album Graveyard: NonExist - Dues Deceptor

Immediately following his depature from Arch Enemy, vocalist Johan “Liiva” Axelsson joined this side project with Johan Reinholdz. Johan Reinholdz is the current vocalist for progressive band Andromeda, and he played guitar and bass for this side project as well as composing the large majority of music. Playing drums was Matte Modin, the drummer for Dark Funeral.

The music on display in “Deus Deceptor” is thrashy, technical and melodic, every now and then we see moments where strange time signatures have been intentionally inserted, as well as the rare blast beat. The course of the album is held together with a couple of instrumental interludes which re use portions of each other as variations. When he was in Arch Enemy, Johan “Liiva” presented a lower, rougher growl, but here in NonExist, the low end power he displayed before is replaced by a more precise sounding mid-range bark often extending towards some higher screams. Every instrument can be heard well, which adds to a real “band” atmosphere rather than one person running the show. The tones of both guitar and bass can be heard quite well, and have a unique tone that seems to set them apart from many other bands from Sweden.

It’s too bad that neither Johan “Liiva” or Matte Modin wished to continue the project, as what was displayed by NonExist was an astonishing debut where all the songs came together to form a great album that really gave itself just the right amount of distance from some of the more typical Swedish bands without alienating themselves from that same audience.

"Deus Deceptor" by NonExist was released on Century Media in 2002.

8/10