Origin:	Sweden
Genres:

The Great Deceiver

Tomas Lindberg is still revered for his time spent in the seminal Swedish death metal band At The Gates, and since that band's demise he has shown up in a variety of groups, mostly tied to death metal either directly or indirectly. The Great Deceiver is not a death metal band, and thus is kind of the black sheep of the Lindberg family of bands. The style on A Venom Well Received is a bit hard to pinpoint, as it features mid-paced songs, with driving, harsh guitar riffs accentuated by a spacey, phased guitar sound, which is a nice effect though it borders on overuse here. Surprisingly, the genre that The Great Deceiver might be closest to is nu-metal -- they are not a nu-metal band, but have some nu-metal characteristics, and with a different vocalist (one of those half-crooning, half-hardcore-shouting types that most nu-metal bands employ) the similarities would be more noticeable. Lindberg turns in a typical performance, though for some reason he sounds less dynamic than usual, his trademark hoarse yells having less range than the music might dictate. Kudos to these guys for doing something a bit different, though it's hard to tell who the target audience is for this band. As it stands, A Venom Well Designed is an intriguing listen, worth a try as long as one is prepared to hear something unlike Lindberg's other work.