dEUS - Worst Case Scenario

A Belgian quintet, Deus (pronounced day-us) specializes in alternatively jagged and soothing Beefheartian symphonies packed with alluring riffs, cracked lyrics and atonal jazz rock passages featuring a lead violin. "Right as Rain" is the gentlest listening experience, "Via" and "W.C.S." the most intriguing. Zappa and Waits fans will approve. --Jeff Bateman Amazon.com

 Grungey, jazzy, silent, loud
Made me fall in love with dEUS.

The first album from the band, and you easily feel their style, and that the band is a couple of years younger than they are now. They behave like roots. Not in the Curt Kobain way, but in a cooler, relaxed but equally noisy. March 5, 2008

 Art-rock for the Euro-pop crowd.
dEUS aren't exactly art rock, but they're not really rock, either: spacey and weird enough to get ignored by the casual listener, yet too "hooky" and commercial to really be appreciated by the thick glasses-snob set. dEUS fill a pretty perfect niche for those of us who like our weird music to still be fun and hummable. The opener rings out like an early 90's anthem, yet tunes like "Hotellounge" seem like they could be written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. If you haven't heard this album, you're really missing out. I couldn't get into the 2nd release quite as much, but this album demands to be heard. July 28, 2006

 Best of Belgium - dEUS
"It all began in 1994. A small but vibrant Antwerp (Belgium, Europe) music scene meant that most alternative bands were incestuous, liquid beings; with each musician being as likely to be in five bands as one, but a mutual love of all things alternative and underground, melded five talented musicians and performers into dEUS. A band that spent the next six years producing a body of work that, chameleon-like, was able to array it's colour shifts of musical style and tone in dazzling kaleidoscope but, in shape, was eternally, indisputably and unmistakably dEUS.

Debut album 'Worst Case Scenario' with the gonzoid punk chant of first single 'Suds & Soda' to the off kilter pop sensibilities of 'Via' and onwards to the gentle introspective elegance of 'Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me)', emanated from the streets of Belgium across mainland Europe and stone skipped its way across the Channel to knock on the door of the musical psyche of a continent. Backed up by powerhouse live performances through Europe, dEUS had successfully launched themselves into the burgeoningly healthy indie scene of the mid-90s and achieved it with a hybrid of intelligence and experimentation that perhaps was lacking in some of the more back-to-basics, past-reverential sounds of their contemporaries."

The above is some background, taken from the dEUS-website. I still remember my schoolfriends being exited about "that band with the violin" that they had seen live (I was living in Germany at the time, so I hadn't seen them). When this album came out, some of my friends practically forced me to listen to it... And I was blown away. Back when Mtv was still a station where you could discover new things, they used to play the Suds & Soda video a lot (with the "Friday friday friday" chanting). A belgian rock journalist recently commented that this song has become our national anthem, and in a way, it has. So you should definitely buy this album...

I know they are relatively unknown in the States (even though they are touring there as I'm writing this), but in Europe (and Israel), most of their recent concerts (over 100) were sold out very quickly. They have recently released their 4th album, Pocket Revolution (if you don't count the ep).

I also want to correct one of the other reviewers: It was their bass player, not their singer, who went on to form the band that was first called Moondog Jr. and is now called Zita Swoon. Check them out as well!

www.deus.be and www.zitaswoon.be
March 30, 2006

 A Road Trip through rock/garage/punk/blues/jazz/funk lane
If you are the kind of person who loves music that has no boundaries , no frontiers , and seamlessly traverses genre of music , and effortlessly captures the essence of them by transfusing them as sound and roll them into music , then DO NOT read further ..just grab a copy of this album. These guys will blow your mind with their talent and compositions, and a fabulous arrangement. Some rare instruments are used on this album , and voices are also used as instruments. Preferably listen to it using a headphone and a good one at that. If you are janxed then there is nothing like it. Take this trip today :). May 26, 2004

 Worst Case Scenario
The title sounds depressing but this is not one of those dingy albums you buy as a teenager which you ending up hating for being gloomy when you grow up. I've been listening to this album on and off over the years and it still remains new to my ears - it hasn't dated.

I really think that if you like playing along on your guitar to great guitar songs or like your music a bit more intelligent than your usual rocky crap then these crazy belgians really are worth listening to. There's a good blend of songs on this album - not obviously shifting from song style to the next to merely show their ability to do different types of song - but the whole thing really does fit together.

Altogether a good little album - a gem from this period of musical history as it survives without embarassment or for being bland, boring or dull. dEUS really deserve to be heard if you are a true music fan, believe me. Also the singer went on to form another band called Zita Swoon who are really excellent too - Zita Swoon is the morphed / evolved version of what this band would be doing today. Please give them a try as well. March 14, 2004

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