Tuesday, December 31, 2019

DEVOURMENT - Obscene Majesty review



DEVOURMENT - Obscene Majesty

Relapse Records




Two decades ago this Texas based act released their debut full length Molesting the Decapitated. At the time it was herald as a masterpiece of brutal death metal perfection with tech death proficiency. In other words they were IMPETIGO on steroids and I liked it.  But my attitude toward that record and this band has changed over time. The two major parts of that record were the vocals and the drum work. Those two portions would go onto up the ante' for the brutal death metal genre's future.


I'm not going to elaborate on everything that happened to DEVOURMENT's career afterwards, which pretty much sucked. I also think that whole slam death metal thing which followed with dozens of copycat bands was, to put it nicely, not that cool. Like I said I'm being nice because I could really get critical. But now we have a new album by DEVOURMENT and it's what I'd call a true follow-up of Molesting the Decapitated because everything in-between has sucked.


Most prominently this album has the sick and twisted original Ruben Rosas back on vocals. This is the guy who set the standard for the future of noxious brutal death metal vocals. Add to that drummer Brad Fincher returns to the bookend position. It's Fincher's accelerated beats, maniacal snare blastbeats and jazz influenced interplay which made the rhythm section portion of the band so exciting. 


Of course the riffs and bass work, sandwiched between the standouts, are standard fair almost to the point of recycling. The guitars create a wall of noise when needed most of the time. Where as when things slow down the crushing atmosphere in minimal. It's during those times where the bass makes some intrusion.


In the end I see DEVOURMENT's return to the past release as being decent. Citing it as anything more than a return to form would mean overlooking a whole genre catalog that's been brutalizing audiences of death metal fans for years.


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