Devourment – Conceived In Sewage

Anyone involved into slam death metal knows Devourment, so there isn’t much to say about them. The pioneers and acclaimed kings of brutal death metal scene called slam are back after their latest full length album “Unleash The Carnivore” in 2009.

Since 2005 with the switching of Ruben Rosas to guitars and Mike Majewski taking the duty behind the microphone, the group is back on track. During the hearing of “Conceived In Sewage” I could see that Devourment hit full throttle. And that is because while you can stand out the trademark of their sound – guttural vocals, low-tuned slamming slow guitars – you can listen to something fresh in this CD.

The production and the ideas are great. The sound is thick as steel and crunchy enough for any slam death metal fan. And based on the mixing it is nothing to compare with others sloppy releases of slam bands and with their previous release.

The album starts with a bombastic “Legalize Homicide” and continues blowing our guts with a “Fifty Ton War Machine”. The inspiration and the playing of “Parasitic Eruption” and “Today We Die, Tomorrow We Kill” are magnificent. These are the best songs by far.

The music of Devourment is brutal all the way. The drums keep the slam tempo and change into blastbeats greatly. In addition their sound is natural without the use of triggers. The guitars of Ruben Rosas do not have the variety of a technical death metal band, but do the job perfectly. The originality is the one and most crucial disadvantage of the album.

The vocals of Mike Majewski are brilliant. Without the usual low piggish guttural vocals we don’t have slamming death metal. But we have another thing that is evident of the genius of the vocals department on “Conceived In Sewage” CD. Without being typical all the time the vocals are really energetic and fit the gory themes of the lyrics. The guest vocals on the other hand were passed unnoticed. And it was a pity that I couldn’t figure out that I was listening to Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) whilst I was listening to “Fucked With Rats”.

Nonetheless Devourment and “Conceived In Sewage” takes a step further death metal music. They founded slam techniques and now they blended with the brutality of the first teachers Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and Deicide. All of the above mentioned bands can be heard on the music of this CD. And there lies its greatness.