THE DEVASTATED

"You've seemed to find your place…", reads a line from "Hollowed", the final cut from THE DEVASTATED's "Devil's Messenger". Sounds rather pleasant, even hopeful, doesn't it? Here's the rest of that line. "…underneath a rock after it smashed your fucking face". Derisive? Yes. Cynical? Beyond belief. Pleasant and hopeful? Not even close. "Devil's Messenger" is a fat bottomed and bruising son of a bitch of a deathcore album and the lyrics drip with venom. You've heard all that before, eh? That may be true, but in this case you'll also be hearing a deathcore album that benefits from a respectable amount of compositional skill.

It may not hit you the first time or two that "Devil's Messenger" is spun, but spend a little more time with it and you may be surprised at how well the songs stand up from beginning to end. So much so in fact that making it through 13 songs and 46 minutes of low-end crush with intermittent breakdowns doesn't end up an endurance test for the passive fan. It seems that the former members of IMPENDING DOOM and OBLIGE took the opportunity to custom build a deathcore vehicle that would never be mistaken for anything else, yet that wouldn't run out of gas half way through the trip either.

Little here would be considered "catchy" in a standard sense, yet the tracks are composed with more variety than usual and several end up quite memorable. "Pseudo Smile Campaign" and "Failure to Thrive", to name a couple examples, are convincing in terms of heaviness and appealing to the discerning ear at the same time. All the little things make a significant impact as well, such as the melodic lead on "Swallowing Tumors" or the sample placement and effects on "Bloody Bag Drag" and the title track. Granted the KORN-ish vibe of "Conductor" will seem a tad strange at first, yet in the long term ends up another example of the group's knack for maintaining one's interest level.

Those most interested in matters of sonic pugilism as it pertains to deathcore will want to vault the ropes and land right in the middle of THE DEVASTATED's ring. And for those on the fence about deathcore, "Devil's Messenger" just might reignite your interest. While THE DEVASTATED haven't set the deathcore bar at a previously unreached level with "Devil's Messenger", they've still made a pretty good album here.