There are very few occasions when I find an album difficult to listen to in a repetitive loop. This isn’t because it’s bad, far from it, but owing to its sheer intensity & brutality it eventually becomes a little much. Granted there are probably many out there that won’t have this issue & I’m certain that this Roman quartet shall definitely be a band to add to your favourites. Formed in 2012 in Rome, the city that surrounds the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world and capital of Catholicism, it’s not hard to understand why their entire outlook is so irreligious.
It takes a grand total of 3 seconds before the blasting on “Eucharistic Savagery” begins. & it doesn’t relent, & I’m not just saying that for effect. Alessandro “Venders” Santilli has robotic feet that never stop even when he’s throwing in off beats on cymbals during his constant snare battering.
Paolo Chiti’s vocals are an extremely low guttural roar, as is evident on “Crown Of Entrails”. He doesn’t try finesse as it would be a complete waste of time & wouldn’t have the required daemonic quality.
There’s a short bridge in the middle of “Disfigured Embodiment” where Mario Di Giambattista gets a chance to play a bit of a lead which isn’t drowned out by his vicious riffs as he had slowed them down for added heaviness.
Damiano Bracci’s bass riffs are more felt than heard & were I to be listening to this at high volume on a PA system I’m sure it would feel like an “Unfathomed Evisceration” which is actually about religious lobotomy than disembowelment.
There are some catchy bursts of silence in “Entombment Of Mutilated Angels” which feel as heavy as the crushing guitars by the way they assault you.
“Perished Through Atonement” & “Desecrate The Crucifix” walks along a similar lyrical path while “Apostolic Dismembering” has a far gorier theme, if dismembering can be thought of as more gory than decapitation and crucifixion that is.
The false harmonics on “Devouring The Consecrated” are a nice touch to add a little gaiety to song which has none in the lyrics that are spat out with more than a little venom.
Definitely on the very extreme side of things, but also a very polished début album with better sound quality than a good few of the other albums I’ve received of late. But that could also be because it’s a CD rather than a promo mp3 copy. So if you’re into gore or sacrilegious death metal then you should go out of your way to listen to Devangelic.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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