Righto, cards on the table; like many reviewers, I was in a band that didn’t make it. What can I say? I was a stoned student, played rhythm guitar in a thrash and punk cover band and didn’t expect to get any further. Okay, I wasn’t much cop, battering away on a Marlin Blue Fin, but I tried. After a grand total of a single paid gig, I realised my destiny was to listen, not to inflict my inferior batterings onto unwilling ears, and it’s on that basis, as well as spending a couple of mortgages worth of cash on going to gigs, festivals, and buying records and associated merch that I base my ability to review bands. Take about 30 years away from me, and exclude any innovation, and this album would be number 1 on my play list as a 1988 mullet wearing thrasher; unfortunately, it’s 2013, and many fans are wanting innovation, something that Devariem descry.
I’ll be honest; some of my reviews are one listen, and then typing as the album next blasts out of the speakers second time around; Devariem is rare in so far at that according to the computer’s counter, this is now listen number five. So, has this repeated exposure to the band’s thrash made me want to praise it to the heavens? Sadly, no. This is an album, that despite repeated listens, in states both sober and inebriated, just elicits the response of “generic.” ‘Planet Earth Ground Zero’ just washes out of my player’s speakers with no lasting impact, and despite the energy of ‘Steamhammerhead’, nothing much changes. Okay, the drums are blasting, the bass is hard, the guitars are relentless, and the vocals are screamed at warp factor three, but it doesn’t stop the album sounding like a clone of so much that has come before. ‘Casketeer’ is equally relentless, and sadly like follow on ‘Torture Like It’s True’, invention free. All passes by in a stream of generic angry growling and break neck riffage; let’s face it, follow up track ‘Infyrno’ could have been the same track post break down, complete with blast beat drums and grooving bass guitar. Maybe once this formulaic thrash would have had me banging, but not now; as it is even the last couple of tracks, ‘Sons of Deth’ and ‘Our Killer Reputation’ just reinforce the band’s reliance on forbears, particularly ‘Sons of Deth’ with screams of ‘Ace of Spades’ and ‘Kill ‘em All’; forget the formulaic riffs, the lyrics quote nothing but a series of other bands releases. Onslaught, Nuclear Assault, and the early Big Four riffs dominate; yes, there is energy, but no, there is not originality. Having said that, I’d rather buy this CD then the last Metallica release; a sad case of damned by faint praise.
(6/10 Spenny Bullen)
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