Devilyn were one of the earliest purveyors of the death metal idea on Polish soil their debut demo dating back from 1994 when the band were called Cerebral Concussion. They changed their moniker for the 1996 full-length debut “Anger”. The style on display was slightly unpolished furious, technical death not far from the “atrocities” stirred by Cryptopsy on “None So Vile” the same year. With Dragon already surrendered to the groovy vogues, and Violent Dirge having spaced out too much on their sophomore, the band simply had no right to betray the rigid death metal canons so they had to stay the course, alongside Hate and Vader, and keep Polish death afloat.
And this is what they did, with the second instalment “Reborn in Pain” which took care of the rough production qualities from the debut, paving the way for the band’s magnum opus, the album reviewed here. There are no changes to the chosen delivery as this opus is a smattering exercise in dazzling brutality, siding well with the best from Suffocation and Cryptopsy again, almost reaching the pinnacle of the genre which was their compatriots Yattering’s “Murder’s Concept” released a year earlier.
“Soul Snatcher” snatches your soul with a most abrupt beginning with chaos reigning supreme, fast overlapping riffs thrown at the listener the forceful shouty death metal vocals fluctuating the whole time suddenly descending to lower-tuned growls, only to break your most precious wine glasses with a piercing scream the very next second. An overwhelming riff-salad which knows no respite, “Aryman’s Grace” the next in line exhibition of technical aggression with surreal atonal decisions coming to help the already complicated soundscape, with episodic slower Morbid Angel-esque twists embedded into the hyper-active rifforama. “Psalm” attempts something more controlled and stomping for a start, but the technical chaos resumes on full-throttle less than a min later with twisted screamy leads flying around in random fashion. “Contempt” spices the environment with quirky melodies, a surreal unpredictable shredder which breaks the instilled hyper-speed delivery, influencing “Kingdom of the Blind” which nicely attempts to introduce the cavernous crooked guitarisms of Carcass’ Bill Steer the resultant riff-fest a total knockout with a wider array of time and tempo shifts.
Great melodic leads take care of the illogical, chaotic for the umpteenth time, rhythmic changes on “Deceived Conscience”, an intelligent, not very decipherable at times, brutalizer which sets the tone for the remainder,“Expression of Horror” breaking the formula with a couple of more playful motifs; the short “Prophet’s Crux” serving the most orthodox moments on the album being just a rowdy basher; and “Hatched out of…” notching up the surrealism the riffs exploding into a fountain of chaotic random configurations with screamy hysterical leads adding more to the pandemonium-like atmosphere. The “Carcass meets Morbid Angel” amalgam “Fire-Step Follow Me” is probably also worth mentioning with its twisted melodic aura, not as frantic, providing the only partial antidote to this hyper-active carnival.
Despite its over-the-top at times approach this effort is a true testimony of twisted genius at work, the band trying to sum up what the dazzling brutality movement stands for. The polished feel of these wild riff applications is by all means an advantage as those guitars can be heard much more clearly than before, and although the listener will definitely get lost at some stage, it won’t be hard for the latter to find his/her way around this very intriguing labyrinth due to the better production qualities. There’s a lot of music to be savoured here, loads of riffs packed within a short space, and to get used to this aural insanity one has to spend a certain amount of time with it. In terms of originality it doesn’t score very high as the influences from the mentioned acts are quite tangible for most of the time, and the album’s strength largely lies in the way they have been blended together, but not so much in offering something radically different.
In close competition with the other technically brutal Polish death metal behemoths, Yattering, the band must have been monitoring the other formation’s activities very closely as the moment the latter came out with “III”, Devilyn followed with “XI” just a few months later. Thankfully, their product wasn’t the industrial/techno/dance disgrace which “III” was as the guys carried on with their chosen stance although the delivery wasn’t as exuberant anymore, still technical and complex but way more tamed and less flashy. And that was it; they were gone … just like that. The band members scattered in various directions, everyone involved in some outfit around the metal spectre at the moment, honing their weapons until the next “devil in the flesh” saga.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
