It should be fairly obvious at this point that I'm slightly gay for Devourment; after all, my pseudonym is The Baby Killer. As such, I thought we could kick off the week with a live video of the band playing the very song that is my namesake at the 2009 Mountains of Death Festival in Switzerland. Now bear in mind, I picked this video for two specific reasons. First of all, it shows how ungodly Devourment is live, and second, while the bassist is busy fiddling with his equipment to get it working, frontman Mike Majewski talks to the crowd and expresses his own distaste for hardcore dancing. So to recap: Devourment is brutal as fuck, they're amazing live, and they hate hardcore kids too. Sold! Get to watchin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJk0CpY2A2c
Don't worry, my face hurt after the first time too. Devourment's discography is available through Relapse Records, and if you don't already own it, then give yourself a good smack upside the head and get it. Give us a comment or two, and stay tuned for more later.
-BK
Showing posts with label Devourment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Devourment. Show all posts
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, November 29, 2010
Show Review: Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Vital Remains and Devourment- November 20th in Philadelphia, PA
Last Saturday, the most brutal tour of the year made its way to good old Philly. I had seen all the bands on the bill at least once in the past, but never together at one show, so I knew tonight was going to be something special, and believe me friends, it was. Despite getting hopelessly lost on the way to the train station (thanks to the jerkoff who stole my GPS over the summer), I still made it to the Trocadero in plenty of time, and you could literally feel the anticipation as soon as the doors opened.
After a brief sound check, Devourment took the stage to thunderous applause and started things off beautifully. They sounded beefy and clear, and their set was comprised of songs from all three of their full lengths, including "Serial Cocksucker", "Fucked To Death", "Choking On Bile", "Fed To the Pigs", and closing with the classic "Baby Killer". What caught my attention the most during their set was their stage presence. While everyone knows that Devourment's music is awesome and they play their songs very well live, they're not known to be too energetic onstage, but this was not the case here. Mike Majewski and the gang were all moving around headbanging, rocking out, smiling and having a grand old time feeding off of the energy from the crowd. Their bassist Chris Andrews even went so far as to dive into the crowd after the last song, adding to the high spirits.
Despite the incessant chanting of "One more song," Devourment then cleared off to make room for Rhode Island God-haters Vital Remains. At the last Summer Slaughter tour these guys had a painfully short set, so I was really excited to see what they could do with more time. Ironically enough they only played four songs this time, but since VR are pretty much the Dream Theater of death metal with their eight-minute songs, this didn't seem to bother anyone too much. The lead guitar was a little low in the mix so it was hard to hear the solos, but they still rumbled through "Icons of Evil", "Devoured Elysium", "Hammer Down the Nails" and "Dechristianize" like it was nobody's business. In all honesty, this was probably the weakest band of the night and they still killed it, which should give you an idea of how good the show was. I've heard a lot of people complain that Vital Remains isn't the same without Glenn Benton on vocals, but if last night is any indication, they're kicking ass and taking names just fine without him. Let me tell you something: if you want to see the true power of metal, go to a Vital Remains show and watch as hundreds of people go completely silent, bow their heads and hold their horns up high while the venue goes dark and "O Fortuna" blares over the PA, all while the band is onstage looking up at the sky with genuine hate in their eyes. It's scary.
Next on the roster was Dying Fetus, and this is where things really started to get interesting. Both of the previous bands were very well received, but as soon as these guys started playing it was a madhouse. Their setlist was pretty long since they were the main support, and they used this opportunity to play a surprisingly large number of very old songs, going all the way back to their first couple EP's; songs like "Vomiting the Decaying Embryo" and "Eviscerated Offspring" to name a few. However, they still played plenty of their newer, more well-known songs like "Killing On Adrenaline", "One Shot One Kill", "Your Treachery Will Die With You" and "Homicidal Retribution", and they closed as always with their 70-second claim to fame "Kill Your Mother Rape Your Dog". I've seen Dying Fetus twice before this, and I'm still amazed at how much chaos the crowd manages to bring in just over one minute. As with Devourment, these guys were also much more energetic than usual, which only contributed to the frenzy.
So after Dying Fetus walked off to extremely enthusiastic applause, after what seemed like hours the lights dimmed one more time, and when Cannibal Corpse walked onstage the applause sounded more like an arena than the tiny Trocadero. They wasted no time and dove right into a set that spanned their entire twenty-plus year career. For all the old school fans, there were classics like "A Skull Full of Maggots", "Gutted", "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead" and "Devoured By Vermin", and for the younger, more recent inductees, there plenty of newer songs like "Evisceration Plague", "Priests of Sodom", "Shatter Their Bones", "The Time To Kill Is Now", "Make Them Suffer", "The Wretched Spawn" and more. They played for a solid hour and a half, and although it was exhausting, neither the band nor the crowd slowed down one bit. We all anxiously waited to hear what song they would play next, and Corpsegrinder's between-song bantering kept everyone laughing and ready to start the pit up again at a moment's notice. And speaking of pits, when they finally closed with the classic duo of "Hammer Smashed Face" and "Stripped Raped and Strangled", the pit literally enveloped the entire floor of the venue; the sight of close to (if not more than) a thousand people moshing their hearts out at once is something that simply cannot be put into words. See for yourself.
When all was said and done, we all left knowing that great memories had been made. Making new friends, reconnecting with old ones, seeing and meeting the bands that inspire you, smoking a fat one and/or pounding back a few gulps of the hard stuff with good people, and just forgetting all your troubles for a few hours; it's all in a day's work for metal. This is the kind of show where the whole world shrinks to nothing but you, the crowd and the band, and there's nothing but the euphoria of the moment and the anticipation of the rest of the show. This is what we live for, and this is what those trendy, attention-whoring idiots will never be able to take away from us, no matter how hard they try.
Defend the fucking faith brothers and sisters, I love you all.
-The Baby Killer
After a brief sound check, Devourment took the stage to thunderous applause and started things off beautifully. They sounded beefy and clear, and their set was comprised of songs from all three of their full lengths, including "Serial Cocksucker", "Fucked To Death", "Choking On Bile", "Fed To the Pigs", and closing with the classic "Baby Killer". What caught my attention the most during their set was their stage presence. While everyone knows that Devourment's music is awesome and they play their songs very well live, they're not known to be too energetic onstage, but this was not the case here. Mike Majewski and the gang were all moving around headbanging, rocking out, smiling and having a grand old time feeding off of the energy from the crowd. Their bassist Chris Andrews even went so far as to dive into the crowd after the last song, adding to the high spirits.
Despite the incessant chanting of "One more song," Devourment then cleared off to make room for Rhode Island God-haters Vital Remains. At the last Summer Slaughter tour these guys had a painfully short set, so I was really excited to see what they could do with more time. Ironically enough they only played four songs this time, but since VR are pretty much the Dream Theater of death metal with their eight-minute songs, this didn't seem to bother anyone too much. The lead guitar was a little low in the mix so it was hard to hear the solos, but they still rumbled through "Icons of Evil", "Devoured Elysium", "Hammer Down the Nails" and "Dechristianize" like it was nobody's business. In all honesty, this was probably the weakest band of the night and they still killed it, which should give you an idea of how good the show was. I've heard a lot of people complain that Vital Remains isn't the same without Glenn Benton on vocals, but if last night is any indication, they're kicking ass and taking names just fine without him. Let me tell you something: if you want to see the true power of metal, go to a Vital Remains show and watch as hundreds of people go completely silent, bow their heads and hold their horns up high while the venue goes dark and "O Fortuna" blares over the PA, all while the band is onstage looking up at the sky with genuine hate in their eyes. It's scary.
Next on the roster was Dying Fetus, and this is where things really started to get interesting. Both of the previous bands were very well received, but as soon as these guys started playing it was a madhouse. Their setlist was pretty long since they were the main support, and they used this opportunity to play a surprisingly large number of very old songs, going all the way back to their first couple EP's; songs like "Vomiting the Decaying Embryo" and "Eviscerated Offspring" to name a few. However, they still played plenty of their newer, more well-known songs like "Killing On Adrenaline", "One Shot One Kill", "Your Treachery Will Die With You" and "Homicidal Retribution", and they closed as always with their 70-second claim to fame "Kill Your Mother Rape Your Dog". I've seen Dying Fetus twice before this, and I'm still amazed at how much chaos the crowd manages to bring in just over one minute. As with Devourment, these guys were also much more energetic than usual, which only contributed to the frenzy.
So after Dying Fetus walked off to extremely enthusiastic applause, after what seemed like hours the lights dimmed one more time, and when Cannibal Corpse walked onstage the applause sounded more like an arena than the tiny Trocadero. They wasted no time and dove right into a set that spanned their entire twenty-plus year career. For all the old school fans, there were classics like "A Skull Full of Maggots", "Gutted", "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead" and "Devoured By Vermin", and for the younger, more recent inductees, there plenty of newer songs like "Evisceration Plague", "Priests of Sodom", "Shatter Their Bones", "The Time To Kill Is Now", "Make Them Suffer", "The Wretched Spawn" and more. They played for a solid hour and a half, and although it was exhausting, neither the band nor the crowd slowed down one bit. We all anxiously waited to hear what song they would play next, and Corpsegrinder's between-song bantering kept everyone laughing and ready to start the pit up again at a moment's notice. And speaking of pits, when they finally closed with the classic duo of "Hammer Smashed Face" and "Stripped Raped and Strangled", the pit literally enveloped the entire floor of the venue; the sight of close to (if not more than) a thousand people moshing their hearts out at once is something that simply cannot be put into words. See for yourself.
When all was said and done, we all left knowing that great memories had been made. Making new friends, reconnecting with old ones, seeing and meeting the bands that inspire you, smoking a fat one and/or pounding back a few gulps of the hard stuff with good people, and just forgetting all your troubles for a few hours; it's all in a day's work for metal. This is the kind of show where the whole world shrinks to nothing but you, the crowd and the band, and there's nothing but the euphoria of the moment and the anticipation of the rest of the show. This is what we live for, and this is what those trendy, attention-whoring idiots will never be able to take away from us, no matter how hard they try.
Defend the fucking faith brothers and sisters, I love you all.
-The Baby Killer
Monday, November 15, 2010
Slam Spotlight Part 3
Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all had a brutal weekend, but on the off chance you didn't your Monday night sure as shit will be, because the next band in this series, as far as this writer is concerned, is the end all be all of slam. They need no introduction, because anybody who knows anything about slam (or death metal in general) has at least heard of the mighty Devourment.
Hailing from Dallas, Texas, these guys are considered to be the reigning kings of slam by fans the world over, and with good reason. They were one of the first bands to start playing the genre as we know it today, and they got it down right from the get-go. Gnarly riffs, crushingly heavy slams, fast and precise drumming (with absolutely no triggers), vocals that sound like a demon on nitrous, and lyrics that will make you feel like a terrible person just for reading them; Devourment have had these down pat since their very first album. They may not have actually been the first slam band, that honor goes to Pyaemia as far as I know, but they were without a doubt the first band to take it to the level it's at now, and I have yet to hear any band that tops their balls-out, effortless brutality.
So now that I've finished stroking their egos (for now), hold on to something as The Baby Killer and Mosh Rebellion give you a slightly lesser-known but still amazing track from their 2005 masterpiece, Butcher the Weak. Sit back and enjoy "Masturbating At the Slab", and while you're at it, tell me the 2:30 mark doesn't make you want to stage dive and attack the nearest living thing. I swear it gets me every single time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCwXXVlF3T8
So can you see now why I really, really like this band? I had the good fortune of seeing them on the Delaware stop of the California Blood Tour with Cattle Decapitation, Knights of the Abyss, Burning the Masses and Son of Aurelius (as reviewed by King of Those Who Know), and will be seeing them again on Saturday with Vital Remains, Dying Fetus and motherfucking Cannibal Corpse in good old Philadelphia. Be sure to get your tickets to that tour if it's coming anywhere near you, and expect a full review of that show shortly thereafter. Until then stay tuned for new installments of Slam Spotlight, Shit Hardcore Kids Wish They Could Play, and articles from all the other writers.
Eat your veggies!
Baby Killer
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
King of Those Who Know Show Review: Cattle Decapitation w/ Devourment, Knights of the Abyss, Burning the Masses, and Son of Aurelius October 28th in Seattle, WA
Please welcome another new writer (and old timer apparently) to our midst, King of Those Who Know. Expect more show reviews and blog posts from him in the future.
So the night starts out with local opener Bloodhunger from Tacoma. Not too many people there except the bar, but they were ridiculously good. Usually I'm up to date with local bands but they got by me, and man do I regret it. I definitely think anyone who likes any kind of metal to check them out! They play about half an hour set and some more people start coming in.
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| Devourment |
Next up is Son Of Aurelius, another band of whom I've never heard. Apparently they have a new vocalist. A young band that brings a lot to the table if you like tech death. Some people start getting into them, some headbanging going on and some moshing, not much though. People were more watching then moving, with good reason cause these guys were good!
Another young band is up by the name of Burning the Masses. I've listened to these guys a little on last.fm but just never got into them, for some reason I just assumed they were a lame deathcore band, not a good misconception! The place now has maybe 50 people on the floor, lots in the bar, a pretty good turnout for a Thursday night. A lot of young people showed up for this show, so at least there are young people who know what good music is. These guys go up and shred and I just watch. Now theres a pretty good pit going, with one or two hardcore dancers. These guys played like one breakdown and of course they hardcore dance.... right next to the pit. So a hardcore dancer hits a mosher in the face and theres almost a fight, but security and other moshers break it up. That was the only time my eyes were off BTM, they had great harmonies and straight riffin just about the whole time. A great band that people should check out if they like bands like The Faceless.
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| Devourment |
Now Knights of the Abyss is up. They have talent, but I think they were on the wrong tour. It couldn't have been easy to follow the other acts, cause they just seemed boring to me. No moshing or headbanging for the most part. I was right in front of the stage so I looked back to see the same kid dancing just about the whole time, but no one cared because these guys just didn't cut it. Great talent, but the other bands just had my expectations raised too high for these guys.
Next up is Devourment, their first time ever in Seattle. They were one of the most heavy, brutal, crushing death metal acts I have ever seen. It was
 |
| Cattle Decapitation |
like a bulldozer over everyone, just fast crushing riffs and blast beats. It was almost indescribable. They were a great live act, everyone was moving for these guys, I got into a few pits, almost everyone on the ground was either headbanging or moshing. The live experience was great, this is the true meaning of "heavy." On a side note I think its funny and great that the Hardcore dancers left after KOTA.
Finally the headliners: Cattle Decapitation! I got right in the middle of the stage for these guys, the anticipation was great, made even better by the Terminator song played in the dark. Everything about this band was great; one of the most insane guitarists I've ever seen, the bassist was matching a lot of it. The drummer was amazing, and Travis was in my face for most of the show. The performance was complete with his spitting all over the place and catching it. A live performance that can't be described through words. Everyone was moving for these guys too, just good fun moshing. If you have never seen these guys, I recommend that you go out of your way to see them. They played a lot off the Harvest Floor and some older stuff. After they walked off everyone started to chant "Encore! Encore!" They came out again and Travis asked "you guys want another? how about two more?" then he thanked us for staying for all the bands. He said their next song was "The Decapitation of Cattle" and it was about a second long, then he said seriously thanks for coming out and the next song is "The Recapitation of Cattle" and that song lasted about a second and that was it. Very funny guys that are truly in a league of their own. The only performance I've seen better than this was The Dillinger Escape Plan.
 |
| Cattle Decapitation |
So the tour's just about finished but I highly recommend that you go to see these bands when they come through your town.
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