True Metal Zone: RANKED ALBUMS: DEVOURMENT

Alongside with Internal Bleeding, Devourment is considered to be one of the first bands to play what we call Slamming Brutal Death Metal. And well, if you know well the history behind the genre you know that are some things that we need to talk before get into these two bands, but Internal Bleeding and the construction of Slam is a theme for another opportunity because today we are here to Molest The Decapitated.

Devourment in a texan band that was founded in 1995 by Wayne Knupp, D. Braxton Henry and Brad Fincher. The band has split up and reformed a few times with Brad Fincher as the only original member nowadays.

After 28 years since his foundation, Devourment has a total of 5 studio albums and is one of the pillars of Slamming Death Metal, and today we will dig their discography and rank them from worst to best. At the end of this post we will leave a link with our best selection of songs by Devourment on Youtube and Spotify.

So let's get right into it!!!!

#5 - UNLEASH THE CARNIVORE

(2009)

Well... we will start this rank with maybe the most forgotten album of Devourment.

I have an explanation for this? I think I have.

Butcher The Weak put the band on new grounds of exploration, and every band that starts experimenting more can got into something more forgettable (or even the worst), but luckly Devourment didn't get that bad, but this albums sounds pretty like "Songs that were supposed to be on Butcher The Weak, but sounds more like a recycled own-rip-off".

There are still good songs like "Abomination Unseen" and "Fed To The Pigs" nothing beyond this, just listenable.

#4 - CONCEIVED INTO SEWAGE

(2013)

Underrated, that's my definition of Conceived Into Sewage.

There's a thin line that divides Slamming Death Metal from Brutal Death Metal and well... let's say that Devourment went to the side of brutal death metal leaving slam a little aside. What that means? Actually nothing much because Devourment still delivered a great album, not the fans favorite because the abscence of their native gross sound, now aproaching more to the modern brutal thing, It remembers me a little bit of Kraanium's "Slamchosis" but with less slam.

There are some great songs there like "Legalize Homicide", "Fifth Ton War Machine", "Heaving Acid" and "Parasistic Eruption".

#3 - BUTCHER THE WEAK

(2005/2006)

With Eric Park on the drums and no original members, the band did a more technical album. The original release of 2005 had an awful mixing but they fixed it on the re-recording made a year later.

At the time of It's release some of the fans did not get it but today is complete classic and this was an important step for the band's technical evolution later on, especially on the "Obscene Majesty" album which I will talk about soon. Here we have the band steping more slowly when the slam comes on, the blasts goes more on the edge with more chaos on the drums, more than their first album.

Highlights to "Masturbating At The Slab", "Tomb Of Scabs", "Fuck Her Head Off" and the classic "Babykiller".

#2 - MOLESTING THE DECAPITATED

(1999)

This is the band's first release, and as the Infamous cover sugests, we have an infamous sound too. This is beginning of everything and one of the landmarks of Slam Death Metal. At that time, with Death Metal scene rising, the band simply placed their bet on the most grotesque sound possible, combining the extreme filth of Goregrind with the chaotic nature of Death Metal. Despite the production not giving much emphasis to the bass (it wound be great to hear the bass like the live performance of Dave Spencer), we still have a solid structure that cemented the beginning of the new subgenre. Not much into the great slams that we see on Butcher The Weak but the band set the boundaries that differ Brutal Death Metal and Slamming Death Metal.

Highlights to "Festering Vomitous Mass", "Postmortal Coprophagia", "Choking On Bile" and "Fucked To Death".

#1 - OBSCENE MAJESTY

(2019)

After I ranked Unleash The Carnivore and Conceived Into Sewage #5 and 4#, respectively, I bet you were not expecting to see Obscene Majesty on the first position, even in front of Molesting The Decapitated.

To start with this one there's two things noticiable in this album:

1 - Things are getting longer, the album is 47 minutes long.

2 - The lyrics are way different than the previous albums (less gore)

They say "The more you write the greater the chances of making mistakes", and Devourment didn't get into this quote.

The first song that I've heard before listen to entire album, was "Xenoglossia" and I remember beign thinking "Man... This is getting interesting(?!?!)", But not hyped up for the album, and them... BAM!! Devourment looks greater than ever, the technical evolution of BTW got a son, and it fucking rules, songs are longer but there's so much punchiness, they can drag you throught the songs without getting too bored and delivering some great slams that you can't see in any other band. No bad songs at all, my favorites are "A Virulent Strain Of Retaliation", "Cognitive Sedation Butchery", "Profane Contagion", "Sculpted In Tyranny" and "Modum Sui Morte".

Only Devourment mastering the genre and show why they are still gods of extreme music. So much time without seen an astonishing slamming death metal record like that. THANKS DEVOURMENT!!!!