ELDER DEVIL
ELDER DEVIL “Everything Worth Loving”
By Dr. Abner Mality
ELDER DEVIL’s musical palette of colors seems limited to black and red. This grinding California band has one gear and they stick to it. The result is a record that is pretty monotone in terms of sound and emotional content, but if you’re looking for really angry, noisy grindcore with a tsunami of squealing feedback everywhere, this will fit the bill for sure.
They do hit with absolute anger and hatred. There’s a good deal of bands like PIG DESTROYER and AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED here, mixed with powerviolence style hardcore. Most songs are short and fast, but they do slow to a crusty trudge now and then, with longer tracks like “My Body Is An Earthen Shrine” and “Insomnia” being the best examples of this. Shades of EYEHATEGOD and PRIMITIVE MAN are in the slower moments. Everywhere is the racket of squawling feedback, to the point where it goes beyond being a method of transmitting unease and just becomes flat out annoying. The noise collage track “Dismal and Alone” will set your teeth on edge. I know what ELDER DEVIL is trying to get at with this, but it doesn’t make it easier to swallow.
Vocalist Stephen Muir fits the band to a T because his vocal tone never changes throughout the entire album. It’s a monotone angry nasal yell constantly, at all times. Like the feedback, it finally gets to be enough.
But ELDER DEVIL does grind away and that can’t be denied. I admire their dedication to achieving such an ugly sound, but, boy, it really puts you to the test.