DEVOTION
DEVOTION “Astral Catacombs”
By Dr. Abner Mality
This is the kind of dark and gruesome death metal I like the best. I’m getting to be a stickler for any sign of originality in extreme metal, but there are certain acts that just hit the right note. It doesn’t matter that their subject matter has been done to death, their song titles familiar, even their logo is tired. When it’s done right, that all vanishes into the background.
DEVOTION from Spain do it right. Think of the best moments of ASPHYX, GRAVE and INCANTATION and you have what DEVOTION are up to here. The production is lower than a snake’s belly and wonderfully murky. Listening to “Astral Catacombs” is the audio equivalent of reading Lovecraft’s “The Lurking Fear”...full of ominous mood, waiting for the monster to strike and splatter gore all over the place. I’m not 100% sure I would categorize this as death-doom, but the music leans upon the slower, more mid-paced end of the death metal spectrum. That kind of riffing always brings the power to the fore and creates a feeling of horror as well.
On “Astral Catacombs”, this is all in play. Even the short ambient tracks like “The Passing” and “The Wake” do their part. I like everything here, but “Horror Beyond the Stars”, “To Dementia” and the title track are especially potent. When I can say a band holds its own with ASPHYX or GRAVE, that’s a high compliment. If you’re digging through the death metal crypts trying to find the choicest morsels of rotten gore, watch for DEVOTION and “Astral Catacombs”.