Devastator

Getting your music fix in 2008 wasn’t as easy as downloading a program and finding the songs there – okay, so yes it was, but at the time, the record industry didn’t approve of such listening methods, going so far as to sue multiple people and outlets for music piracy. While the labels had their hands full failing to combat the rise of digital distribution, other entrepreneurs chose to take advantage of this growing movement, leading to many digitally focused releases around this time, many for free. Indeed, that’s how I found Devastator, as a free download through a long-defunct blog, and for whatever reason, Double Dragon’s melodies and atmosphere remained with me over a decade later, even if the technicality falls short.

As I don’t have the greatest knowledge of metalcore and its variations, I couldn’t tell you if this sounds closer to Killswitch Engage nor Avenged Sevenfold. What I feel confident telling you is that the song compositions lack the incongruous breakdowns most other ‘-core’ bands like to employ, giving the album a mostly consistent feel when it comes to atmosphere. I say mostly because the riff compositions display the technical shortcomings of the guitarists, also similar to most other ‘-core’ bands I’ve heard – I can’t but feel like the second half of the guitar riff you’ll hear a minute and forty-five seconds into the song, “Beneath the City of Churches,” needs more notes in it, and this is a recurring feeling. At least the band has a good grasp on musical ambience, using backing guitar and vocal melodies to accentuate each other for much of the running time such as on basically all of “The Skulls of Fallen Conquerors.”

Speaking of that song, it is my honest opinion that this release would have benefitted better being bisected into two separate EP’s. Having listened to this album countless times over the last ten years or so, I feel like the manic energy of the first six songs seems to die right as “Breathing Fire” takes over. This isn’t to say the listening experience is ruined by this change in mood – it’s just that the musical atmosphere switches over to a more somber character with this song. Seriously, even “The Skulls of Fallen Conquerors,” as corny a title as that is, sings of insanity, love, and hope; the title track’s metal part may resort to cheesy rock clichés as its lyrical matter, but once it’s over, the soft melody from “Prelude for the Damned” begins again and finishes the album with a tasteful orchestra fading out into melancholic oblivion. One more tidbit to support this theory: Certain songs lead into the next, such as “Breathing Fire” having an electric guitar rise in volume until it hits “The Skulls of Fallen Conquerors.”

As much as I loved listening to this album over the years, I can’t safely recommend it unless watered-down melodic death metal where the guitars can’t keep pace with the drummer meets your criteria as a good time. That being said, the twin guitar melodies are easily the strongest part of the album, as every song on here contains at least one guitar part I can point to and say I liked. Devastator may lack some of the technicality expected with melodic death metal, but the album compensates for this by also excluding undesirable elements typical in ‘-core’ music, making for a much smoother listen. I guess my ultimate recommendation comes down to this: Would you like to hear a band that sounds like they’re still struggling to form melodic death metal, yet have enough respect for the art that they’ll shy away from useless gimmicks like bridge breakdowns and random pig squeals? If you don’t mind that, then check these guys out. If not, keep moving – you’ve likely heard more substantial metal than what’s here, but at least what’s here isn’t entirely fluff.