Devolved - Reprisal

Brutal heavy music to help release your inner frustrations is what Devolved brings on their latest album “Reprisal.” Originally from Australia and now stationed in Los Angeles Devolved is a technical death metal band who does not play fluffy happy music. Their overall sound is filled with crushing heavy rhythms, tons of intense guitar parts, and extreme growling vocals. High levels of pure technical death emotion are spilled out on each track of their sixth full-length release. I believe that the band’s solid technical death metal sound is due to consistent album releases and hard work. I can tell these guys have been playing intense music for a while and did not just pick up playing overnight. The sound production on “Reprisal” really stands out and allows for an awesome listening experience. Each instrument does not drown out another. Vocally I am not as enthusiastic because I have always been hit or miss with technical death metal vocals. The singer’s vocal style reminds me of Randy Blythe’s to some degree. Personally I find Devolved to be another band trying to follow the Lamb of God formula. However, Devolved does separate from the usual Lamb of God copy cats by coming up with diverse sounding songs and dealing with a variety of lyrical themes.

The opening song “Systematic Avenger” starts out with a blazing technical guitar riff that breaks out into some brutal vocals. I like the vocals on this song because the singer adds an emotional punch to the song. Overall a great song to start off the album and introduces the listener to Devolved’s technical death metal approach. Drumming is probably not an area that too many people think about on an album, but Devolved’s drummer comes up with some incredible lightening fast blast beats which give this album a heavy edge. Song two and three are examples of high endurance drumming with excellent consideration for timing. Song number four “Supremacy Enforced” sounds a bit similar to most technical death metal songs except the guitar playing really stood out. I find this guitarist to be unbelievable, especially during the guitar solos. He has a unique technical style which is matched by this crunchy distorted tone. Still I am not a big fan of the break down parts which remind me of metalcore. The songs where there a few if any break downs seem to be my favorites. Once the break downs become overused I tend to loose interest. 

Moving on, my favorite song on this album would probably have to be “Inanimate Infinity.” This song is an ambient cosmic sounding guitar piece with a short vocal part. There are some awesome guitar effects used that give the song’s atmosphere a different feel compared to the other tracks. When the singer starts speaking over the guitar I feel like I am hearing something used in an episode of the Twilight Zone. 

Devolved’s “Reprisal” is an album to bang your head to and let go all the anger built up inside of you. Their technical death metal style can be heard amongst the mass group of other similar sounding bands, but there are some factors which separate Devolved from the usual herd. I think the album is well worth checking out and it can appeal to a wide arrange of metal fans. I understand some people will disagree with my criticisms or my compliments. Still at the end of the day we can agree Devolved is a metal band who put out an album to help keep the genre going strong.

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  1. Systematic Avenger
  2. Accelerated Human Degeneration
  3. Reprisal Of The Damned
  4. Supremacy Enforced
  5. Embodiment
  6. Collateral Damage
  7. Apocalyptic Visionary
  8. Terminal Enslavement
  9. Corrupted Mind Processor
  10. Inanimate Infinity
  11. (Cadence Of) The Dirge (cover Exhorder)


Reviewer: twansibon
Jan 31, 2013

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