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More than likely brought on by the continually growing success of Suicide Silence, it appears that Century Media have decided to add another deathcore act to their highly impressive roster of bands with the signing of California natives The Devastated. Formed by ex-Oblige and Impending Doom members, their album Devil's Messenger was originally intended to be released under the Oblige moniker, but the new material was different enough for the band members to decide to clean the slate and start again with the new name.


As a deathcore release, Devil's Messenger ticks all the appropriate boxes – heavy riffs, beatdowns, guttural vocals and jackhammer drums. However, from the first track “Drip Drip” onwards, it’s pretty obvious that one fundamental skill that The Devastated doesn’t posses is song-writing. Tracks “Psuedo Smile Campaign”, “Spit Vitriol” and horrendously titled “Roof Top Party Drop” are simply your completely run-of-the-mill deathcore tunes, and listening to them only raises the question of what the usually very reliable Century Media folk heard that this reviewer is missing?

Bands like Molotov Solution, Within the Ruins and Aversions Crown are breathing life into deathcore with a combination of great songs and great technicality. The Devastated, however sound like they’re sucking the air right out of the genre’s ever stretched lungs.That all being said though, the album isn’t offensively bad, and the occasional groove is half-way catchy, but that’s hardly a selling point – because metal, or basically any other genre of music in general, isn’t really supposed to be background music; it’s supposed to grab the listener and force it’s way right into the forefront.

Devil's Messenger does this only a handful of times, for example the droning and atmospheric intro of “Failure in Thrive” which slowly works into a grimy riff, but for the most part it’s a record full of dull breakdowns, average vocals and flat and uninspiring songs.

As previously mentioned Devil's Messenger is not an awful release per se, and there is the occasional highlight to be heard, it’s just that there are literally dozens of bands who do this branch of metal either heavier, faster, more technical or generally just better.

So basically, unless you’re an absolute die-hard deathcore fan and need to hear every new album that the over-populated genre produces, you can be rest assured that your quality of living won’t be lowered by not listening to The Devastated’s newest album.

(released February 14, 2012 on Century Media Records)

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.