DEVASTATOR - Baptised In Blasphemy

Devastator - Baptised In Blasphemy

7 songs
25:19 minutes
***** ***
Clobber

Bandpage

No one has probably ever accused Devastator of being original, and yet, listening to their blacked speed metal with a healthy dose of thrash still manages to work because of truly stellar songwriting. The fact that the seven tracks on their debut longplayer Baptised In Blasphemy only make it to twenty-five minutes is therefore a forgivable sin. Founded only in 2007, the British quartet released a demo and a live bootleg before gracing their audiences with their first album.

Starting with Howling Night, we get a high speed thrash song, catchy as hell, which recalls early Venom and Motörhead. The guitar riff is driving the song full force ahead, the vocals are nicely dirty, and you can sing along to the chorus before its first instance is over. The following Worship The Goat continues in the direction, offering more of that high quality stuff whose strength are the great guitar riffs, the venom-spewing vocals and also the lead guitar work which shines throughout this short record. Hail Death is another blackened thrasher, maybe not as immediate as the first two tracks, but still good enough, yet not preparing for what is to follow. Send Them To Hell and Death Slut are two short track, both running well under two minutes, and displaying Devastator at their most intense, proving that good songs can also be quite concise. The final two tracks are more moderate, even more melodic, with an added proto heavy metal touch. Spiritual Warfare has once again a great chorus with parallels to Sodom at their Agent Orange period. The concluding title track sounds like the twin brother to the preceding track, combining speed, melodies and grit, making it another nice vintage black speed thrash metal anthem.

Of course one is allowed to wonder if the band can keep up this lever over true album length, but then we should not forget that some of thrash metal’s major releases were sometimes under half an hour long. Fans of old school thrash metal should be delighted by Devastator’s take-no-prisoners attitude, especially since the tight production and the high amount of memorable melodies and guitar solos elevate Baptised In Blasphemy well above your run-of-the-mill retro exercise.

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