6 years after "Conceived in Sewage" and even 20 years after their relentless und brutal classic "Molesting the Decapitated", DEVOURMENT is releasing their newest output "Obscene Majesty" on Relapse Records. For me the last albums didn't go in a direction I was expecting Devo to go or wanting them as an oldschool fan but when I heared the first singles from the album released I was more than hyped because of the dirty and rough sound.

"A Virulent Strain of Retaliation", Narcissistic Paraphilia" and "Cognitive Sedation Butchery" were showing the straight direction the band is going. No fancy overproduced sound, just rough and dirty to the max. Every rehearsal room fetish guy just gets an instant ejaculation hearing this stuff. It is pure and it is real. And last but not least, it is DEVOURMENT! The rawness and the unbelievable brutality they created 20 years ago with MTD, which record was above of its time, they are back at business at releasing their strongest and most brutal album since the debut.

After listening to the singles I was hyped as mentioned but I was also calming down my expectation. The good thing is that they didn't hammer out all their surprises on the record singles. They have a lot of loads in the balls to shoot all over the place. I was very surprised by the groove this band can also deliver without losing any heaviness in their songs. The guitars are so dirty, even the craziest gore grind fanatic will drop some tears. The Slam worshippers will bow down to the original masters of this heavy downtuned sound. On Songs like "Sculpted in Tyranny" you have groove and also super slow ten ton hammer riffs which break you apart. Will Rahmer of Mortician couldn't be prouder of this. Devo is back and it feels so good to listen to the 10 tracks.

A lot of people were complaining of the sound of the 8 string guitars. It is muddy and sounds like shit but in my opinion it is just perfect to the band. They knew what they were doing creating this. Like mentioned, pure, real and naturally beautiful brutal.

So what we have here. Hyper fast blasting, midtempo groovig and strangling slow banger parts with ultra guttural vocals. Good to see Ruban back at the mic. I always liked his gutturals the most on MTD. Everything is there what created the original sound of Devo just transported to the year 2019. It was worth the wait and I am crazy for my pre-order to arrive. Get prepared and listen to the true masters. SLAM ON!!!

10 /10

Cheers Zed