Idolatry

Idolatry seems to be the crowd favorite among Devastation's records, and while I think a lot of that stems from the fact that a whole lot of fresh metalheads were discovering death metal and aggressive thrash in 1991, it's a legit great follow-up to Signs of Life, exhibiting a bit more variation and some more measured, clinical thrashing. It can still go off the hinges, but not so much as its predecessor, instead there's a bit of maturity creeping in. I did not warm to this one as instantly as others, though. I've mentioned elsewhere how I actually thought '91 was a fairly average year in metal, that for my ears, there was a personal 'Curse of 91', where I find a lot of the hype albums overrated. In this case, it's not so much that, but because it was one of the Scott Burns production jobs I'm not hugely fond of. In fact, the mix here reminds me a lot of Sepultura's Arise...

I'm of course referring to that very punchy, processed guitar tone that showed up on a number of the records he worked on. It just doesn't sound great to me, in fact it often sounds a little dry. Fortunately, Devastation has the chops here to overcome that, and so it doesn't drag it down for me as much as it did Arise or some of the earlier Deicide stuff. The songs kick their fair share of ass, like Arise but with better riffs on average, and tunes like opener "Deliver the Suffering" or the amazing "Souls of Sacrifice" with those great grooves, stand among the best that the band ever released. Like the previous album, they were now a two guitar attack, and it shows with all the force of the rhythm guitars in lockstep. They were also ramping up the game with double bass and drumming that totally fit the blooming intensity that death metal was bringing to the game. I don't think the bass tone here is all that great, and of course the aforementioned guitar tone is responsible, though you can still hear it somewhat; so it's more points in its favor that it can also overcome that.

Rodney Dunsmore's vocals have also evolved yet again, not too far from Signs of Life, but here he has a roughness and sustain that remind me a lot of Ron Rinehart of Dark Angel and Jeff Becera of Possessed. But it's the songs that deliver the most here. They might not be unique or terribly nuanced, and certainly you'd already heard a lot of comparable riffs and records in the saturation of thrash that started during the late 80s and helped lead to its temporary extinction around 93-94. But it's rock-solid, mosh-ready songwriting with decent lyrics and an appreciable controlled anger to it that still resonates with me three decades later. In fact, it's just about on par with its predecessor, I think the songs are overall better, but I just like the production, artwork and nostalgia for Signs of Life a fraction more. Both need owning, and there have been a number of reissues, so they shouldn't be too hard for you to track down. Sadly this would be the end for the Texans apart from an extremely brief and fruitless reunion later.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

After taking everyone tricked by their false start by storm with a lethal sophomore in Signs of Life, Devastation continued working on their weaknesses, and went through another drummer change in order to pursue a tighter and more elaborate sound. To compose not another work of angry teenagers, but a work of men. Sounds horribly bland, doesn't it?

Let's take a step back. Signs of Life's main issues were the scarce variety of the songs and the lack of anger from the vocalist Rodney Dunsmore (and it was still a fucking strong album!), right? Well, what if the band managed to fix both with this one? Without firing the man at the mic? It seems implausible. Still, not only the songwriting is more complex and refined, with a special eye kept on not losing a single ounce of brutality; but even the heavily hardcore-inspired vocals of Dunsmore morphed into the real strength of the band. All combined in one album, it results in one of the peaks not only of the early '90s, but of the whole history of thrash metal. Granted, Epidemic of Violence can bludgeon your head with more efficiency, but the riff-work here has an intrinsic viciousness that isn't often experienced, the almighty Spectrum of Death being the only other album giving me the same feeling. Ultimately, this may be my favourite thrash metal album ever.

The horror-like section at the beginning of the album sets perfectly the atmosphere for this violent journey. The first, huge difference you'll notice once the music starts is the new style of drumming by David Lozano: the double bass (ab)used at the intro of 'Deliver the Suffering' is nearly more than Louie Carrisalez ever did on the whole Signs of Life. And also before it... even the song title sounds fantastic! In any way, when the track finally kicks in, we're hit by the first of a million killer riffs you'll hear throughout Idolatry. The song itself will end up being one of the highlights here, thanks to its successful chorus and its repeated tempo changes, with the more measured parts in correspondence of the guitar solos. The axemen have added some real quality in their repertoire, developing a sense of melody that was unthinkable based on the two albums before this ('Retribution' being the lone exception). But hell, despite all this it's Dunsmore that really steals the scene here! His performance is nowhere similar to the previous ones, as he delivers (precisely) some intimidating shouts that wouldn't have cut a poor figure on some old school death metal demos.

Oh, it was only the first song. Devastation indeed played the Hell Awaits card of few long songs as opposed to many short tracks, and with the shortest cut being just shy of 5 minutes, you could tell how much effort they put into Idolatry. When a band manages to make this choice work, it's always a plus in my book, but the obvious downside of creating overlong songs which could be better if trimmed of a couple minutes is always lurking behind the corner. Guess what? Here you'll never catch a track that's below excellence. Every song hits home just as the others, every main riff has the force to carry the entire world out of the COVID pandemic (look no further than the final triplet). My personal pick however is 'Forsaken Hatred', if only for the fact that it contains one (probably two) of my favourite riffs and one of my favourite solos ever... guess I didn't have much choice. The solo in particular is broken in two parts with a similar flow, with the second one being absolutely masterful. The refrain is awesome. What's not to like? Right in my top 10 thrash songs of all time.

The album is not completely on full throttle, anyway, still the slower cuts are equally as menacing as the others. While 'Freewill' has definitely a Beneath the Remains vibe with its multiple tempo changes, and 'Souls of Sacrifice' is still injected with sporadic outbursts of speed (though the razor sharp mid-paced riff is the real deal here – I'm pretty sure I've never heard a better riff on a mid-tempo song), the title-track is a bit of an odd number since it's the only almost completely slow song on here. It still yields its degree of memorability thanks to the chorus though – the vocals and the instruments alternate so perfectly (*du-dum du-dum du-dum* 'I gave you life!' *du-dum du-dum du-dum* 'You choose to die!' etc.) that it will stick in your head within a second. Okay, maybe it's the weakest track overall, but with all this brilliance on display it's not that much of a detriment. Since I love to point out tiny and insignificant details, its ominous acoustic guitar intro is reprised at the end of the album, with 'Never Believe' slowly dissolving into it, and it works a lot.

The lyrics also deserve a mention in the sense that they offer a different take on religion if compared to everyone around them. Devastation were never openly anti-religious, but I get the feeling they had even sneaked some Christian message on Idolatry. 'Souls of Sacrifice', 'Idolatry', 'Legacy of Faith' all deal with religion at some point, but also the deceivingly titled 'Never Believe' is an insight on Judas' betrayal (I recognized 'For you my unholy brother, better off if you weren't born' as a particularly powerful quote spoken by Jesus in the Gospel) and the subsequent trial to Jesus. Nevertheless, regardless of one's faith, I think they are worth a read... needless to add, overall they're much improved, and shouted with way more clarity by Dunsmore. Sometimes less is more, eh? His continuous struggle to keep up with Signs of Life's wall of text lyrics really brought it down by some points. Oh, can we also have a Scott Burns production? Check, even if not one of his finest, be-all end-all works.

Enough fanboyism. Devastation will sadly end their story shortly after Idolatry (and presumably a tour), and their attempt at a short reunion fell apart even more quickly, its only outcome being two particularly weak re-recordings (especially 'Desolation', slowed down so much that it was hardly recognizable) and a new track in 'Blood for Blood', which unsettlingly sounds like a lost Biohazard tune, not helped by Dunsmore who had obviously regressed to his punkish yelling, all contained in a reissue with an ugly redesigning of the original artwork as well. This edition, which I unfortunately own, is probably best left forgotten, and I'm surely not gonna lower the rating for the original album because of that.

Had Devastation tried their hand at a fourth album, I have no doubts it would have been a menacing death/thrash bastard, as I believe they were among the least willing to capitulate to the '90s trends. Many uncertainties, only two facts: they could never top Idolatry, and they left with one of the finest albums of all time. They can be more than proud of this.

The riffs played on this album are straight up menacing. For example in songs like "Forsaken Hatred," "Subconscious," and "Eternal Suffering" these guys play such heavy sounding riffs you would think it was death metal, as a matter of fact if these songs featured blast beats and heavier low end vocals I am 100 percent sure it would be classified as death metal. Anyway Devastation's debut "Violent Termination" was an uninspired, directionless, empty debut. It had pitiful vocals, awful guitar work, and was just horrible all around. Their second album Signs of Life was a significant improvement as the production was made better, the guitar and bass work became more fluent and technical, and the drumming was improved as well. The weak link on that album was still vocalist Rodney Dunsmore who was powerless and generic sounding. This album though whoa it's significantly better than the debut and quite a bit better than Signs of Life.

The musicianship tightened up, and Rodney's vocals became far more menacing sounding instead of the whiny vocals he had on the previous albums. The band as a whole became a lot more brutal. I know the word brutal is very overused in the metal scene but believe me this is by far their most brutal sounding record. The way the double bass rumbles is insane it's like getting a drill to the head. The guitars have this very powerful sounding crunch (courtesy of Scott Burns the death metal legend) and the riffs have this menacing bite that just never let up. The songs have a very bludgeoning feeling to them similar to what death metal was like in the early 90s instead of the all out thrash menacing that was present in later era thrash metal (ex. Attomica, Gammacide, Sadus). The savage riffs combined with the very powerful drumming gives this album overall a very powerful and crushing sound. Rodney definitely took some lessons from Chuck Schuldiner and Jeff Becerra on how to sing harshly, and in turn it worked out very well for the band. The lyrics are not much really to write about but this is thrash, thrash is about the riffs and if a thrash album doesn't have riffs then it's no good, but fear not as this album is jam packed with notable riffs that will get stuck in your head after you listen to them that's how good and memorable they are.

The best way to describe the sound of this album is a mixture of Demolition Hammer, Sepultura (Arise era), and Possessed. These guys are definitely on the harsher end of the thrash spectrum compared to stuff like Anthrax, Megadeth, or Metallica. The drumming is definitely more in the form of grinding your brains inside out compared to just keeping the beat (aka Metallica) and it pulverizes you. Vinnie Daze from Demolition Hammer is a good example of what the drummer on this album sounds like, very harsh and very fast double bass kicks but slightly less pulverizing because well Vinnie (may he R.I.P) is probably the heaviest drummer ever. Also I brought up the Possessed example because Rodneys vastly improved vocal performance on this album heavily reminds me of Jeff from Possessed in his menacing scream/shout. His earlier singing style was extremely weak, on this album he sounded like a formidable vocalist none of that gurgling muddiness is displayed here (thank god). So overall a massive improvement for devastation. I wish they continued with this path cause I feel they could have made some extremely devastating death/thrash if they continued this path, but we're left with this underrated jewel, only to be discovered by the hardcore thrashers in the thrash scene underbelly. Highlights include "Eternal Suffering," "Subconscious," "Forsaken Hatred."

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the brutal thrash metal clinic. Tonight, Devastation will be performing their opus, Idolatry. For your listening pleasure, we will crank the volume to ear piercing levels. At any time, you may experience the sensation of cerebral explosion. Should you have the desire to exit the premises, we recommend you seek out the nearest nu metal album, and continue breast-feeding.

Devastation began their career in a rather unspectacular fashion. “Violent Termination” was an unremarkable thrash effort, though it did show the promise of future splendor. The band followed with “Signs of Life.” Devastation’s sophomore album was an improvement from the debut, and barely crossed the line into classic territory. Idolatry sounds like an entirely new band: a collection of driven musicians, who tightened their delivery with skull smashing effectiveness.

Idolatry unfolds with the typical thrash metal intro, reminiscent of a cheesy, horror movie death scene. After roughly a minute of anticipation, the pain begins. Sonic destruction blares from the speakers, signaling the beginning of “Deliver the Suffering.” The double bass drumming accents the delightfully sludgy twin axe maiming. When the main verse begins, a wall of sound rages above the rampaging drums. Thrash metal bands of the future should take note of the maliciously pulverizing intensity of the chorus. Metal gods be praised, for thou art generous!

“Freewill” slows the tempo to a mesmerizing, most pit level. Even at a relaxed speed, the track is spine shattering. Devastation has a sound similar to Sepultura; “Beneath the Remains” era, though arguably more savage. A number of thrash bands maintain a break neck tempo (see Sadus) throughout the entire album, but Devastation mastered the art of time changing ruthlessness. Idolatry never capitulates to mercy. One moment the band delights in the sweet sensation of head banging ecstasy, only to strip the listener of repose in the name of barbarous rapidity. From the unhurried carnage of “Souls of Sacrifice,” to the ire of “Never Believe,” Idolatry hits with the ferocity of a freight train.

Dunsmore is noticeably more effective in the vocal department. His bland performance on “Violent Termination” is replaced by a snarling madness, similar to Jeff on “Seven Churches.” The solos could be better, but they are a far cry from the horrid screeching of Slayer. David Lozano excels behind the skins, capturing the essence of both primal urge and style.

Production on the album is slightly too muddy. Idolatry could have sounder even more menacing had the guitars been clearer. Minor complaints aside, this is an essential thrash album. Along with Demolition Hammer’s “Epidemic of Violence,” Idolatry is the very definition of heavy.
(rating has been lowered slightly)

...so the lyrics for "Subconscious" state, and so I am. This is the first time I've reviewed something quite like this, so bear with me. Devastation's third full-length album, Idolatry, is perhaps one of the top 5 death/thrash albums ever written. As soon as the intro for "Deliver the Suffering" slides into the first riff, you can already feel the power and hatred flowing from the music. I was honestly not expecting this, and when I heard that riff I cranked up the volume like a motherfucker. This song, along with the rest of the album, is nothing but a straight headbanging, thrashing mayhem from start to finish.

The next song to mention would be the title track "Idolatry", which has an intro of its own, except this is a creepy acoustic intro (that you'll also hear as the outtro to the album), which sets the stage for the rest of the song. It's a song that is dreadfully heavy... especially for a thrash metal song. The riff sounds like something Slayer would've written back the in 80s, but at the same time, it's more brutal and has a Devastation edge to it. Another riff that stands out for me is the chorus riff in "Subconscious", one of the coolest riffs in the album, and one of my favorite thrash riffs period. Be sure, upon owning this album, to crank the shit out of this song.

Now, moving on to the bonus tracks, (my copy is the 2008 reissued version), the band's newer sound is also pretty nice, aside from the vocals. The guitar tone sounds chunky and heavy as hell, much like Slayer's distortion on the album Divine Intervention, but almost better. "Blood for Blood" is one of those songs that is just great. It's a heavy, fun song with Slayer-like riffs that'll have you banging your head, but the best of the three bonus tracks would have to be "Tomorrow We Die". This song sounds like it could just go right in with the other songs on Idolatry, other than the vocals again, but the more you listen to it, the more the new vox will grow on you. There is a riff on this song that stands out about like "Subconscious", but not AS great. The riff starts around 2:35 if I remember right on "Tomorrow We Die", and as soon as the riff kicked in, I was laughing in victory. It's the perfect riff at the perfect time, and it makes the song awesome as hell.

Overall, the album gets a straight 100% from me, being one of the most underrated thrash albums ever. Awesome riffs, great solos, cool lyrics, and brutal drumming earn Devastation a perfect score. Hails to Devastation!

Maybe It's because this was released toward the waning years of the classic thrash era, but this to me never seems to get the recognition as being one of the most devastating (no pun intended) and crushing thrash albums of all time. In my book this is up there, if not surpassing, the likes of "Pleasure to Kill", "Darkness Descends", and "Beneath the Remains".

This album is all about the riffs and intensity created from the wall of sound that is each one these 8 songs. These guys seem to know they have good riffs and they make sure you don't soon forget them. Each riff is drilled deep into your skull repeatedly until you cry for mercy. Good examples of this non-stop assault are the tracks "Freewill" and "Souls Sacrifice". I dare you to keep your neck vertebrae in alignment during the aforementioned "Souls Sacrifice" or title track!

The vocals by Rodney Dunsmore I believe are a huge part of what makes this album such an intense experience. He has a harsh scream almost bordering on death metal vocal style that can still be deciphered.

The production is the only thing that may bother some people. It's a bit muddy and thick, although I think the thickness helps with the heaviness. It definitely would sound a lot better though a decent system so you can mess with the EQ.

This is one of the few albums that will have you going though the riffs in your head long after you've stop listening to this monster! No doubt about it! If you call yourself a real thrasher, then you have no business not owning this piece of thrash brutality. You may feel an urge for a nice neck massage after giving this mother of an album a spin.

In the face of black metal’s grim blade & death metal’s meteoric uprising, the ‘90s didn’t exactly tremble with the brute force of thrash. By now it was the older brother going senile, nearly ready for plastic underwear & a beeper to find its car keys. Grunge…may it and Guns n’ Posers-style bar rag, butt-shake cock rock forever rot in hell. California's bay area, big 'ol Texas & stiff-armed Germany floundered into underground metal's backseat so ice-aged Sweden, Norway & Florida, America's Sunshine State, could prop their feet on the dashboard & if anything compare opposing climates. To no surprise, many of the style’s old messiahs lingered still, now a little saggier, double-chinned, eyes creased with crow’s feet, with some having sailed off to explore more experimental lands, while others could be seen diving to crushable depths in search of their past originality and, in many cases, enthusiasm that was rarely ever reestablished. More than a few acts, some that not long ago were quite distinguished within their chosen style, served up efforts that could only languish in the absence of one or more key members, where not even the founder(s) were there to man the hatches. A period of woe for thrash fans.

1989’s Signs of Life is one of the last bastions of the style’s true bruiser mentality, ‘80s, ‘90s or whenever - a slab of gritty black fervor that would’ve devastated even in 1986 when it could’ve truly been appreciated, but I’ve argued with myself that it’s more esteemed yet as it bashes brains during thrash’s fated decline. Idolatry, the band’s third, sees the quintet continue its frantic stride against extinction, only now running with more feeling than fire despite pig-stompers “Subconscious”, “Forsaken Hatred” & finale “Never Believe”, with the latter's heavy-handed acoustic endgame almost consciously waving farewell to Devastation's version of thrash forever. Elsewhere it seems the style's progressive edge has managed to bite into the group's hardened leather skin, with tiny bits of simple virtuosity filtering through the violent haze of rumbling double bass & velocity not only in the three aforementioned tunes, but in “Souls of Sacrifice”, “Freewill” (not a Rush cover) & the somewhat tedious title track that can be heard pushing chest deep into the stuff.

No longer hamstringed by the technical unsteadiness heard on Signs of Life, the band appears to be pretty hell-bent on showing it – not a bad thing, and though I heralded these diminutive sections of downsized momentum in SOL, two years have trickled by, with my patience waning for the style that regularly refuses to wrench spines from skeletons any longer, two more years of bands’ profuse arousal at creating more third-string tech-thrash riffs than you can heave off a cliff, and with the realization that Devastation seem to be headed toward a similar descent. I just wasn’t in the mood. Fortunately, despite its fashionably creepy, King Diamond-styled keyboard intro, voracious death blow “Deliver the Suffering” releases me from that depression every time, and a chunky Scott Burns production fills the gaps.

Well, it took Dunsmore four years & three albums to finally get somewhere near the friggin' program, here much of the time & to his credit sounding less hardcore & more thrash, yet his intrinsic tonal stoicism casts the same mirror image unto each track, and its question of 'for better or worse' I'll leave up to the listener to answer. Lyrically, things are spoken in the same language as their previous slab, and compared to the uselessly wayward prose found on the equally useless debut are high poetry even if I can’t find a passage interesting enough to head up this review.

Overall, wading into the ‘90s with this at the end of an axe handle isn’t the worst thing someone could’ve done. Its heaviness can out-pummel just about anything rounded up by the likes of Evildead, Forced Entry or Forbidden & has the chops to stay within breathing distance of the latter two; a see-saw of power, intensity & ingenuity. Okay, a three-way see-saw, but who’s looking for logic here?

After Idolatry, the band was silenced.

Sometimes music cannot be described with words, it simply takes your breath away and you simply enjoy it with all your heart. Fortunately this is not the case with Idolatry, here you do not weep for the glory lost or little fluffy kittens that got killed, here you fucking bang your head! This album cannot be compared to Beneath The Remains, definetly, it's so superior that it could only be compared to world destroyers like Time Does Not Heal or Spectrum Of Death, perhaps not as good, but very, very close.

Not only did they fuck my brain, they fucked all of you and comanded you not to deny the beast inside, but to let it loose - thrash is the ultimate punishment that god, or satan, came up with and they gave the key to Slayer, Overkill and Venom. Slayer got lost, Overkill kept on thrashing and Venom... well... Venom decided to screw the rules and created the most fucking lethal version of thrash ever made, thus giving birth to Possessed, who ultimately gave birth to bands like Morbid Saint, Dark Angel and Devastation.
Well, thank you Venom, you just brought music as extreme as possible and brought it's end in the year 1991. - marking it as the most powerful music ever made by man. The thrash titans decided to make it glorious and albums like Idolatry, Victims Of Deception, TDNH, Night of the Stormrider, Nothing'$ $acred and Horrorscope were forged in hell's studios.

The main problem with the songs is I have no idea where to start, so I won't even do it. I'll mention Deliver the Suffering as the craziest neck snapping song ever made by man, a song that makes Kreator sound like amateurs, and simmilar magnificent pieces like Souls of Sacrifice with that goddamn complicated main riff. Also the title track gets "heavy as fuck" in the heaviness catalogue. And of course there's Never Believe, a Darkness Descends worship song, something very simmilar to Perish in Flames, just a bit slower in the middle.

Overall... one of the best albums ever made. If this doesn't make your head band, you're either disabled or completely retarded. Worship it or fuck off. Thank you.

Man, is this underrated or what? When you see people making lists of all their favorite thrash albums, this album rarely ever makes the list, which is rather sad. The production on here is great, and the riffage is amazing.

"Deliver the Suffering" starts off with some weird one minute intro, and then...

HERE COME THE RIFFS!

The song is over six minutes (counting the intro) of thrashing insanity. "Freewill" is also brutal, but it's a lot more midpaced. "Forsaken Hatred" is possibly the album highlight. The riffs in this one will surely make you bang your heads til they bleed. "Souls of Sacrifice" alternates between the fast paced and midpaced parts of the album quite nicely. Cool solo, too.

The title track opens up the second half of the album, starting with a melodic guitar intro, then with some midpaced thrashing that will truly make your necks snap. "Legacy of Faith" also alternates between the brutal, fast paced thrash, and the more midpaced thrash parts of the album, much like the previously mentioned "Souls of Sacrifice". "Subconscious" is quite nice. "Never Believe" is also awesome. Very, very fast, and intense from start to finish.

An awesome album, unfairly criminally underrated. This is worth buying. Not a bad moment.