Something happened that I thought wouldn’t be possible: a good death metal band from my own town! Now it’s easy to give them 10 points for that simple fact, but that’s not objective. So I’ll stick to the music in an honest way, without giving them at least 9 points for another simple fact; this band performs blast beats and are still coming from Hengelo (if you are from the Netherlands, name ten bands in this region with proper blast beats). If you think I’m obsessed with blast beats, and therefore judge CDs on the amount of them, you’re totally wrong. But blast beats and Hengelo, it’s just an unusual combination. Okay, whatever. We’re talking about the debut CD of Devious here and they produce American oriented death metal. Listening to this gives me the impression that these guys would like to be friends with Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse (and some more Florida bands), for their music is a mix of those bands, I guess.

And in the instrumental track “Suoived (introspection)” you can hear the intro of Dissection’s “Where Dead Angels Lie”. A problem with this album is that it is stuffed with riffs, maybe even too much. So although this CD is a quality one, it’s not exactly in-your-face death metal as I like to name it. After a few listening sessions it’s obvious that they know what they’re doing, but I rather prefer it to be more direct (like Gorefest in their early days). Another point that could be improved is grunter Arnold, who should grunt a bit lower to give the album more extremity. But what the hell, this is a good CD which can absolutely compete in the national league, and maybe even in the international one. And that for a band from Hengelo. Respect.