Polish death metal, which sounds... well, Polish! Dies Irae, and definitely some Yattering stuff too, is pretty close how Devilyn's debut full length album 'Anger' sounds like. Or the other way around, as it was Devilyn who got their debut album out way earlier, even though the bands were both born in the early 1990s (Devilyn was known as Cerebral Concussion back then). Okay, I have to name US legends Morbid Angel too, because their shadow is all over on 'Millenium', for example.

But getting your album out earlier doesn't mean you're more ready to do so... On 'Anger', Devilyn have hardly managed to write a song which is truly worthwhile for a listener; 'Black Mask of Death' and 'The Shadows of Acheron' (cool old school guitar solo!) are something that's nicely put together and 'Wings of Night' is a good atmospheric, brooding instrumental. The most of the compositions simply fail to impress or stick to my mind. There's energy flowing in the band's performance, but somewhat unbalanced sound and thin-as-hymen snare drum doesn't help at all, not to forget compressed guitar sound at times! Sounds like lame mp3 compression to me... The pace of the music is mainly fast or blasting, and some slower parts help listener to get through this chaos. There's nothing special in Devilyn's songs, to put it bluntly. Similar stuff has been heard too many times before, too many times after and sadly will be heard in the future.

One special thing is Novy's (yep, Marcin "Novy" Nowak of Vader fame) slappy, maybe not quite funky in full meaning of the word, and warped bass playing style, which steals the show from guitars! I bet Steve DiGiorgio has influenced this guy... Novy's vocals are kind of unique, definitely individual style of hissing/grunting, and when there's more than one vocals-track, it gets even more weird, believe me. Apocalyptic, evil and anti-religious lyrical themes are abound on 'Anger'. The Graal artwork is fine as one might expect from him.

I think 'Anger' might interest some bass players who enjoy death metal, but I'm afraid there's not much else that I can remember about it. Just so grey music...

Rating: 5+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/17/2007 15:10