Devangelic – Phlegethon (Review)

This is the second album from Devangelic, an Italian death metal band.

The follow up to 2014’s barbaric Resurrection Denied, Devangelic have once again created a raging monster of USDM-influenced brutal death metal.

Although the band haven’t really changed in style since their very enjoyable debut release, the songs on Phlegethon are generally longer and seem a bit more intricate than those of their first album.

This is unforgiving and uncompromising. There’s no niceness or breathing room given on this album, no real streaks of melody or colour to provide respite from the barbarous brutality. No, Devangelic are only concerned with battering and smashing you into submission, and Phlegethon does its bloody work well.

That’s not to imply this is entirely one-dimensional though, as there’s a decent amount of variety and dynamics at play within the constraints of the chosen sub-genre. Mixing speeds and methods of execution well, chunky riffs sit alongside blast beats, with even some slower sections thrown in here and there to really press home the crushing nature of the music. Devangelic know what they’re doing with this type of music, that’s for sure.

The vocals are guttural and every bit as harsh and unrelenting as the music. The singer sounds inhuman and spends the entire time on the record vomiting his insides out.

With a strong, dense production the songs are given ample room to cause havoc, destruction, and devastation, which they do with belligerent joy.

Containing 41 minutes of sheer brutality, Phlegethon is a very satisfying slab of death metal.

Check this out.