Devouring Star, Through Lung and Heart, Russia, Daemon Worship Productions, CD DWP044 (2015)
If I hadn’t already known that Devouring Star was Finnish but had come to know the band via its music alone, I probably would have guessed these guys were a black / death metal French band following in the path of bands like Antaeus and Deathspell Omega. As it turns out, these Finnish musicians take much inspiration from the French bands’ style of dense blasting black metal with the twisting dissonant guitar chords and fiercely unflinching Satanic worship.
“Through Lung and Heart” is DS’s debut album and it’s not a bad work at all when you consider that the band’s discography includes just one other release (a demo), though there may be other recordings that we don’t yet know about which DS might have only shared with friends and relatives. Bookended by unearthly cold ambient soundscapes that put the listener in the right frame of mind – that is, a fearful one – the band launches straight into “Sanctified Decomposition” which at nine minutes in length gives us what we can expect of these guys in essence: very jarring rhythm and lead guitars, similar in sound and approach to Deathspell Omega, on first hearing anyway; good and consistent drumming; a heavy and deep grinding bass; and vocals of a dry death-rattle quality. The song packs in bouts of blaring blast-beat aggression in among the riffing and rhythm sequences, and I have to say that this song and the others that follow, while they are very tight, don’t always have very clear and distinct musical identities.
At least DS are not too demanding on the ear: the production is very good, allowing each instrument to be heard, and the music isn’t very complex in the way Deathspell Omega’s albums can be. The guitar textures have enough fuzz so their ringing (or nagging, depending on your point of view) tone dominates the band’s sound. In a later track, the guitars (both lead and rhythm) resemble a hive of hornets in their never-ending buzz and grind. If ever DSO made a comeback in a stripped-down, minimalist garage form, the French band might sound a little like DS does here.
DS lavish most attention on the title track with added recordings of ambience (which I would have liked to have heard between tracks to help differentiate them and add a three-dimensional effect) and a loose structure that draws out the dread and malevolence in the music and lyrics. The vocal has an extra ring of cold echo around it which makes it stand out a bit more from the rest of the music. Powerful riffs anchor the track and help make this the most memorable of the five songs here.
At this early stage, the guys need to add something to their style so that it doesn’t sound so much like a lesser or simpler version of DSO. Perhaps with more time spent playing together, refining their style and writing and recording more songs, the band will develop a more definite style and identity as an occult black / death metal band.