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DEVOURMENT Surprise Drop 'Pious Impiety' EP

https://metalinjection.net/new-music/devourment-surprise-drop-pious-impiety-ep

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HATEBREED To Headline Summer Slaughter 2026 Alongside DEVOURMENT, INCANTATION & More

https://metalinjection.net/tour-dates/hatebreed-to-headline-summer-slaughter-2026-alongside-devourment-incantation-more

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Summer Slaughter 2026 Returns With HATEBREED, DEVOURMENT, INCANTATION

https://bravewords.com/heavy-metal/summer-slaughter-2026-returns-with-hatebreed-devourment-incantation/

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Summer Slaughter 2026 returns with Hatebreed, Devourment, Incantation, and more:

#SummerSlaughter #Hatebreed #Devourment #Incantation

Link: https://metalinsider.net/touring/summer-slaughter-2026-returns-with-hatebreed-devourment-incantation-and-more

What’s your favorite slam album and why? Do you value catchiness in your big bruutz? Clear production? Melodic presence? My favorite slam alternates with my mood between Devourment’s Obscene Majesty and Analepsy’s Quiescence; the former for the excellent execution of such a narrow sound, and the latter for the colors and beauty imbued into the otherwise bone-shattering grooves. Though given a bad rap for its easy-to-emulate smoothbrain caveman stereotypes, slam has shown much evolution in recent years as bands continue to push and redefine the limits of extremity. Hailing from Chile, new outfit Sermon to the Lambs have arrived with their self-titled debut, coming with the usual aggrandizing promises of maximum aural violence and assurances of a downright traumatizing listen for anyone who has ears to hear; will this sermon find the hearts of true believers or leave the congregation cold and unmoved?

Well, at least they know their way around a riff. Periodic snapshots show Sermon to the Lambs at their proselytizing best, with the occasional moment raising itself to headbangable proportions (“Crowned King of the Worms”, “God Spat and the Man was Done”) with a high octane assault. Slam styles range from the chunkier chromatic walks of Maggot Colony or Condemned, to moodier setpieces near the end of “Clergy’s Malevolence” for tonal shift and a sense of climax to round out the release. Melodies are almost completely excised in favor of a full steam ahead barrage, which rarely tinkers with tempo changes or distinguishing features, placing Sermon to the Lambs as students of the class of professors Disgorge and Gorgasm with regard to their commitment to bludgeoning the listener to death.

Sermon to the Lambs by SERMON TO THE LAMBS

Unfortunately, those highlights are few and far between and only serve to exacerbate how unbelievably bland this album is. Vocalist Richard Aguayo falls prey to the maddening trend of not knowing how to let his vocals support the music, choosing instead to slather almost the entire album with belches and brees which possess little sense of diction or phrasing. His gutturals are excellent, but the frustrating insistence on double-tracking them with his more shrill screams is not, and the mix has him pushed so far forward that he frequently drowns out whatever interesting musicality might be hiding underneath. Songs stop and go on a dime, and frequently I’d be surprised to see I was several tracks deeper into a listen than I thought I was, thanks to song conclusions and kick-offs blurring together in composition. Any random 30 seconds chosen to play would certainly unleash an attack filled with energy and enthusiasm, but Sermon to the Lambs is utterly devoid of truly head-spinning moments or anything to warrant repeat listens.

What is the biggest culprit for this? The mix is no help, with all the knobs on the board shoved all the way up to 11, leaving instrument and vocals fighting for attention while the bass’s body is buried in the backyard and forgotten. For the most part, the riffs are no help, a hodgepodge of expected staccato presentations and a beige haze of blasts. The drumming is no help; while skillfully delivered, there are certainly no fills to catch the listener’s attention. Other than the aforementioned moments of semi-memorability in the bookending tracks, there’s definitely no run of riffs to raise horns and toss beer at innocent passerby. Sermon to the Lambs lacks any dose of menace or cinema, though the band definitely tries, taking a page from the book of Brodequin and injecting some Gregorian chant into an intro (“Maximum Apostasy”) before that too devolves into paint-drying and bird watching. The closing track makes a valiant effort to get some real atmosphere with its tempo shifts, and Sermon to the Lambs wisely err on the side of brevity with the releases 30 minute runtime. But ultimately, this is an opaque, textureless, flavorless album, so focused on the brutalizing that it never manages to get out of first gear and approach anything with replayability.

I’ve wrestled for a while on why this is. Objectively, there’s nothing executed that’s “poor” in the literal sense. Instruments are played well, throats are wildly abused, and snares blow out the treble in your speakers with savage glee. One might argue that this was the very vision, and if such monotonous brutality is your jam, you’ll probably find lots more to like here. But slam is capable of its own artistic merit and is more than malleable to compositional adventures, and Sermon to the Lambs is lacking heavily in both artistic vision (beyond “kill”) and compositional adventures. If straightforward jackhammer thrashings are your parish, you’ll find plenty of good word here, but this lion lamb will be attending services elsewhere.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 41 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: March 6th, 2025

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MIKE MAJEWSKI (Ex-DEVOURMENT) Of TRUTH DEVOID Charged With One Count Of Intoxicated Manslaughter And Four Counts Of Intoxicated Assault From Fatal 2025 Crash

https://627e81c5fee2d202a5df846c.paas-p.smehost.net/metal-crimes/mike-majewski-devourment-truth-devoid-charged-with-manslaughter-and-assault

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MIKE MAJEWSKI (Ex-DEVOURMENT) Of TRUTH DEVOID Charged With One Count Of Intoxicated Manslaughter And Four Counts Of Intoxicated Assault From Fatal 2025 Crash

https://metalinjection.net/metal-crimes/mike-majewski-devourment-truth-devoid-charged-with-manslaughter-and-assault

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It’s gotta be tough being inspired by genre giants. For bands like Incantation or Autopsy, it can be hard to drink from their well without sounding like derivative, uninspired knockoffs. In the realm of brutal death, Suffocation unsurprisingly stands at the top of the corpse pile, with a sound that’s inspired offshoot after offshoot and triggered more permutations of listener-savaging than one can count. There was a period when “Suffoclone” was used as a term of mockery, and now time has looped back around to turning such a descriptor into a potential point of praise. Architectural Genocide have landed with their sophomore album Malignant Cognition, which unsurprisingly seeks to worship at the altar of the brutal death kings. Will their tribute allow them to rise to the ranks of priesthood in this church of the charnel, or relegate them to mere parish members of the profane?

Architectural Genocide overcome brutal deaths first major hurdle with an excellent sound and a clearly articulated production. With a slightly above average DR (particularly by genre standards), every instrument1 is clearly articulated, with a real shine to the drums. Nate Conner’s drum performance rides snare violations, and china fills in what sounds like a refreshingly undigital performance, while guitarists Tom Savage and Caleb Baker offer up a hodgepodge of slams and chuggy assaults which alternate between breakdowns and full-blown Suffo-isms at the drop of a hat. Vocalist Daniel Brockway, in particular, manages to share a similar register with Ricky Myers when in his higher range, adding some sense of familiarity to the proceedings. Everything is confidently delivered and competently composed.

Malignant Cognition by ARCHITECTURAL GENOCIDE

With brutal death being such a broad target to hit, various strains of DNA making their presence known is unsurprising. As already alluded too, Suffocation are the clear cornerstone, with Architectural Genocide even going so far as to kick off the album with a sample that uses the phrase “Bind, torture, kill” (“Precursor to Bloodshed.”) Occasional nods to mid-era Devourment (“Malicious Wager”) and swings to Mob Justice-era Vulvodynia (“Leave It to Cleaver”) litter Malignant Cognition, as one riff after another attempts to channel different foul spirits of savagery into one whole. In the included promo sheet, Architectural Genocide brag about distilling all the vital elements of the genre into one offering, and the sheer glut of names that can occur to anyone with a slight knowledge of the genre is telling that they’ve done their homework.

But while it’s true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, everyone always forgets the back half of the quote: “…that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” In a world where gurgles and snare-shattering blasts are a requisite, the distinction between the goods and the greats is personality. Architectural Genocide have their greatest strength function as their biggest Achilles heel, in that they remind me of so many other bands that I find myself wishing I was listening to them instead. The snare-based drum patterns grow to be so repetitive that even Pathology might suggest toning them down a little bit, while tracks like “Malicious Wager” use a start-stop method of riffing which doesn’t get past Amputate in “intensity”, with the staccato presentation only underscoring how “fine” it is. The most interesting riffing and intense moments are all saved for the back end of the album (“Zed Requiem”, Stuffed Under Floordboards”), where Nate Connor unfurls some genuinely fun fills, and we have our first meaningful bass presence. We even get a slam worthy of slicing spines to carry us to the conclusion, ending on a high note, but also leaving one to ask where this personality has been hiding the entire time. It seems like Architectural Genocide have spent the last few years learning the compositional tricks of all these great bands, but are still struggling to cobble together the pieces into what distinguished those outfits from their hoards of imitators.

This is disappointing, because Architectural Genocide are skilled players with a good grasp of composition. But at the moment, that composition has only allowed them to ring out with the echoes of the greats, rather than sing with their own anthems of death. Nobody knocks bands anymore (usually) for sounding inspired by others, but everyone at least knows that you have to come with flair and personality, not just good emulation of style. I believe the band has the toolset to evolve past their inspirations, and I am rooting for them to do so. In the meantime, if you need a quick fix of head-bobbing gnarliness, there are plenty worse options out there.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Website: Official Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: January 16th, 2025

Despised Icon – Shadow Work Review

By Owlswald

Widely regarded as one of the original architects of deathcore, Canada’s Despised Icon hardly needs an introduction. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two decades, here’s a brief introduction: back in 2002, when MySpace was all the rage and everyone had a friend named Tom, five dudes from Montreal dropped their debut LP, Consumed by Your Poison. Heavily influenced by the likes of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, these Canadians continued to hone their crushing sound on 2005’s The Healing Process by injecting metalcore and hardcore elements into their deathly framework. This unique formula culminated with their third LP, The Ills of Modern Man (2007)—the crown jewel of their discography that made Despised Icon deathcore royalty. The rest, they say, is history. Fast forward 18 years and, following a hiatus and three subsequent albums, the group has now readied their seventh LP, Shadow Work. So, dust off that windbreaker and lace up your best pair of New Balance kicks; it’s time to dive into Shadow Work.

In typical Despised Icon fashion, the opening title track instantly rips one’s jaw from its joints with a strong, technical launch. Leading the assault is Éric Jarrin and Ben Landreville’s signature pitch-shifted guitar squeals (a staple since 2019’s Purgatory), which, alongside rapid-fire tremolo scales, synchronize perfectly with Alex Pelletier’s blistering rhythms and Sebastien Piché’s grinding bass to fuel the album’s heavy, frenetic passages. The dual-headed vocal attack from Alex Erian and Steve Marois sounds as strong as ever, alternating raspy screams, slam-style pig squeals and hardcore chants that add a sharp, aggressive edge. Guest spots from Matthew Honeycutt (Kublai Khan TX), Scott Ian Lewis (Carnifex) and Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin) compliment Erian and Marois’ delivery but ultimately land with mixed results. Shadow Work’s powerful first half (“Shadow Work” through “The Apparition”) proves Despised Icon can still execute with the same ferocity as on past efforts. Conversely, Shadow Work’s energy wanes toward the end with formulaic pit anthems (“Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” “Fallen Ones”) settling into a cliché hardcore spirit, though the record’s strongest material warrants repeat listens.

The first half of Shadow Work delivers a powerful blend of technical proficiency and a dash of genre experimentation before the album settles into a more formulaic hardcore groove. “Death Of An Artist” is a straight-up, drum-driven banger that introduces new wrinkles like clean vocals, dissonant high leads and a tasteful thrash and death eeriness that adds fresh flavor to Despised Icon’s well-known formula. Similarly, “The Apparition” is a relentless burner, injecting elements of symphonic death and black metal while maintaining the group’s core sound. Across the album’s succinct 37 minutes, monolithic breakdowns are plentiful—tense builds frequently give way to gut-punching beatdowns replete with fret slides (“Shadow Work”), air raid sirens (“The Apparition”) and stutter-step riffing (“Death of an Artist”), delivering a seismic release and an irresistible urge to pit.

However, Shadow Work hits a predictable wall at its midpoint, slumping into an over-reliance on tropey, Hatebreed-adjacent, inspirational anthems. Characterized by pervasive gang vocals, two-step riffs, and cheesy lyrical themes, tracks like “Fallen Ones,” “Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” and “Reaper” feel less about pushing Despised Icon’s established deathcore boundaries and more about catering to the masses, thereby detracting from Shadow Work’s initial aggression. While Scott Ian Lewis’ gruff, thrashy vocal textures on “In Memoriam” effectively add a new element and the raucous “Omen of Misfortune” or “ContreCoeur” offer relief, Despised Icon’s heavy reliance on clichéd, tough-guy hardcore vocal cadences and themes holds Shadow Work back. For instance, lines like “From the ground up, never gave up, from the gutter to the surface” (“Reaper”) leans too far into its hardcore roots. Even the otherwise stronger early track “Over My Dead Body” is hampered by a cheesy hardcore/nu-metal feel in its bridge, its jarring cadence and Honeycutt’s yelling of “bitch” further exposing Shadow Work’s central weakness.1

Shadow Work is a good record marred by frustrating dualities. The first half unleashes the punishing, technical ferocity and syncopated slams that cement Despised Icon’s legacy as godfathers of deathcore. Yet, Shadow Work’s potential is sacrificed in the latter half, by leaning too hard on formulaic, predictable hardcore anthems. By repeatedly prioritizing comfortable clichés over their trademark sound, Despised Icon ultimately delivers an uneven album that only teases at the complete savagery fans know these legends are still more than capable of delivering.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: despisedicon.com | facebook.com/despisedicon
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025

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