Rating: 8.5

Country: USA

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Die Todesrune Records

Track list:
1. Demonic Procreation
2. Morbid Force
3. Revelations of the Serpent's Seal
4. Unholy Torment
5. Crucifixion
6. Lucifer's Legions
7. The Final Descension

Band Website: Devastator

Devastator - Morbid Force

Alaric - guitar, keyboard
Lazdemon - bass
Pest- drums
Adrian - guitar
W. Vilkacis - vocals

I'm a firm believer that good music transcends instruments and genres. Imagine this: the musicians take the stage and begin playing. Arguments break out between proponents and opponents of the increasingly dissonant cacophony. Eventually, the violently rhythmic, unorthodox music throws the thoroughly disoriented audience into fits of shouting and fistfighting, which subsequently escalate into a riot. What am I describing? The 1913 Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring. Little Devastator here is a reminder that when music is good, it's really good, and can tap into that energy that reminds you that everything that you know as yourself is little more than an electrified piece of meat; so fuck it, hurt something.

Morbid Force is a blackened thrash album with a Destroyer 666-esque approach of creating mini-epics, sans their fuck-all "let's blend every fast style of metal into one" attitude, and a more pronounced emphasis on German thrash. While Devastator worship at the altar of Kreator, Destruction, etc. with furious palm-muted riffs, jaguar vocals and squiggly guitar duelling, there's also a certain raw, jarring looseness present in the riffcrafting that nods to more modern blackened thrash stalwarts like Impiety and Bestial Mockery, and plenty of Venomous hooks.

The vocals are brilliant, and they fucking better be, since their reverb sadistically dominates the album's otherwise prominent chainsaw guitar tone. Vilkacis' snarls convulse between Tom Angelripper and Absu's Proscriptor with lots of shameless double-layering and amusing "uwaaaaah"s. Despite his black metal leanings, instead of opting for complete vocal distortion by snarling weakly through his nose. he's a gravel-spitter who values energy, and hasn't forgotten the power of his actual voice.

With nimble Destroyer 666-esque leadwork riding over a jubilantly celebratory riff, “Lucifer's Legions” is one of those rare anthems that compels you to listen to it again as soon as it's over. Despite being a relatively mid-paced song rife with melodic leadwork, which I'm sure sets off a lot of thrash purist alarms, it's easily the best on the album. Rivalling it in quality is the nine minute "The Final Descension," another highlight. The break at 3:50 is so fucking infectious, it doesn't get tiring after almost two minutes of repetition; glorious riff abuse straight from Sodom's playbook.

Morbid Force has its blemishes, though. Occasionally the thrashing is accompanied by some sort of wispy choral synth which I suppose is intended to endow the music with a feeling of musty antiquity reminiscent of Rotting Christ's early material (what the fuck, they're probably using the same keyboard patch) that, while not really obtrusive, is seldom convincing in a niche that favors the most base songwriting constructs to such vain decorations. Morbid Force contains many moments that are probably a few notes away from plagiarism, but are so good one can't really complain. Unfortunately, the lyrics don't conform to this “generic but awesome” trend, and are instead simply generic, with the same old hamfisted barking dog blasphemy metal is often criticized for harboring. There exists a narrow line between tribute and conceptual facelessness of which I do not believe Devastator are aware; just how many metal songs are there with names like "Crucifixion" and "Unholy Torment," anyway?

However, the fact I think Morbid Force is a fine album despite its flaws says volumes about its quality. If Devastator would stop dressing up their music and let their riffs speak, they could truly live up to their name.

January 3rd, 2008