EP REVIEW: Drink With the Devil – Devastatiön

Ahh, Belgium. Famous for a lot of things including beer, chocolate and the odd talented footballer but not necessarily its metal. DEVASTATIÖN would very much like to change that. Starting under the name BLACK FUEL back in 2004, merely playing heavy metal wasn’t good enough for the quartet so they went off, changed their name and began again, this time with teutonic thrash right at the front of their mind. Two albums in Leather Jack Maniac and Pussy Juice Blues later and here we are with their latest offering, Drink With the Devil that dropped via Empire Records.

At five tracks and just over 15 minutes long, it’s a nice little companion for that short commute into work or the early morning run to properly jolt you awake. It does that surprisingly well too: the production is as clean as a whistle which really helps the huge, early METALLICA style riffs and pounding drums to hit their target well. The vocals from Mathieu ‘Debieltör’ Brasseur have enough bite behind them to add an extra layer to proceedings and the result is a very smart EP that is a lot of fun to listen to.

The title track and Defillement have more of the classic thrash feel about them we see from bands like TESTAMENT whilst Reborn Through Fire dabbles in more extreme territories and this follows suit with the delightfully titled Raped By God, the shortest track on the album and featuring a lovely bass intro from Maarten De Zutter. The EP closes with Society Will Die, the last of three tracks to last under three minutes in length which is another quick punch of classic thrash and certainly good enough to get hair windmilling furiously and heads detaching from necks.

Drink With The Devil is not the most inventive thing to be released this year, but you could do far worse than DEVASTATIÖN and if this is an indication of what is to come on a future third full-length release, it’s all very promising indeed. For all that Belgium isn’t particularly well known for its music out put on the heavier end of the scale, Drink With the Devil is a strong indicator that this may be about to change very quickly.

Rating: 7/10

Drink With The Devil is out now via Empire Records.

Like DEVASTATIÖN on Facebook.