With the release of “Defiant Until The End“, the band Devour put Belgian Metalcore back on the map. One of their predecessors Kindred have set the standard high and were amongst the originators of the Limburg Straight-edge. This band relit the torch and carry the light further through these dark times in Hardcore. Proudly and full of conviction they created this beast of an album to remain until the end. Belgian Metalcore lives and is just given another milestone record for the vast discography of classics created over the past decades.

Here are my random findings after listening to the entire album three times.

1. Defiant Until The End: The first song sets the tone, the environmental challenges we are facing have not lessened over the years but have only grown. The drums and guitars are perfectly aligned to open this album up in a triumphant way.
2. Vultures: this song creates several atmospheres, sometimes the new york style and on other moments a more emotional sound.
3. Arrogance: musically this is one of the best songs in my opinion. The riffs are played harmonically by the individual instruments, yet there’s individual creativity enough to make it sound filled enough. The spiral of the cover comes to mind, the riffs are like a gully dragging us down but the entire delivery adds strength and power enough not to drown.
4. Poor Hearts Will Bleed: this song reminds me of Kindred the most, especially in the part where there is spoken word. Not only this but also the beginning sounds like a far away echo of the music created during the 90’s in Belgium.
5. My Apocalypse: the beginning is All Out War worship and is later followed with a Cro-Mags-meets-Slayer riff and ends in a more abstract way.
6. Barriers:
7. X On My Hands: the old school die hard Straight-Edge song.
8. Anticipation: Towards the end we get an awesome guitar solo that later gets accompanied by a series of breakdowns that also end it.
9. Abolished:
10. Extreme Dichotomy: The intro to this song is well written, the main riff hits heavily and the short outro is perfect as well.
11. Evolution: 
12. Devoured: Is one of the vocalist’s better songs, fast flowing words in the beginning, harsh scream and spoken lines. The two guitars are totally different is this song. The one guitar plays more melodic and sounds darker. While the other plays distorted, with more violent flashes and you can hear the steel squealing. So the last guitar becomes more at the front. The rhythm section by the drummer is great as well.

There are two points of criticism also. Music can be more varied in my opinion, more experimenting with different styles of Metal and Hardcore could make this more diverse. The main line in all of the lyrics is an apocalyptic world view. This theme returns several times, so song texts could be more diverse also or more pointing towards how solving all this… More positive insights are needed.

You can listen to it at the Devour Bandcamp website.

This record was released by Ugly And Proud Records and is pressed on black (/105) and red (/194). The vinyl changes colour when held in strong light. Instead of red it becomes marbled fuchsia. You can still buy it from the label in their webstore.

Conclusion is that Devour has blended classical Metalcore from the past into an outstanding album. Bands like All Out War, (early) Firestone, Earth Crisis and more come to mind. So, if you are in need of renewed Metalcore, this might be what you wanted for a long time…