Dave Rotten’s Xtreem Music Label is one of the very best around, especially for his stellar reissues.  So Famishgod is a side project he is lending his guttural vocals to and Pako Deimler is playing all the instruments which also includes the drum machine programming.  Famishgod play an ultra heavy down tuned form of doom/death metal.  Think dISEMBOWELMENT if they never included blast beats, mixed with a little Asphyx, and obscure doom/death outfit, Symphony of Grief.  No doubt Devourers of Light is one of the heaviest releases you will hear all year.  Yes that is right, for 2015.

Album essentially was released at the tail end of 2014, but did not come out anywhere until this year.  The problem is all the tracks sound the same. I swear when I was listening to “The Monarch”, I heard the same exact pattern in “Black Eye”.  This style, like grindcore, unless mixed up with really interesting tempos and such becomes one dimensional quite fast.  I’ll be honest with you, I zoned out multiple times during this album and didn’t realize it was for like 20 minutes that went by and I thought it was the same track.  As expected with doom/death the songs here are also really long.  Averaging 8 minutes in length.  The drum programming, sounds exactly like a drum machine, nothing special going on in that department.  Some parts of this album also gets a little bit into the drone territory.  So it can get a little hypnotic, but boring.

Man, I know this is sounding like I just panned the hell out of this album, but there are some redeeming qualities.  The guitar sound is kicking!!  So damn heavy and truly an evil guitar sound.  Has the heaviness of Soulburn, in some areas.  Dave’s vocals are really one dimensional on this, and while his vocals get lost in the mix, at times, his gutturals are still some of my favorite in the business.  His vocals go well with the music.  The cd layout is nice, lyrics, pics and stuff like that.  Xtreem Music is known for their incredible cd packaging, so that’s also a plus.

I think Famishgod has the potential to improve upon some of the good qualities that are on Devourers of Light.  They have to mix up some of the damn tempos.  I mean throw a quick blast in there, or more tank rolling mid-paced rumbling, before going back into a slow funeral dirge doom/death part.  Just some helpful suggestions.  However if you do not give a crap about tempos and like your doom/death played in how I described in my review, than go ahead and pick this up.  For me, this is fair to middlin’ quality.

[Visit the band's website]

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