Turkey’s Devoured Elysium started off playing slam/brutal death metal with some technical elements, but over time they’ve pivoted more towards the tech side while retaining some of the grooves and brutality of their 2020 debut Extermination Policies. It’s this mixture of sci-fi leaning tech death and slam that drew me into their sophomore album Void Grave, which finds the band taking their relatively straightforward foundations and trying to inject a wide range of new elements into the mix. It’s the type of album that can hit you with a flurry of technical, spacey riffs with symphonic elements one moment and crushing breakdowns and grooves the next, which isn’t the easiest mixture to get right. And while there are still some elements that Devoured Elysium could refine moving forward, they’re starting to find that sweet spot between different types of death metal that quite a few people should find appealing.
Rather than launching right into their bludgeoning mix of fast paced blasting and slamming grooves, “Setup” establishes a space/sci-fi feel with bursts of electronics and acoustic guitar. It gives off a vibe similar to that of The Faceless’ Planetary Duality, and that continues with some of the fast-paced technical shredding that kicks in once the title track starts. From there Devoured Elysium very rarely lets off the gas, moving seamlessly between the type of faster tech moments, brutal death metal style blasting, and slamming grooves that will make you want to destroy everything around you. While the tech death side of the spectrum is much more prominent on Void Grave when compared to the band’s previous album, this is still very much brutal death metal at its core and songs like the well-named “Slam Panzer” and “Spinerender” showcase that perfectly. But the way that the music transitions between these bursts of technicality with sci-fi atmospherics and chugging grooves makes the material feel a bit less predictable and makes some of the songs more distinguishable. Devoured Elysium even goes for a bit of a symphonic/orchestral edge on a few of the tracks that brings in some Fleshgod Apocalypse, and it’s clear that they’ve expanded their sound significantly. However, there are a few flaws that hold Void Grave back for me. First, the recording feels overly compressed, which I suspect was a deliberate decision to make the music feel more claustrophobic and alien. It’s not a bad idea, but it brings everything through with the same volume level and makes the songs run together a bit more than they would have otherwise. I also found that while the bursts of sci-fi melodies worked within the context of the record the band could vary up how they use them, as they tend to pop up during the most technical passages and I would’ve liked more of that atmosphere to seep in during the slam grooves when I least expected it.
While the instrumentals may cover a wide range of territory, the vocals remain towards the brutal death metal end of the spectrum with plenty of guttural growls and some pig squeals thrown in for good measure. You also get some backing screams that shake up the pitch, though they are a bit washed out in the mix and sometimes get swallowed up by the wall of blasting. Devoured Elysium’s ability to utilize this wide range of pitches works to their advantage, as it keeps the performance feeling fresh for the entire album. To add to the brutality of “Slam Panzer” the band has brought in Traumatomy’s Kirill Zarubin as a guest vocalist, and the switch-off between Zarubin and Devoured Elysium’s Kerem Akman makes this track a highlight for me. I would like to be able to hear the backing screams a bit more, but this remains an element where the band has plenty to offer listeners.
In two years, it’s clear this group has grown quite a bit and added elements from other death metal sub-genres into their brutal foundation. It does sometimes feel like a transitional album where Devoured Elysium is trying new things and seeing what fits, and while there is room for them to further incorporate the atmospheric and orchestral bursts as well as refine the production I still like what they’ve done here. The technical ability is there, and the grooves remain infectious, so if you’re a fan of everything from brutal death metal to modern tech-death check this one out and expect even better things to come from them in the future. Void Grave is available from Gore House Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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