Australian brutal death metal band Slaughtercult has only been around for about four years, but with several releases under their belt and plenty of touring in their home country they’ve started to gain quite a bit of traction. Since 2023’s Meat Head full length the group added drummer Matthew Newling, and on sophomore effort Devoured by Perversion the transition from drum programming has made a significant difference. The core approach of injecting some hints of hardcore leaning death metal and grind into the brutal death metal/slam foundation may not have changed, but with vastly boosted production values and a bit more variation from song-to-song Slaughtercult has really stepped things up.
From the weightier grooves to the dense blasting and tonality that feels like its going to crush you into the dirt, it’s clear that Slaughtercult has taken a lot of notes from the Devourment playbook on this latest effort. As someone who views Devourment as one of the gold standards for everything brutal death metal adjacent that is definitely a positive, but just having the crushing weight and filthier tonality doesn’t necessarily make an album worth listening by itself. The writing is where Slaughtercult demonstrates how much they’ve grown over the past few years, as there are subtle shifts from track to track that keep things interesting. Don’t expect a huge deviation from your blasting, chugs, and dense grooves, but how the band transitions between all these elements does change and I can still hear some hints of hardcore and grind on certain passages. “Perverse Bestial Lactation” is a perfect early example, as the song leans into the weightier slam grooves for much of its run but towards the end it shifts towards a scorching guitar solo and tempo that falls much closer to the traditional death metal side of things. The incorporation of Matthew Newling on drums seems to have made a big difference as well, as it varies the rhythms a bit more compared to the last album and gives things a more fluid feel. Devoured by Perversion’s production values also provide a boost, as while the album was once again self-produced some of the crunchiness and more compressed elements of Meat Head give way to a pummeling, low-end dominant sound that lets everything hit with maximum impact. Even with the subtle differences from song to song there are still a few that blend together for me, but the compact run-time and amount of killer riffs makes this album really stand out.
On the vocal front Slaughtercult offers up the guttural growls that you’d expect from brutal death metal, and the performance is consistently intense and in your face. This is another area where Devoured by Perversion differentiates itself from a lot of other lower budget sounding albums in the genre, as there is the right amount of separation between instrumentals and vocals so that everything doesn’t blend into one brutal mess. You can probably tell by the album artwork and song titles, but everything is appropriately filthy and gory when it comes to the lyrics and the vocal work does a good job of selling it. There are a couple guests that appear on the album, as Marvin Ruiz (Devourment/Stabbing) and Elfi Davis (Kraanium) joined the brutality on two tracks. Compared to some of the other guest spots I’ve heard in recent memory the ones here are a bit more subtle and don’t overshadow the rest of the band, which keeps them from interrupting the flow of the album.
With an appropriately eye-catching cover from Khaos Diktator Design that has a similar style as the work that was done for the most recent Devourment full length and EP, Slaughtercult’s sophomore effort is the complete package when it comes to this type of death metal. A few moments may run together, but there are just as many where the riffs and vocals are killer and hit you square in the chest. You’ll also notice some slight hints of traditional death metal and grind squeezed in for good measure, and these small details play a big part in making Slaughtercult stand above the slew of average bands in brutal death metal. Devoured by Perversion is available from Vicious Instinct Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg