Sometimes it is nice to sit back and relax and put on your favorite music after a nice day. However, today is not one of those days as I get to present the relentless assault of the Algerian/Argentinian (they go both ways) technical brutal death metal band DEVAST and their newest album "Apocalyptic Human Extinction." If bands such as HATE ETERNAL and HOUR OF PENANCE are to your liking, then the following 24 minutes of utter ear annihilation may be to your liking. Admittedly it is a short album, but with how much instrumental complexity they put in you can see why. I will preface this by saying the praise for their technical capabilities is warranted, yet that does not mean the album is by any means perfect though. Without further ado I will dive right in.

First opening with a rather unusual Intro aptly titled "Intro", which if I am honest makes no sense, the album properly opens with "Chaotic Proliferation", and it opens quickly. Being that there are no songs over 3 minutes the album must do that, but in this song and many more to come you are blasted with a relentless assault of rapidly changing riffs and incredible amounts of technical complexity. There are a myriad of downsides I find with this song, however, and the album in general.For  example is the vocals. Opting for  a more "pig squeal"-esque vocals kind of detracts from the sound of the song, as well as the vocals do not seem to match the pace of the song and they kind of do their own thing it always feel like. There is also a problem I find in the structure of the parts. They are all well done on their own, but it seems as if they are throwing in everything including the kitchen sink in no discernable order. It is so arbitrary that it is hard to tell when one song is its own or whether it has transitioned to the next song initially, as is the case with "Mass Pandemia of Corpses". After about 20 seconds you know you are a different song, but it is the same case.

Strong individual technical skill but simply fitting as many things in the song even if they do not go together and vocals that seem detrimental to the song as a whole. However, while before it was a relentless assault on your ears, this song will start and come to full stops abruptly, further being a detriment to a lack of flow in the song and making things sound incoherent. I wish I could comment further but many of the songs are like this. "Apocalyptic Human Extinction I" is the same but begins to slightly slow down, "Chapter of Neverending Torment" has an awesome riff that rapidly disappears,"Triumphal Colossal of Devastation" has the same rapidly appearing and disappearing full stops and has a fade out ending, "Apocalyptic Human Extinction II" has a far more djent-ish opening, "Catastrophic BeastSpawn" has an awesome riff in the bridge, "Cataclysmic Cycle" has some sweet guitar aspects in it with the use of a more standard guitar sound (meaning not distorted electric guitar), and "Apocalyptic Human Extinction III" is the same as the last to but for a semi-recycled opening from their intro track. I wish I could say more but I can't really, as it all blends together and lacks coherency in seemingly  every aspect.

No matter how skilled the individual and how well done their individual parts, simply throwing absolutely everything together will not work. This band has shown some incredible skill in their individual parts but none of it comes together to form a song. I would love for the band to go on and do great things and I think they have the potential to, but that day is not today sadly. It is always worth checking the band out because one may like it, but I cannot personally recommend it.