Devourment, Embalmed and more at Reno's Chop Shop (2014)

Reno's Chop Shop (Dallas, Texas, USA)

Devourment, Embalmed, Dead Rising, Cleric, Empty Shell

As I drove by the same grassy knoll that was made notorious by the […]

By H.P. Buttcraft

• July 12, 2014

As I drove by the same grassy knoll that was made notorious by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago, I began to feel like I was approaching the chill of death. Perhaps that chill was relative to the death metal concert I was on my way towards. I have had a long love affair with this extreme subgenre of heavy metal but this show truly draws upon the dark forces that dwell within the city of Dallas, Texas. It was history about to be written.

The show's headliners, DEVOURMENT, are a band that may not be well known to the music scene in Dallas, but make no mistake; the crushing ferocity of their music is legendary. Their unabashed style of slamming Texas death metal comes from such a primal, guttural dimension of violent and excremental desires that have earned them fans that live tens of thousands of miles away from this show at Reno's Chop Shop in Deep Ellum.

After dropping off of a tour last year, many people believed that the band was through. Due to their lead singer Mike Majewski getting a new career that he left the band to pursue and drummer Erik park left to continue his work with melodic Death Metal band from my hometown, Denton, WROUGHT OF OBSIDIAN, DEVOURMENT was left in a state of disarray. But with formation of the band's third lineup change, DEVOURMENT defied all of the rumors of their separation.

Before the show, I ran into bass player of avant-garde Death Metal band BARING TEETH, Scott Addison getting pizza. His band was performing at a different bar on that same stretch of Elm St. that night. He told me that DEVOURMENT, after being active in North Texas for almost 20 years, have never played Reno's Chop Shop before. Perhaps its merely irony that this, their first show in over four years, a show that kicks off a huge tour stretching as far as South America begins right here in DEVOURMENT's home town. There was also a good selection of some of Texas' more brutal live musical acts. So in other words, you'd be very hard-pressed to find someone at this show not wearing a black t-shirt.

The concert began with Dallas' local heathens EMPTY SHELL. Their music, similar to DEVOURMENT, is a full-throttle death metal assault of slams and gore-laden shredding. The lead singer even opened the set up by donning a black ski mask. But before he could've been mistaken as con los teroristas, he removed it and continued the set. The club was very hot and had no AC going through, only electric fans keeping the room circulated with humid air. I could describe being inside to what it is like camping in a rainforest. It was that hot and humid already and the show had only just begun. EMPTY SHELL was the first act on the bill of a five total bands with DEVOURMENT taking the stage at midnight, at which point was expected to be a packed house.

CLERIC was the second band to take the stage. I was keen to notice that the lead singer was on stage barefoot, walking and leaning on the speaker cables and stage monitors. CLERIC is a fast-paced Blackedned Death Metal band and obsessed with the sorts of vintage classic old-school Death and Black Metal motifs from European bands. There were multitudes of people filing into the back room of this biker bar. But I think the musicof CLERIC was a little to dark even for this place!

I can say that the best thing about Dallas's DEAD RISING, is that they are fascinating to watch live. The band has very tight, technical chemistry between each musician. Not only were the guys focused on the dexterity involved with playing their songs, but it looked like they were actually having a lot of fun playing this music. One could say the singer was self-aware that his role is to just sound brutal and hype up everyone in the crowd. As far as an occupation goes, this guy was a pro at it. The audience were more than willing to start circle pits at every command from DEAD RISING's lead singer Chicken (no really, that's his name). Everyone in the band was pretty amazing to watch and you could tell that the reason they were thriving at this show was because they were in the most ideal environment to perform their kind of music.

Before the headliners were to take the stage, EMBALMED from Lancaster, Texas began slaying it with their style of old school Death Metal. Their Texan brand of cyclonic drumming and crushing guitar distortion is the kind of music that puts Texas on the map for Brutal Death Metal. At point in the show, lead singer and guitar player Ed Taylor broke a string and promised to resume their show if the crowd only allowed him short amount of time to fix it. Meanwhile, bass player Dave Tillery was thrust into the spotlight and began bantering back and forth with the crowd. He took this opportunity to let everyone at the show that night know what they were all about. Like a good guy, Dave began handing out copies of their latest album "Brutal Delivery of Vengeance" out to their fans. They even gave out a t-shirt to an audience member. For such a brutal band, they sure had a ton of class. Before long, the string was replaced and they finished out the rest of their set without another hitch.

By the time it got to the band everyone had been waiting for, everything and everyone around me was covered in sweat. The room had reached maximum capacity and DEVOURMENT, with the house lights turned off, commenced to breaking the necks of everyone in the audience. The mosh pit grew much larger than the circle pits formed during the previous bands. More people were thrusting themselves into this phalanx of sweaty fists and long hair. The crowd was consuming every single slam the band could dish out. Sometimes, watching the band from off to the side of the stage, all I could see were hordes of people trusting their hands into the air, fingers crooked into the shape of the devil horns, and screaming and moaning for more. It was pretty wonderful how the music DEVOURMENT was playing brought out this carnivorous side of people. At one point, Chris Andrews offered the crowd a cardboard box full of copies from their latest DVD release. He described the DVDs identically to how someone would define a lump of poop and kicked the box into the crowd. I did not see it myself but I believe it hit someone in the face, which was written off by the band as "something to expect when you come to a DEVOURMENT show". Chris strapped on a Dallas Stars hockey mask and began laying out heavy slabs of merciless death metal that have become notoriously revered for its tonal ugliness while still tying it all together with catchy rhythmic breakdowns. As a "Public Service Announcement" between their set, Chris blurted out "Fuck the United Kingdom. Especially their government." I wanted to make a note of this because I felt like it was an extremely odd thing to say at this show. Perhaps it was a good time for Chris to vent about what was bothering him but strangely, he didn't go into too much detail about it. Perhaps they had a recent experience with being in Great Britain that went sour? But, Europe aside, DEVOURMENT was at home, whether they liked it or not and although they may have seen much larger crowds than the one that showed up that night, this small collection of outcasts brought a fanatical devotion that was equal in sentimental measure to the fanaticism of a crowd of a thousand Metal fans.

Setlist:
1. Festering Vomitous Mass
2. Postmortal Coprophagia
3. Choking on Bile
4. Parasitic Eruption
5. Self-Disembowelment
6. Fucked to Death
7. Incitement to Mass Murder
8. Devour the Damned
9. Shroud of Encryption
10. Babykiller
11. Fed to the Pigs

Interview – Chris Andrews (Devourment)

<br />Devourment

How would you describe DEVOURMENT to someone who has never heard of you before?

I would describe DEVOURMENT as a blender fucking a lawnmower. Basically, for anyone who has never heard it before, I have no frame of reference of to tell them what it sounds like. Most of those people haven't even heard any death metal, so… there's really nothing I could say to them that they could understand. So I just tell them it sounds like shit and get it out of the way.

It was shocking to see DEVOURMENT drop off the tour with Dying Fetus last year. A lot of people, myself included, thought DEVOURMENT was over with. What did it take to revive the band?

Well actually what it was – we got offered a big tour and Mike [Majewski] had forwarded me the email because he wasn't able to do it. He just got a new job and he needed to focus on that. So I just contacted everyone that had ever been involved before that I knew – Eric [Park], Brad [Fincher], and Ruben [Rosas] basically. Brad and Ruben were interested. Eric was less than enthusiastic, so it kind of fell into place perfectly at that point.

So how is this third lineup change going to sound like on the next album?

Everyone likes '(Molesting the Decapitated)'. I like '(Molesting the Decapitated)'. So hopefully just amped up or progressed or whatever version of 'Molesting (the Decapitated)' – that kind of extreme sound that goes back to our roots.

Did former drummer Erik Park and former vocalist Mike Majewski leave the band on good terms?

Yeah, it was perfect. It really just came down to them saying they didn't want to do it anymore, kind of concurrent with this lineup with Brad and Ruben turning into something we wanted to push further than just a tour. We're still on great terms. I don't know if they'll come [to this show] tonight. I honestly wouldn't come if I were in their shoes.

I don't know why they wouldn't want to come. This is the first show you've done in a while.

Yeah there's that but it's also… I hardly go to shows as it is, Mike is similar. Eric lives an hour away. If I were them and just left the band, I wouldn't want to come and see us having fun with it, honestly. Not in a bitter way or anything but personally I would rather be doing something else with my Saturday night in that scenario. I know Eric said he wanted to come but he had to babysit. It's all good.

How would you describe DEVOURMENT's international popularity?

It's crazy. It seems like we've got more international fans than domestic. I look at the Facebook page these days and it's a ton of Asian or Latin American people adding us. But it's all over the place. We have a huge following in Europe and usually we do better over there.

Do you have any people following you in the U.S. like that?

Certainly. I guess I always talk up Europe because it's more common to play larger festivals in front of the most people we've ever seen. And they kind of treat you more like you're a big deal over there. It's just nice. Everything from the way they feed you to the way they put you up. Not to talk shit, because everyone does what they can – sometimes more than they can – out here. But it's just that the market over there is better so they treat bands better. That's just how it is.

How would you explain DEVOURMENT's reputation in Texas, where you're all from?

I don't even know. I'm surprised this many people came out tonight, honestly. I'm not that socially plugged in to say what kind of a reputation there is in this area.

What, in your opinion, are the best lyrics that DEVOURMENT have ever written?

"Postmortal Coprophagia" makes me laugh the most. I like "Self Disembowelment" because it's about killing yourself, also "Fucked to Death" because it reminds me of most of my weekends.

Is DEVOURMENT going to stick around for their 20th anniversary next year?

I don't even think we know what date that would be. Brad might know about what time it all started so he could figure it out. But there're no plans at this point.

Chris, thank you so much for this opportunity. Good luck with the show and with DEVOURMENT.

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