Modern Death Metal has taken a whole new route which will surprise and shock an old school connoisseur of Death Metal who hasn't dug anything new in the last half a decade. Italian Technical Death Metallers SYNAPSES bring some insane madness to the table which will make people who haven't dug the genre in the recent times to ask many questions.

The lads 2^nd full length "Devoutness" is nothing short of 45 min plummeting Technical Death Metal. The record starts with a near 2 minute "Intro", before "Spiral of devoutness" shows the real sound of the band as the sharp groovish riffs drive the song structure of the song along with the guttural vocals by Giovanni "Kane" Canedoli. As I listen to the whole record multiple times, it's clear that the sound is very catchy and the fast paced sharp groovy guitar work really well, and is what creates the technicality in the Technical Death Metal sound of the band. With song names like "Force-fed with gore" and "Sickening runes", the lyrical themes are rather predictable for this kind of music. "A place will be forgotten" runs like a mad bull piercing through your ears. It's worth mentioning that in most of the songs here the main riff is repeated more than I would have liked, giving a slight sense of monotony throughout the album, without harming the listener's experience largely. "Hybrid soul" is a 2:23 min instrumental and surprisingly it is impressive as the song creates an atmospheric heaviness creating a slab kind of feeling, which I remember failed miserably in one of the recent albums that was released, but here works great.

"Expiation", a word that I had to google to understand the word, is another groovy song with lots of blast beats. "Sickening runes" has the best vocal work of the album even as the blast beats constantly try pierce through your ear drums, and the solos pleasantly surprise you in here. I did not expect that eerie atmospheric ending to the album in the last song funnily named "The end", which actually sounds cool on multiple listening.

Strictly speaking, DEVOUTNESS can only please seasoned hardcore fans of Technical Death Metal genre, and for everybody else it is going to be a 50-50 attempt as the music is here, even though quite excellent, does test the patience of an average metalhead. That said, with great production and highly technical songwriting, this is an album deserves at least one chance from everybody.