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Signed to Brutal Bands, and consisting of members of Ingurgitating Oblivion, Deformed, Soaking In Entrails and Wretched Spawn, it should come as absolutely no surprise that German quintet Despondency play American-flavored slamming brutal death metal.  Their Brutal Bands debut, Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis) contains nine tracks of gurgling, grunting and chugging spread out over nine tracks and even includes a cover of Pyrexia‘s “Sermon of Mockery.”

The material contained on Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis) is exactly what you’d expect from a Brutal Bands release; guttural vocals that sound like someone gurgling in a toilet, crunchy chugging riffs in the vein of Devourment, Disgorge-style up tempo blasting and shredding all played with a catchy grooving brutal death metal style.

The vocals of front man Konstantin Lühring are decent, he lacks the guttural depth of the trio of gurglers Devourment have used, although his approach is a bit more varied as he goes really low, slightly higher and includes some inhaled burps.  Former Disgorge gurgler Matti Way makes an appearance on the album’s second track, “Victimize Their Idols” and flexes his windpipe, which makes Konstantin’s vocals just sound even weaker when you hear the two of them trading off.  The riffing of Mike Ernst and Jelle Hamstra and bass lines of Patrick Viol won’t make your jaw drop with their technical prowess, but they’re capable musicians and carry the music pretty well.  The drumming of Dirk Janßen is decent, he’s able to play competently at high and low speeds and does a good job.

The song writing on Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis) is catchy with an even mix of slow paced chugging, up tempo blasting and shredding and enough tempo changes and breakdowns to keep things interesting throughout the album’s 38 minutes.  Unlike most brutal death metal releases, the mix on this disc is solid, everything is layered well so no single instrument overwhelms and everything is pretty clear.  The only drawback, and it’s a big one, is the lack of depth for the bass.  The material Despondency plays isn’t exactly groundbreaking material, it’s pretty straight forward, but as bands like Abominable Putridity and Cephalotripsy have proven, a really heavy bass tone can make a relatively generic album sound incredibly crushing with that extra bit of bass.

Overall Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis) isn’t anything special and I likely won’t bother listening to it again, however, fans of slamming brutal death metal generally aren’t as picky when it comes to brutal death metal as I am, so I think this disc will appeal to those fans, but everyone else will hate Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis).  It’s okay, but, like I said, with a heavier bass sound this album probably would have appealed to me a lot more than it does now.

Review byTeufel