Sinsaenum breaks silence.
While the band mourned the loss of its legendary drummer Joey Jordison (ex-Slipknot, ex-Murderdolls) in 2021, his bandmates Attila Csihar (vocals, Mayhem, Tormentor), Sean Zatorsky (vocals, Dååth), Stéphane Buriez (guitar, Loudblast), Frédéric Leclercq (guitar, Kreator, ex-Dragonforce) and Heimoth (bass, Seth) wanted to carry on his legacy by recruiting his former sound engineer, Andre Joyzi (ex-Esprit d’Air), with whom they created In Devastation, their third album.
The album opens slowly with its eponymous title track, In Devastation, which first offers us some mysterious sounds before letting unhealthy riffs and ferocious vocals come into play. The Black/Death foundation is clearly recognizable with its touches of dissonance, but there is also a catchy groove that takes advantage of multiple screams to reach its full potential and anchor itself in the occult before letting Cede to Thunder follow suit, focusing on piercing leads while the rhythm section rages on. The jerky rhythm allows for more airy passages before giving way to Shades of Black, which offers us a moment of melancholy before letting its massive riffs follow one another, ensuring a solid sound from start to finish, with the same heady leads and dark approach. The atmosphere becomes more aggressive with Obsolete and Broken, which offers fairly simple but effective sounds, but the track offers a calmer passage with clear vocals before returning to its initial rage, then calming down again on the long Last Goodbye, the most versatile track on the album, which is capable of switching from ballad elements to more virulent passages in no time at all while lulling us with its melody. The break carries us away, followed by the solo and finally the catchy final, until Spiritual Lies brings back the band’s initial fury accompanied by its numerous lead parts in a slightly more soothing tone, linked together by energy. We continue with the effective Destroyer, which lives up to its name but also leaves room for solos, then with Buried Alive, which takes a similar approach and pours out its harmonics for long moments, almost hypnotizing us. The unifying This Wretched World takes over and offers raw efficiency, sometimes coupled with majestic keyboards or disturbing sirens, but despite its length, the song passes quickly and gives way to Over the Red Wall, which offers us moments of true savagery and much more imposing passages, but which ends in madness, between sardonic laughter and tears.
Seven years and many trials later, Sinsaenum is back on track! In Devastation follows in the footsteps of its two predecessors, but marks a real turning point for the band, which is more determined than ever.
85/100
