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“Oh Jesus, Jesus... What is this? What the hell is this?” (Anyone who guesses the citation wins the Golden Quorthon). These were the first words that came to my mind when I picked up this CD by Bestial Devastation and read in the booklet “True Italian Bestial Metal”. Now you may be wondering why Tepes bought a Bestial Metal record, and the likely answers could be manifold; for example, I could have bought it because Grind is to Tepes what methadone is to heroin addicts, or perhaps I bought it because anything with a repulsive artwork attracts me greatly, or more likely because I was charged six euros for it.
Anyway, I bought it, and now I am paying the consequences.
The Bestial Devastation are unfortunately Italian, I say unfortunately because this review certainly doesn't praise them, and I regret that, and their CD is self-produced. But first, I would like to clarify one little thing: I've never been much of a fan of Grind, but the musical proposal of the four would even have a reason if only they didn't have a completely wrong attitude: musically speaking, in fact, they are inspired by the earliest raw Carcass (those of "Symphonies Of Sickness," and more so, those of "Reek Of Putrefaction," their historic debut, their first cornerstone of the genre), Impetigo, and Repulsion, high pioneers of Grindcore. Also, at the production level, one breathes that same sickly air typical of a morgue, created by buzzing guitars, the extremely dirty bass, and the background drums. If I had to make a comparison with another current underground group, I might mention the Americans Lord Gore, although, to be honest, the latter are clearly superior.
Regarding the songwriting, there's nothing much to say; Grind, as is known, is a fairly closed genre that has been slightly branching out lately by moving toward Rock (see Leng T’Che) or pushing even further towards extremism, meaning shifting from music towards noise. Those who stay in the middle and decide to stick to the main road, like Bestial Devastation, seldom achieve satisfactory results, but at least they continue making some type of music: the songs, although they are a continuous cliché, have a good dose of groove and it’s difficult to keep your head still. However, the technical level is quite low although not particularly lower than that of other bands playing this type of music. The riffing is simple, and so is the drumming, mainly based on traditional Blast Beats. However, the alternation between growling, screaming (I believe the bassist’s work), and the typical Grind growls is good. The songs, however, remain quite poor and, with the exception of “Necronomicon; The Book Of The Dead Men”, they say very little; I'll be straightforward, charging even just six euros for a record that contains six songs like these (plus an intro) lasting nineteen minutes is still a rip-off; But the worst is yet to come.
Someone must have told these guys that Grind is the genre of filth, and they took it literally; in their lyrics, in fact, they have inserted, in addition to the classic Gore origins nastiness, even the most disgusting racist and xenophobic ignorance. Yes, some lyrics seem written by Calderoli himself and unjustifiably target the Islamic religion (not that they spare Christianity, but they demonstrate particular hostility towards Muslims). “Vomit On Allah” is practically a lengthy (absolutely vulgar) offense against the above-mentioned believers, which has no reason to exist other than personal reasons. In short, no one ever said that grind must be the music of peace and brotherhood, but precisely when it attacks everyone, it discriminates against no one. What goes through the minds of Bestial Devastation? Why Muslims and not the Zwinglians? Perhaps because there are Muslim terrorists and not Zwinglian terrorists? I don't think True Fucking Bestial Padan Grinders should be concerned if someone dies in a terrorist attack... and in any case, there are far more effective ways to express one’s ideas that go well beyond mere insult.
This is a bad thing, which ruins what little good there was in the album and gives Bestial Devastation an absolutely negative and scoundrel-like image. In short, if they came to play at the local bar near my house on a Saturday night, I would even go see them (as long as the performance doesn’t include the execution of a window washer), but overall it is a record and a band I do not recommend, at least until they are aware of their stylistic and behavioral errors.
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