UMUR "Conceived in Sewage" is the 4th full-length studio album by US death metal act Devourment. The album was released through Relapse Records in February 2013. Devourment have been active since the late nineties and have long been considered one of the leading acts on the more brutal part of the death metal scene...

...their music is typically labelled "slam death", which is in my world is just another description for brutal death metal delivered with a groove (more or less). The music on "Conceived in Sewage" doesn´t differ one bit from that description. Be prepared to be treated to unintelligible guttural growling (and occasionally more intelligible aggressive growling), brutal and at times brick heavy groove based riffing and technically well played drumming. The whole band are actually very well playing and especially the instrumental side of the music is very enjoyable. Unfortunately I find the growling vocals one-dimensional to say the least. Half a song into the album and the emotionless delivery starts getting on my nerves. With a more interesting and varied growling vocalist "Conceived in Sewage" would have been a much stronger release.

If the gory cover artwork didn´t immediately give it away subtle songtitles like "Legalize Homicide" and "Fucked with Rats" should give you a pretty good idea of what the lyrics are about. It´s just another example of the fact that Devourment are not necessarily out to revolutionize the world of death metal, but rather just deliver a very convincing and brutal assault on your ears. Despite the fact that I have some trouble appreciating the unintelligible growling vocals, which is of course a minus, "Conceived in Sewage" is still overall a very strong death metal release featuring strong musicianship, a powerful and professional sound production, and within it´s genre a relatively varied arsenal of riffing styles and rythms. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

J-Man Beginning with their 1999 debut, Molesting the Decapitated, Devourment has established themselves as one of the leading acts in the 'slam' death metal genre - a style characterized by the uncompromising devastation of brutal death metal, but with an emphasis on groovy breakdowns not typically seen in the genre. The band's fourth album, 2013's Conceived in Sewage, shows these American veterans continuing their brand of slamming death metal well into the twenty-first century, and although Devourment's strong dedication to the genre is likely to leave longtime fans impressed, Conceived in Sewage's stagnant approach makes for a largely nonessential listen.

Musically, there's not very much new under the sun on Conceived in Sewage. Devourment still plays some of the most brutal death metal out there combined with heavy slams and goregrind segments, and whilst the production is perhaps a bit more polished than we're used to from the band, the songwriting isn't anything revolutionary. Like a lot of brutal death metal, Devourment's music comes across as a bit monotonous to these ears, and this is accentuated by the largely undecipherable vocals from Mike Majewski. I guess more hardcore fans of the genre might love what Devourment has to offer here, but I'm left unimpressed by the unadventurous songwriting and lack of variation showcased throughout the album's short duration. Conceived in Sewage features some tremendous musicianship, however, with Erik Park's drumming especially standing out - there are lots of intricate fills and technically demanding rhythms coming from his direction!

I guess Conceived in Sewage might appeal to more dedicated brutal death metal listeners than me, but I'm left pretty unimpressed by the album's homogenous compositions and standard approach. Though there are some solid tracks like “Fifty Ton War Machine” and “Heaving Acid”, there's nothing here that strikes me as terribly memorable or inventive. Devourment's latest outing is a competent, but ultimately passable, observation.