I’d always mentally filed Wake away as an outlier grind act, but on the evidence here my judgement was either impaired or else they’ve stretched and grown far beyond their origins. ‘Devouring Ruin’, see, might crib here and there from grindcore, but it’s far too restless to remain in any one genre for too long. Caustic black metal clangour and portentous Neurosisisms collide in showers of cold sparks while City Of Caterpillar guitar experiments scratch at the sky, ambient chitterings fill the cracks between songs and ‘Mouth Of Abolition’ even features some smart, tasteful melodies that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Obscura album. As a technical feat ‘Devouring Ruin’ is incredibly accomplished, but buried deep at its core is an all too human sense of desolation: a tired, wounded, still-beating heart that prevents the carefully-orchestrated chaos tipping into mere theoretical exercise.
