Deprvation/IV: LETVM/Lifeforce Records/2023 Full Length Review

 

  Depravation  are  a  band  from  Germany  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  on  this  recording  plays  a  mixture  of  black,  death  metal  and  crust  and  this  is  a review  of  their  2023  album  "IV:  LETVM"  which  will  be  released  in  February  by  Lifeforce  Records.

  High  pitched  black  metal s creams  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  very  fast  and r aw  musical  direction  which  also  utilizes  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats.  melodies  are  also  added  into  some  of  the  guitar  riffing  while  all  of  the  musical  instruments  on t he  recording  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  The  riffs  also  add  in  elements  of  death  metal  and  crust  while  the  songs  also  add  in  a  decent  mixture of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.  A  lot  of  the  music  also  shows  influences  of  both  the  old  school  and  modern  era's  of  extreme  metal  along  with  a  couple  of  tracks  also  adding  in  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  before  returning  back  to  a  heavier  direction,  spoken  word  parts  can  also b e  heard  on  the  closign  song.

  In  this  recording  Depravation  takes  black,  death  metal  and  crust  and  mixes  them  together  to  create  a  very  heavy  and  aggressive  sounding  recording.  The  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  death,  war,  forces  of  nature,  superstition  and  rituals.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Depravation  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  black,  death  metal  and  crust,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Vampire  Burial"  "Lessons  of  Darkness"  and  "Sadness".  8  out  of  10.

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Ancst/Depravation/Yehonala Tapes/2018 Split EP Review

  This  is  a  review  of  a  split  ep  between  Germany's  Ancst  and  Depravation  which  was  released  by  Yehonala  Tapes  and  we  will  start  off  the  review  with  Ancst  returning  with  their  melodic  mixture  of  black  metal  and  crust.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  blast  beats  and  raw  tremolo  picking  while  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while  the  vocals  are  mostly  angry  hardcore  and  crust  style  screams  along  with  the  songs  also  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  spoken  word  parts  are  added  onto  the  second  track  as  well as  a  small  amount  of  melodic  guitar  leads,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  social  criticism  and  anti  capitalism  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Ancst  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  enjoy  their  side  of  the  split.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "The  Old  Darkness".

  Next  up  is  Depravation  another  band  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  on  this  recording  moves  way  from  the  crust  and  hardcore  elements  and  focuses  more  on  a  raw  and  melodic  style  of  black  metal  with  some  death  metal  touches

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  a  very  fast  and  raw  sound  which  also  uses  a  great  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats  along  with  some  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  a  few  seconds  later  while  the  riffs  also  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  melody  as  well  as  the  songs  also  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  you  can  also  hear  a  touch  of  death  metal  at  times,  the  production  sounds  very  raw  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  darkness  and  occultism  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Depravation  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  their  side  of  the  split.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Moloch".

  In  conclusion  I  feel  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  split  and  i  would  recommend  it  to  all  fans  of  black  metal  and  crust.  8  out  of  10.

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Depravation Interview

1.Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?

Hey, we are Depravation from Gießen in Hesse/Germany. We had our first rehearsal in December 2011, since then we’ve released a demotape and a full-length-LP and played a bunch of shows.

2.How would you describe your musical sound?

Black – Death – Crust – Metal – Hardcore or something like that. I personally think it’s quite hard to put a label on our sound. Yet, who wants to argue about genres and their borders anyways?

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

The older lyrics mainly deal with Apocalypse, Death and Hell. Pretty cliché stuff. The more recent songs head into a bit of a different direction. Not as blatantly as the older ones, but still placed in the rather unpleasant parts of life.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name Depravation?

Depravation has a bunch of meanings. For example depravity, degeneracy or moral corruption. All of the meanings are pretty negative. This is why we liked the word.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance?

I think we all had different personal “best shows” (if there is something like a best show”). For me one of the most memorable was a set we played at Frankfurt / Klapperfeld in February 2013, where Fitie broke his guitar strap and we had to play one riff for like 10 minutes, until he had it fixed. That was pretty trance-like. There’s been a bunch of other awesome shows though, and of course playing in our hometown is always fun.

Stageperformance-wise I’d say “fog and lights” pretty much says it all.

6. Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We just got back from our very first tour across Germany four days ago (which is why it took me so long to send you these answers). That was an exciting experience for all of us.

We don’t have any big plans for the future, but I think hitting a few European countries on our next tour would be nice (so all you European bookers: get in contact!)

7.Currently you are signed to Dark Omen Records, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?

DOR is the label I (Jonas) run. I started it in 2011, because I wanted to help out friends with their tape-release and because I had nothing else to do at that time…hahaha. We’ve released our LP with the help from the guys from Life And Death Records. If you don’t know them check out their roster, they’ve released a lot of good records and, apart from that, are awesome people.

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal and hardcore?

We can’t complain, I guess. People seem to like our new record and we’ve got a lot of good reviews.

Black Metal purists most certainly dislike our style for its lack of trveness and for most Hardcore-Kids it probably is too Metal, but we don’t care. As long as we like what we’re doing we won’t change anything about it.

9.Are there any other musical projects going on these days?

Fieti (Guitar) plays the bass in a Thrashmetalband called Reflexor. And Pelle also plays the drums in Downpour (Metal). Fieti and Blöcher (Bass) are doodling on their acoustic guitars every now and then.

10.What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?

That’s a tough one. I guess it’s going to be more direct in contrast to the older stuff. We currently are writing new material & we’re planning of taking it to the studio in the first half of 2014. Since it’s not finished yet, we do not know what it’s going to sound like exactly. We just go with it and see where it takes us.

11.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

We are a band with five individuals and 5 different personalities, who have very different tastes of music, so I don’t think we are able to break it down to styles or bands that influence every one of us. Each person brings their own preferences along and we see what fits and what doesn’t.

12.Outside of music what are some of your interests?

Again, five personalities and 5 different tastes. Yet here the shared interests would be: eating / cooking, farting, movies / TV-series.

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Depravation/II: Maledictvm/Dark Omen Records/2013 Full Length Review

  This  is  a review  of  another  recording  from  Depravation  which  continues  their  hybrid  sound  of  black  metal  and  hardcore  with  the  album  being  released  in  2013  by  Dark  Omen  Records  and  called  "II:  Maledictvm".

  "Intro"  begins with  a  choir  along  with  some human  torture  sounds  and  sets  up  the  beginning  of  the  album.

  "Wrath" begins  with  some  black  metal  guitar  riffs  and  drums  along  with  some  bass  guitars  and  then  the screams  kick  in  and  the  guitar  riffing  adds  in  more  hardcore  elements  while  still  keeping around  the  black  metal  influence  along  with  a  small  amount  of growls  and  towards  the  end  their  is  a  brief  use  of  melodic  guitar  leads.

  "Opaque"  begins  with  some  screams  and  drums  before  the  bass  and  guitar  riffs  kick  in  along  with  some  melodic  riffing  and  after  a  minute  the  song  starts getting  a little  bit more  fast for  a  few  seconds.

  "Filth"  begins  with  some  soft  acoustic  guitar  playing  and  a  few  seconds  alter  drums  and  bass  guitars  start  kicking  in  before adding  in  some  heavy  guitar riffs  and  screams  and  a  few  seconds  alter t he  song  starts  getting  a  little  bit  more  fast  for  awhile  along  with  some  growls.

  "Pestilence"  begins  with  some  powerful  bass  guitars  before  the heavy  and  melodic  guitar  riffs  come  in  and  a  few  second s later  the  drums  and  screams  make  their  way  into  the  song  as  well  as  some  growls.

  "Instrumental"  begins  with  some  soft  sounding  acoustic  guitars  which  leads  up  to  some  bass  and  drums  and  a  few  seconds  later  spoken word  parts  start  coming  in  along  with  some  melodic  guitar  riffing.

  "Malfunction"  begins  with  some  heavy guitar  riffs,  drums  and  screams  as w ell  as  some  bass  guitars  and  towards  the  end  there  are  some  black  metal  elements  being  added  in  the  vocals  for  a  few  seconds.    

  "Ruins' begins with  some  dark  sounding guitar  and  bass  riffs  which  lead  up  to  some  drums  and after  awhile  the  music  starts  getting  a lot  heavier  and  starts  adding in  some screams  before  speeding  up  a  bit  before  slowing  down  again  and  adding  in  some  growls.

 "Outro"  begins  with  the  same  sounds  that came  out  in  the intro  and  closes  the  album.

  Song  lyrics  cover  dark  themes,  while  the  production  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  and  dark  sound  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  the  album.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from Depravation  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  black  metal  and  hardcore, you  should  check  out t his  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Wrath"  "Pestilence"  and  "Ruins".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.
http://depravation.bandcamp.com/album/ii-maledictvm-2

Depravation/I: Praedictvm/Dark Omen Records/2013 EP Review

  Depravation  are  a  band  from  Germany  that  plays  a  mixture  of  black  metal  and  hardcore  with  elements  of   crust  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their 2013  ep  "I:  Praedictvm"  which  was  released  by  Dark  Omen  Records.

  "Wrath"  begins  with  some  spoken  word  parts and  slow  black  metal  guitar  riffs  as  well  as  some  drums  and  then  the  riffing  starts  adding  in  elements  of  hardcore  along  with  some  screams  and  growl  and  towards  the  end  there  are  some  melodic  elements  getting  added  into  the  song.

  "Ruins  Of Mankind"  begins  with  some  slow  and  dark  guitar  riffs  with  the  drums  and  bass  guitars kicking in  a  few  seconds  later  and  after  awhile the  hardcore  style  screams  start coming  in  which  leads  up to  some  faster  guitar  riffing  being  utilized  briefly  and  after  awhile  death  metal  growls  start coming  in  for  a  few  seconds  and  halfway  through  the  song  the  music  stops  for  awhile  and weird sounding  spoken  word  parts  and  sound  effects  take  over.

  "Praedictvm"  begins  with  some  synths  and  this  song  is  an  all  instrumental  dark ambient  track  that  is  close  to  10 minutes  long.

  Song  lyrics  cover  dark  themes,  while  the  production  has  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy  an  dark  sound  with  s  couple  of  the  songs  being  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Depravation  are  a  very  great  sounding  hybrid  of  black  metal  and  hardcore  and  if  you  are  a  fan of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Wrath".  RECOMMENDED  BUY.
http://depravation.bandcamp.com/album/i-praedictvm