The Curse of Sabda Palon is Devoured’s first full-length album in nine years. I remember their first album, The Lost Kingdom, being rather raw but still enjoyable. If you’re wondering about the title, it’s a reference to Indonesian history. Sabda Palon was a Hindu-Buddhist priest and advisor to Brawijaya V, the last emperor of Majapahit. He was angry over his lord’s conversion to Islam, so he cursed him, saying the archipelago would be plagued by 500 years of natural disasters and political turmoil. It was quite hard to do research on that subject because most of the search results were for this album. Strange how things like that happen.
The band’s style has changed considerably over the years. They went from playing primitive brutal death metal to gritty old school death metal with guttural vocals. Swedish and American influences abound, but it still has that unique Indonesian character. The production is covered in a thick, corrosive fog, which not only increases the heaviness of the music, but also gives the music a dark atmosphere. The whole time I was listening to it, I felt like I was standing outside during a fierce thunderstorm. The drums play plenty of fast and straightforward d-beats which give way to mid-paced patterns and even slow doom beats which are simple yet strong. These are occasionally broken up by pulverizing blast beats.
As mentioned earlier, the growls are guttural. They sound quite similar to other bands from their country. They’re performed well and sound quite sickening. Sometimes they are accompanied by shouts. Just like so many other bands from Indonesia, the guitars are the best part. They mainly play simple and fast chord progressions that were a staple of early-’90s death metal. They’re nice and heavy, but I was more impressed by the other riffs they had to offer. Sometimes they play eviscerating tremolo riffs. Other times they throw in a few melodic riffs to enhance the atmosphere. They also throw in some creeping chords during the slow parts. They then top things off with howling solos. My favorite is the one on “Hutan Hujan Darah”.
Those expecting pure brutal death metal will be turned off by this album, but those who don’t mind will find it quite enjoyable. This is an old school death metal homage, an album that pays respects to all that came before it. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, and I appreciate that level of honesty.