Band:	Kataklysm
Album:	In The Arms Of Devastation
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	February 20, 2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

Disc I
01. Like Angels Weeping (The Dark)
02. Let Them Burn
03. Crippled & Broken
04. To Reign Again
05. It Turns To Rust
06. Open Scars
07. Temptation's Nest
08. In Words Of Desperation
09. The Road To Devastation

Disc II [DVD] [limited edition bonus]
+ The End Of Serenity [Live in Strasbourg]
+ Crippled & Broken [video]
+ To Reign Again [video]

What the hell happened? Where's that old Kataklysm that delivered us such amazing tracks like "Frozen In Time" "Mould In A Breed" and "World Of Treason"? I'm not sure of what to think right now, I actually thought I was going to hear one of the most explosive albums of 2006, what did I get? Average music with uninspired songwriting and boring structures and sequences; this band had a great Death Metal feeling, now they are upside down or something I can't accurately explain.

"Serenity In Fire" wasn't a good album I recall, though songs like "The Ambassador Of Pain" or "For all Our Sins" had a strong frequency with unmatched power and violence; this new album called "In The Arms Of Devastation" has as well some good parts (for example that incredible last track which totally blew me away), the huge difference comes in the bad parts which are really freaking awful and boring, fact lost in their past albums actually.

For the amateur ears this album will sound decent I'm sure, Kataklysm were smart enough to add a couple of long (but simplistic) guitar solos to the mix so people would say "damn that was like? cool or something right?". The truth is this piece is nothing new, on the contrary is an unoriginal and failed effort to sound like the old days; the overall environment just doesn't fit correctly with anything, there are a lot of riffs and uncountable breakdowns which sound like "thrown" to the CD in the last minute if you know what I mean.

The CD runs smoothly though, there are enough grooves and beats there to head-bang like a maniac over and over again till your neck snaps; that's not a bad nor a good thing of course, you can also head-bang to a "pressure cooker" tempo too and that does not mean pressure cookers do good music you see? The fact is that the music shown in this album is great to do that kind of "cool" stuff, but if you are looking for intelligent music or inventiveness just look somewhere else, because once you pay attention to the tunes you'll get bored immediately for sure.

The production is a really good thing though, I love when the listener is able to appreciate each and every instrument independently, so thumbs up to the sound engineer. So, I recommend you to download that last track and that's it, don't waste your money on this album because you'll get angry and your liver could explode instantly splattering your walls, your cute pet, maybe even your mom and your nice couch, you don't want that to happen do you?