‘Devour’ is the sophomore full-length assault from Virginia-based Industrial Metal nihilists Hold Me Down. It’s the follow-up to their debut ‘Powerless’ from 2022.
Hold Me Down play Industrial Death Metal and create dark, bleak nihilistic, dystopian, and abrasive sonic landscapes relying on the heavy use of drum machines, atonal guitars, and harsh electronics.
Think : early Godflesh, Frontline Assembly, Fear Factory, Pitchshifter, Candiru and all this tossed into a Death Metal crucible. Industrial metal was a big thing in the 1990s, I remember several label owners that were interested in signing and releasing Industrial metal.
Despite the Industrial overtones, it still sounds quite organic to me – the lyrical and conceptual focus of ‘Devour’ is on alienation, sensory overload, and the dehumanizing effects of technology. The music stays thouroughly heavy throughout the entire album. The programmed drums are punishing, the vocals devastating, guitars in the typical mecha-industrial mode, nerve wrecking samples and a suffocating atmosphere try to beat the listener into total submission.
There are absolutely no fillers and only highlights on this album and it pleases me that a new Industrial/Death behemoth has been created. Fans of the genre and other noise freaks need to have this album!
