At the nexus of Slayer, Vio-Lence, and Forbidden arrives Chilean thrash metal maniacs Mental Devastation. Nestled in and emanating from the hardscrabble city of Valparaíso, the hard-hitting, technically-adept quartet have injected life into the living corpus that is 1988. The production, mix, and master by Sebastián Palominos at Vardager Records recalls the great albums of the year. Slayer’s South of Heaven, Vio-lence’s Eternal Nightmare, and Forbidden’s Forbidden Evil have their spirit and energy in Mental Devastation’s sophomore album, The Delusional Mystery of the Self Part I (Blood Harvest).
Check out the Bay Area-informed vocals of Alejandro Lagos (also bass), the razor-sharp guitars of Matias Morales and sideman Felipe Espinoza, and the rock-solid thrash mash of drummer Nicholas Pastene while wearing white Reebok high tops and sleeveless D.R.I. 4 of a Kind shirts on tracks like “Labyrinth,” “The Abyss,” “Ascension,” and 10-minute epic “Reflections over the Veils of Death.” But The Delusional Mystery of the Self Part I is more than a trip down Front Row memory lane. It has an immediacy that is unheard of in today’s metal scene. The album owes much to what came before, but Mental Devastation have that next-gen radiance about them.
Say Mental Devastation: “We feel that this album is the achievement of our identity, in terms of sound and message. We have been able to condense the infinities of influences, to amalgamate a work that can deliver quality in all aspects and achieve differentiation from traditional and pure thrash metal, adding our artistic sense and enriching our releases.”
Speak Thrash or Die! It’s Mental Devastation Monday at Decibel!
** Mental Devastation’s new album The Delusional Mystery of the Self is out December 31st on Blood Harvest. Murder the front row by ordering the CD or cassette (or both!) HERE (Official site) or HERE (Bandcamp).
