(by Justin M Norton)
You’ve heard the travails of playing in a metal band before: touring in hobbled vans; not making money on album sales; eating horrible truck stop food. If you think that’s tough consider Croatian thrashers Devastation; they once played for a crowd so starved for metal that arms were literally broken during the show and grew up near a war-torn region that was one of the world’s hot spots for ethnic conflict in the early 1990s. To top it off, they only way band members could get metal albums into the once Communist country was to sneak them in from neighboring Italy.
Despite these hurdles, one of the first thrash bands in the former Yugoslavia is returning more than two decades after they formed in 1986 with three new members and a renewed appetite for havoc. “It’s nice to have people that can give some new blood to the story, because it gives a totally fresh and stronger output to our sound,” vocalist Alex Bijazic said via e-mail.
Devastation’s first low-fi incarnation combined elements of Hellhammer, Venom and Sarcofago with D.R.I speed and punk attitude. The band played with “catastrophic” homemade Czechoslovak guitars and basses but worked hard nonetheless. “We were really full of will and determination, something that many bands today don’t have,” Bijazic said.
Like many American bands, Devastation thrived thanks to tape trading and propulsive shows. The band’s demos “The Upcoming Mayhem” and “The Possibility of Life’s Destruction,” circulated widely in Eastern Europe and are now available online.
The members of Devastation lived in Istria, a region of Croatia known for ethnic tolerance. Even though Istria was more liberal than many neighboring countries, metal shows were a rarity. Devastation filled that gap. “There were no concerts of thrash bands in Yugoslavia at all, so when we played the first show in Pula, it was incredible,” Bijazic said. “There were broken arms, clothes ripped off … total insanity. And we had just five songs and two covers, so we had to play half the stuff twice.”
Devastation broke up in 1990. Bijazic contacted his former band mates several years ago about playing again but they weren’t interested. But when Bijazic moved from Pula to Varazdin he met rhythm guitarist Mladen Medic, a young fan of the band who played for Croatian grinders Desinence Mortification and was interested in joining a new Devastation lineup.
“I was very satisfied when I realized that the spirit is still alive. And when I see that nowadays our first two demos are downloaded from various sites more than 2000 times, then I know that it is really worth playing again,” Bijazic says.
Devastation, which also includes drummer Chriss Bijazic, lead guitarist Hrvoje Vogrinc and bassist Karlo-Franjo Kögl, will return to their roots and play old-school thrash. They are also working on material for their first proper full-length. “It (thrash) is what we love, and the only thing we want to play,” Bijazic said. “Lyrically, we will write lyrics about social situations, death that is all around us more than ever, human nonsense and sick thoughts. No more crap about Satan.”
Medic says the younger lineup will add a new element to decidedly old-school Iron Curtain thrash. “I think that the thing that will give a new freshness to the music of Devastation is the years difference between the members of the band,” he said.
Reader Comments
if I remember well, at those dark dark times, thy band was a sort of nursery x incredibly varied newcomers too, like hardcore, death, doom bands etc…not to mention frontman’s engagement of creating, mantaining and feeding the scene…still remember incredible number of open minded festivals, gigs, radio trasmitions…..
devastion are the blast