Review by Carl on August 30, 2020.

Stylistically you can place Phalloplasty neatly among the likes of Viral Load, Putrid Pile, Vomitous or early Devourment and from what I can make out of it, lead man Zack Shaw does have some decent ideas up his sleeve but they get pretty much drowned out in this mess of a production. As far as I can distinguish, his riffing and gutturals are decent enough for his chosen style. The guitar work is down tuned and simple but effective, while Shaw's vocals are of the pleasantly gurgling kind. The compositions seem to be of the kind that go for impact and don't rely on technicality too much. It's such a rotten shame that the good things about this release get totally lost in the utterly disastrous sound mix. In great part this is due to the programmed percussion. Bluntly put they sound like shit. They're all kick, and I can't make out any snare at all, making them a directionless cacophony of clicks and clacks. In all this the guitars sound separated from the rhythm tracks, making the songs fall apart at the seams with the vocals just stacked on top of it all. In its totality this album is just a mess of sounds that just seem to start and stop at random. At its worst moments you could compare it to a skipping CD with someone grunting over it while improvising on a guitar. Not even the cover of Putrid Pile's "Drenched in Gasoline" can save this.

There was much, much more that this could have been. The pummeling brutal death metal that Phalloplasty produces could pack an effective wallop, but due to its production it's just random sounds stacked on top of each other, making for a confusing and messy effort. It's for good reason that a few years later Zack reworked this album into the "Redux" version.

I have not heard any of Phalloplasty's following albums but taken into account that their name seems to have a following in the brutal death metal scene, I can only assume that they are of better quality than this debut. I'm giving this one a 5/10 for effort and those good ideas I could make out, but that's about it. So once again: my sincerest apologies, Zack.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Review by Felix on December 20, 2022.

Power From Hell is a band I really like – more than my previous ratings indicate. The Blood n’ Spikes EP (minus the lame Priest cover) was already very good, but in particular Profound Evil Presence has withstood the test of time with great ease. I thought that this was their breakthrough. Very forceful songwriting met a professional production – and the latter was anything but a matter of course considering their early works. So I expected a lot from Shadows Devouring Light.

But what the hell do I have to realize? The production is a relapse into those weird times I thought to have disappeared. No, they do not offer another amateurish, sick sound experience like they dished up on Sadismo or Spellbondage. Nevertheless, their new material sounds simply strange. All instruments and the voice seem to come through a wall of fog. Or were there too many banned substances involved here? Either way, I diagnose a lack of directness and power. Especially the milky guitar sound gives me a hard time, but the robotic drums also leave room for improvement. I believe one can get used to this unfamiliar mix, but it definitely does not make it easy to enjoy the album right from the start. Sometimes the full-length sounds like Pestilence’s “Spheres” if it had been produced with a heavy basic tone. Indeed, Shadows Devouring Light conveys the undertone of an unknown dimension and this does not really match with the down-to-earth compositional approach.

Music-wise, I can herald better news. Mastermind Sodomic, the man with the monotonous yet adequate vocals, has written solid pieces, for example 'Silence', the first full track after the intro. 'The Serpent’s Earthy Throne' works as well, although its uninspired ending, a simple fade-out, is somewhat disappointing. However, these songs set the basic tone for an album that wants to score with its unreal and creepy atmosphere. Nice idea, but unfortunately this approach is at the expense of primitive power – and precisely this feature has always been an appreciated trademark of the band. The title track mirrors the entire ambivalence of the album: it starts with drug-imbued harmony fragments that go astray, but it also houses a good, pretty brutal part (only as brutal as production allows, of course).

Every now and then, the guitar lines evoke associations with Colombia’s Inquisition. That’s okay, there are many worse role models in the scene. Yet it is also true that the songs fail to create a strong, long-lasting aroma. Outstanding riffs or catchy elements are not absent, but rare. To mention just one example, the chorus of 'Demons Of The Night' engraved itself into my long-term memory immediately. Shadows Devouring Light does not shine with choruses that crown the songs and so it fails to deliver an equal experience. It is pretty effective during its playtime, but subsequently it vanishes into thin air and leaves not much more than a blurred overall impression of strange colours which flow into each other.

I don’t want to hide the fact that the album has grown on me. At first, I was pretty disappointed, but now I see the full-length as a kind of experiment and maybe I have to acknowledge the courage of the Brazilians. Last but not least, late attacks like the pretty straight, delicately titled 'Eve’s Holy Vulva' or 'Adversary Of Creation' with its sharp riffing increase the quality of the entire release. Nevertheless, Shadows Devouring Light is a step back and I miss the well-defined sound of Profound Evil Presence and the clear contours of its songs. (By the way, my rating for this album was too low, I beg your indulgence.) So what is left to say? I could talk about the lyrics, where filthy wombs and cursed breasts appear, but once again I beg your indulgence, I am too old for this highly sensitive kind of poetry. And maybe it is better to ignore the details of the lyrics, because I still want to like this horde called Power From Hell and I am already curious about their next output, regardless of the deficits of this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10