Sinsaenum’s In Devastation: A Ferocious Triumph Born from Tragedy

Review By Ian Walker

If Memento mori had a soundtrack, it would sound a lot like In Devastation. Sinsaenum’s third full-length album, out August 8, 2025 via earMUSIC, roars back to life with a cathartic power never before heard. It’s a record born from grief, fury, and fierce determination — a tribute to fallen heroes and a bold assertion that the band endures.

Rising From Ashes

When Sinsaenum’s founding drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot, Murderdolls) passed in 2021, the metal world trembled. Yet In Devastation is no eulogy — it’s a declaration. Frédéric Leclercq, principal guitarist and songwriter, lost not only Joey but also his father in the making of this record. “I was devastated, hence the title,” Leclercq confesses. But instead of collapsing, he built — a 10-track opus that wrestles grief into shape and flips it into adrenaline.

A Chrome-Clad Line-Up with Heart

The album features the return of Sinsaenum’s signature lineup: vocalists Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Sean Zatorsky (Dååth), guitarists Frédéric Leclercq and Stéphane Buriez (Loudblast), plus bassist Heimoth (Seth). On drums is Andre Joyzi, Jordison’s former tech and a friend to the core — not a replacement, but a torchbearer. His playing honors the groove and ferocity Joey helped define, while injecting fresh energy and sorrow-carved depth.

Track-by-Track Through the Abyss

1. “In Devastation”

Title track and lead single sets the tone: colossal drums, swarming guitars, and vocal warfare. Csihar’s ritualistic chant opens, Zatorsky bursts in with guttural fire, and Leclercq melts your face with riffs and chord shifts that tremble beneath your bones. It’s heartbreak forged into weaponry — a perfect re-introduction.

2. “Cede to Thunder”

An unforgiving assault — tight palm-muted riffing, drumming that feels like a percussionist throttling thunder, and a chorus that gives listeners a momentary lift before the downward spiral resumes. If In Devastation is the emotional epicenter, Cede to Thunder is its blackened gale.

3. “Shades of Black”

Here, Sinsaenum surges into melodic mania. Leclercq’s progressive sensibilities shine with sweeping leads, and the tempo races in staccato bursts. The band finds space to breathe, allowing Csihar’s distinct, dissonant vocal wails to echo while maintaining utter precision. A new anthem for the modern underground.

4. “Obsolete and Broken”

Haunted, reflective, stunningly brutal. Leclercq calls this album’s emotional core, and it shows. The riffs groan like tortured steel, the drums pound like melancholic hammers, and the theme — of finding self-worth when discarded—land with palpable weight. Severity tempered with sorrow.

5. “Last Goodbye”

The album’s most personal song. A melancholic dirge turned epic — first stripped-back, then crescendoing into a mournful chorus layered with distant echoes. It’s grief and triumph in one piece — Sinsaenum’s heart laid bare in sonic metaphor.

6. “Spiritual Lies”

A sinister groove with unexpected dissonance, marching tom patterns, and subtle harmonic flourishes — everywhere you expect a breakdown, the band dodges into a different character, a new mood. The most experimental angle yet, yet still suffused with grit.

7. “Destroyer”

True to its name, Destroyer unleashes fury. Streaming blast beats, tremolo sections, rapid-fire vocals and backward crescendos. A sonic blowtorch illuminating the album’s untamed side.

8. “Buried Alive”

Grind motifs and chugged aggression pepper an album with a tribal undercurrent. Snarls of vocal despair, venomous riffs, and clattering percussion — a second wind of rage right before the home stretch.

9. “This Wretched World”

The most politically textured track: heavy with context, doom-laden, textured with dissonance. A reflection on societal decay that doesn’t shy away from cynicism. Occasional clean vocals and open-hand chord phrasing suggest a spark of hope amidst ruin.

10. “Over the Red Wall”

Album closer and knockout punch. A relentless speed anthem that climaxes in multi-vocal harmonies and martial drumming. Even as it races forward, there’s a sense of finality — this is fury synthesized into closure.

Sonics That Crush and Comfort

Production by Lasse Lammert (The Body, Magrudergrind) is flawless: drum impact is visceral, guitars seethe, bass guns the low end, and vocals retain both grit and character. In Devastation sounds massive—like a cathedral of pain built on a furnace floor.

Still, the band navigates complexity: progressive time shifts, cello layers (yes, medieval cello on “Last Goodbye”), sporadic clean vocals — all without softening the whiplash. It’s a tribute record that pushes forward rather than looks back.

Legacy, Loss, and Rebirth

This album defies the death-of-a-member narrative that can trap metal bands in stagnation. Instead, In Devastation reveals regeneration. It’s grounded in loss, yes — but it’s about making life from mortar. Leclercq’s message is clear: despair can channel creation.

Where Repulsion for Humanity was aggressive and anarchic, and Echoes of the Tortured conceptually vast, In Devastation is a third act born of clarity. It doesn’t feel like a farewell—it feels like a battle-cry, raising the flag for those who have lost more than they expected.

Final Word

At 30+ minutes of unrelenting pace, brutality, and occasionally betrayal, In Devastation is dark, unrestrained, and richly human. It’s a crowning achievement for a band that has sacrificed much and given much more. Whether you’re here for the merciless blastbeats, the haunting harmonies, the unexpected cello tremors, or simply the emotional honesty, there is no refuge in this sound, only discipline and transcendence.

Sinsaenum have delivered their finest — a memorial mitsuba worship of grief, grit, and gear-grinding redemption. In Devastation is both an elegy and a reckoning, a call to arms for anyone who refuses to stop fighting even when the world feels lost.