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Devolved.
 A
slogan emblazoned on Devolved's latest album 'Calculated' reads
"Australia's number one metal export" - and the Queensland tech-metallers
mean it quite literally. With successful tours and promising
sales abroad, the band are developing such a strong overseas
profile that they have decided to undertake one final national
tour as Australian residents before permanently relocating to
the US later this year.
"I really don't think that there's anything else for Devolved to do here in Australia that we haven't done," admits drummer John Sankey. "I mean, we could just continue to drive up and down the coast and fly over to Perth occasionally, but that's not really going to progress the band any further at all. I've been spending most of my time over the past 18 months or so over in America and industry people have become more and more aware of who Devolved is and what we do, and we've got a lot of interest over there, so there are a lot of things ready to happen."
It's been nearly eight years since Sankey and guitarist Brett Noordin formed Devolved and the band are now starting to see the results of their hard work. 'Calculated' is the follow-up to 2001's 'Technologies,' a jagged, dystopic vision of the collision between humanity and technology. While the band were able to tour the UK, Europe and Japan on the strength of their debut, 'Calcuated''s Fear Factory-meets-Meshuggah staccato battery of cold, incisive rhythms promises to make it an even more intense listening experience.
"This time there aren't any huge departures of sound from song to song," explains Sankey of the new album. "It's like this big mechanical wall of noise from the start of the album to the end. And I think that's the way it should be listened to - not that I'm really sitting around listening to the album," he joked. "But if I was, I'd just put it on from the start and let it go right through, rather than just picking a few songs here and there."
Certainly, 'Calculated' is a more consistent, coherent effort than its predecessor. The intensity of 'Technologies' was often driven by a technical precision tempered by a human, organic quality; a chaotic tangle of complex riffs and even more complicated rhythms subtly undercut by a potential for collapse. The fact that it still hung together was what made 'Technologies' such a powerful and compelling album. 'Calculated', on the other hand, is immense and overwhelming due to its efficient, machine-like perfection. Not a note out of place, no moments of confusion: everything is very deliberate and carefully considered at each point on the album.
"With 'Technologies', we'd been writing those songs for a long while before it was considered that they would be part of our first album," the drummer explains. "But with this it was like: 'we're going to write a new album now.' So basically from the word go, from the first song we worked on after 'Technologies' and the EP, it was all just in succession. So I guess it was just a stronger writing process. I mean, we can really mix and match riffs from all over the album into other songs. The album is more of a concept to me, rather than all individual songs doing their own thing, and I think that works really well with this album, better than 'Technologies' did."
On top of completing the new album, Sankey has also spent the better part of the past year-and-a-half working on a side-project with ex-Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares, who he met in 2001 during Fear Factory's 'Digimortal' Australian tour.
"Straight up, it will have that Fear Factory-type undertone," Sankey begins coyly, trying not to give too much away about the new project. "Devolved got stuck with it, and also with Dino's style, that's just how it is. But in saying that, I don't want to do something that I already do with Devolved, that would just defeat the purpose of doing another project entirely. And I'm sure that Dino doesn't just want to do Fear Factory Part II as well."
Although the pair are still shopping around for label interest, the project has sparked considerable interest in Devolved. The drummer's collaboration with Cazares has helped to significantly raise the band's US profile - at least among industry insiders - no mean feat considering that the group have yet to step foot on American soil.
While the future opportunities seem very promising, Sankey and Devolved are equally excited about the upcoming 'farewell' tour, their first national tour since bringing out Japan's Suns Owl nearly two years ago.
"But it's only going to be a farewell for now," the drummer emphasises. "Just because we're going to be spending the bulk of our time overseas now, we're not just going to forget about Australia. I think it will be great to come back here and do some shows, that's going to be amazing. And hopefully we can bring out so buddies with us from over there, some other bands. It's farewell for now, but gosh, since we haven't done a tour here for ages, we'll probably do another one sooner than what we did between the last one and this one!"
Michelle Phillipov
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Devolved play the Enigma Bar on Fri 15 Oct with Embodiment 12:14, Truth Corroded and Cry Murder.
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