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Once again, Devourer have returned to us, and once again they spin out a killer blast of Swedish blackened death like only they know how. Now back to a two-piece with main man John Falk on guitars and drum and Teodolit's Oksana Rage on vocals and bass, this is a bit of a departure in that it's their first full collaboration on songwriting, making this release lean more on the death metal side of their sound than before without abandoning their black metal stylings. This definitely hasn't hurt the quality of their material, for the material on The Wicked Ones is as heavy, varied, and ferocious as ever, now sporting some unorthodox tempo changes to build tension better than in the past. Oksana's bestial performance is as frightening and feral as ever, and it goes a long way in uniting the blazing neck snappers like "Fear Incarnate" with the blood-chilling crawlers like "Thantomaniac" to make a cohesive and propulsive work of unadulterated bloodlust. It's great to see this band still going strong despite lineup shifts and still capable of surprising me, and I'll happily wait for them to do it again while The Wicked Ones make me a smiling, gorey stain on the floor.