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Conjurers of Cruelty is the second full-length album from the U.K.'s Devastator, a band that plays mean and nasty black/thrash metal. They cover the gamut here with songs containing black metal blast beats ("Bestial Rites"), rapid-fire thrash riffing ("Rapid Morbid Death") and even some "black n' roll" ("Black Witchery") and do it all pretty well. The vocals are harsh and raspy but decipherable and the music is grim and evil but not cold or distant, Devastator opting for a sound that is in the listener's face. Personally, the "blackened Motörhead" tracks like "Black Witchery" and "Death Forever" (one of two bonus tracks you will want to make sure the version you grab contains) are my favorites, but there is nothing wrong with the other material on Conjurers of Cruelty. The only knock I have is that the band plays it safe with the songwriting, coloring well within the lines of black/thrash. I would have been nice if there were a couple of real corkers, but most of the album sounds a lot like the majority of black/thrash out there today. Still, it is good enough that if you dig bands like Midnight, Toxic Holocaust, and Bewitcher, Devastator's Conjurers of Cruelty should slide into your collection nicely.