The Devil - The Devil
From a marketing standpoint, this UK outfit —not to be confused with Nordic retro-Doomsters Devil (no “the”)— had me intrigued from the start. With a moniker so simple it begs an explanation, and the alluring cover art (a mysterious cloaked figure in red just begging to bargain for my soul), a morbid curiosity was forged almost immediately. However, upon seeing Candlelight’s ad for this self-titled debut, my interest lessened somewhat. If doing this for so long has taught me anything, it’s how to decipher label bullshit. Allow me to decode the following description for you: “The Devil is not a typical Metal band {they don’t have a vocalist}. Combining Heavy Metal with select historical, political, and conspiracy-laden oracles {they use a lot of samples}, the anonymous masked and cloaked musicians {they didn’t get permission to use said samples} present a cinematic soundscape {keyboards} that is sure to strike the fancy of the curious {Metalheads are suckers for masks}.” Okay, I cheated. I listened to it beforehand. But you get the drift. Truth is, these shrouded blokes do play a very haunting, atmospheric brand of laid back, Doomy-paced, synth-driven Gothic Metal with occasionally extra-meaty guitars that summon a brutish Death Metal vibe. So much so, I can’t help but wonder how much more staying power this would have with the addition of vocals — be they abrasive or clean, or both. Instead the band uses samples to drive the songs, with each track’s compiled soundbites focusing on various concepts. Topics include aliens (“Universe”), 9/11 being an inside job (“World of Sorrow”), JFK’s assassination (“Devil & Mankind”), World War III (“Extinction Level Event”), and secret societies (“Illuminati”), among others. I think it’s safe to call The Devil the inaugural NWOHCM (New Wave of History Channel Metal) act. Aside from the 29-minute single-drone outro (just what every InstruMetal LP needs), this does make for a truly captivating, edge-of-your-seat novelty listen the first few times around. Unfortunately there just isn’t a ton of replay value beyond that. Songs that double as mini-documentaries are doomed to become reruns quickly. In summary, I am but mildly amused by the one with horns.
(1) Comment(s)
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Ychoril said:
I listened to this just the other day and my impression was a bit different. My take on this album is that The Devil is really just a Dark Ambient band that Candlelight is trying to market to Metal fans. This has more in common with Arecebo/Lustmord or Vestigial than any Metal band I can think of.
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