The Devil – The Devil
Released: November 20th, 2012
Label: Candlelight Records
The Devil is not what I was expecting at all. No.. not that Devil. The band known as The Devil. The music this band creates is not your usual Metal fair. It’s an eloquent mix of metal, ambient, touches of classical and even some elements of electronic with a heavy use of sampling. The description given for the band says “Combining traditional/classic heavy metal with select historical, political and conspiracy-laden oracles, the anonymous masked and cloaked musicians present a cinematic soundscape that is sure to strike the fancy of the curious.” Yup, they wear masks and cloaks to boot! If that doesn’t sound like it would interest you then move along because that’s a dead on description of The Devil.
The Devil is such an interesting album, I’m almost at a loss of words to describe it. Each track is a finely tuned balance of heaviness and softness that play together like a movie soundtrack would. You have tracks like “Divinorum” which is an instrumental with some nice chugging rhythmic guitars that have a classical feel mixed with some steady drum beats. Also mixed in is choir like vocals buried beneath as if they are singing to Lucifer.
Most of the tracks however are a solid mix of heavy guitars that chug, lead guitars that squeal at times and drums that keep the rhythm flowing steady. All that is mixed with ambient sounds of choir like singing, classical instruments and sometimes eery use of keyboard/piano. The most interesting part of the album, for me, is what constitutes the vocals. Instead of the usual fair of a lead singer, the “vocal” work is all done with sampling from various sources. With the track “World of Sorrow” the sampling sounds like it’s taken from news reports of the World Trade Center attack. “Universe” uses sampling about Roswell from reports/testimony and even some samples of President Regan.
“The Silent City” is an especially interesting track for me because I think it’s a great example showing the metal influence. The track has a nice, slow bass groove with some keyboard work laid on top. Light guitar sounds fold in and then a deep male voice talks over it all in an eery, mysterious tone. Towards the end things kick in with the heavy guitars mixed with angelic choir sounds. It is a track very reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.”
It should be obvious if you’ve made it this far that The Devil is not your usual Metal band. If you are stuck in the world of “traditional” Heavy Metal, The Devil may not be right for you. If you are a fan of a more ambient sound with a movie soundtrack quality to the metal music, then The Devil will not disappoint.
Buy the album:
http://www.thedevil.org
