Issued in 2011 in Europe via German imprint Ván Records, mysterious Dutch outfit The Devil’s Blood release their second full-length, The Thousandfold Epicentre, via Metal Blade in North America. Their 2010 debut, The Time of No Time Evermore (review here), was put out by Profound Lore, and if anything, the amount of people who’ve gotten behind The Devil’s Blood shows the kind of dedication their cult rock inspires. With a penchant traditional witchy melody – bands like Coven and Black Widow are appropriate points of reference – taken to the Satanic extremes of European black metal (the band has close ties with Swedish outfit Watain, among others), the core brother/sister duo behind The Devil’s Blood, guitarist/songwriter Selim and vocalist Farida Lemouchi, have been able to hammer out a sound that is at once foreboding and unashamedly accessible. In light of the aforementioned early ‘70s cult folkies, this isn’t such a contrast, but given the avenues of heaviness and extremity in which such themes are more prevalent today, The Devil’s Blood stands out. At the same time, they belong to a growing league of bands – Ghost, Sabbath Assembly and even, to a more distinctly doomed extent, the latest incarnation of The Wounded Kings – who’ve been able to successfully blend that school of classic melodic thought with modern Satanic or occult ritualizing. Farida’s vocals, however, along with Selim’s apparently growing fascination with darkened psychedelia, give The Thousandfold Epicentre a strong individual feel even within this burgeoning context. It is a powerful and creative work.

It’s also really, really long. At 74-plus minutes, The Thousandfold Epicentre is beyond what might usually qualify as expansive, but the atmosphere of ritual it creates – one can almost smell the dry-ice fog coming through the speakers – more than accounts for and justifies that expanse. Where The Time of No Time Evermore took the (in hindsight) formative elements of 2008’s Come, Reap EP in a more traditionally metal direction, The Thousandfold Epicentre seems bent in highlighting melodic grandeur. Following the intro “Unending Singularity” that builds to it, “On the Wings of Gloria” is resplendent. Farida’s vocals echo above a rocking riff from Selim and thudding drums. Among the varied approaches The Devil’s Blood take on the album’s 11 tracks, “On the Wings of Gloria” stands among the most effective combinations of the elements that make their sound their own, breaking after a ripping guitar solo into a vocal-led ritualistic invocation that in turn gives way to a wash of chanting and psychedelic noise, all anchored and given structure by drums and an overall forward movement. The duo of cuts that follows, “Die the Death” and “Within the Charnel House of Love,” are shorter and more geared toward highlighting Farida’s prowess as a frontwoman, while “Cruel Lover” takes rhythmic cues from ‘80s metal (as did a decent portion of the last record) and is less pop-based. Talk of possession and “tongues of fire” allures and adds sexualized danger without feeling outwardly exploitative, and the music behind chugs with a clear sense of structure without being as predictable as either “Die the Death” or “Within the Charnel House of Love.” Nonetheless, indulgence prevails.

As well it should for a band like The Devil’s Blood. They move from a long bridge back to the verse in “Cruel Lover” and end with the central riff, moving briskly onto centerpiece “She,” an immediate highlight. Layers of Farida’s vocals weave between each other to make The Thousandfold Epicentre’s most memorable chorus, while the verse singing has more clarity and make use of her range, which has impressed since the band’s beginnings. Sandwiched between “Cruel Lover” and the title-track, “She” is both a worthy single and a deep cut, adding to the atmosphere of the record without sacrificing the quality of songwriting or structural crispness. A final chorus stomps its way into the cerebral cortex and the song gives way to mellotron and keys that set the stage for “The Thousandfold Epicentre,” which tops nine minutes and is the longest song apart from 15-minute closer “Feverdance.” Like the album itself, the title-track does well with the time it’s so purposefully taking. Gone is the immediacy of hook that drove “She,” but instead, The Devil’s Blood begin to immerse the listener in the ambience that will typify the album’s back end and still have room for catchy delivery of the chorus line, “I call your name/Devil of a thousand faces,” though it doesn’t arrive until more than three minutes in. Like the opener and like the closer still to come, though, the build is what makes it work. Selim skillfully incorporates acoustics and gives a fullness to do more than just complement his sister’s vocals, and breaks into one of The Thousandfold Epicentre’s most impressive guitar solos just after 6:30. They named the album after the right song – pretty much every accomplishment of the whole is summed up in some way on the title-track.

“Fire Burning” revives the (relatively) straightforward chorus-centered approach of “She” and “Die the Death” with lyrics donated by one of the members of Saturnalia Temple. It’s a step down from the title-track and a moment to regroup with not as much complexity to it as “The Thousandfold Epicentre” had, but it also makes “Everlasting Saturnalia,” which follows, more of a surprise. Selim unleashes some thoroughly doomed lead lines, but the spine of the track is its quietness. Before a full two minutes have passed, the siren-esque backing line fades and what sounds like keys fall into position behind Farida’s far-off echoing vocal. Perhaps ironically, it’s among The Thousandfold Epicentre’s most hypnotic moments, and to the band’s credit, they stick to it until the transition to the more drivingly-riffed “The Madness of Serpents” begins. There are layers of singing backing Farida here, but the way the track presents them, it’s hard to tell if it’s another voice or her own, modulated. Either way, the blend is otherworldly and enhances the atmosphere of the track, which could just as well be the album’s closer. The first several minutes of its total eight and a half are a psychedelic wash, but the flow ebbs into improvised-sounding ambience for a while that gives way to gorgeously building melodic guitar and seems to act as a prelude to the finale in “Feverdance,” finally culminating in suddenly-dropped abrasive noise. Thus, the end of The Thousandfold Epicentre begins its own build from almost absolute silence.

There are a few verses to “Feverdance” in the beginning, but they’re so deep in the mix and so echoed that they sound like they’re being sung to someone on the other side of an ocean. An instrumental build ensues and takes place over the last nine of the 15 minutes, Selim leading the band to The Thousandfold Epicentre’s massive conclusion. The linearity of “Feverdance” isn’t so much what’s striking as the largeness of sound it achieves. Drums seem to fade in eternally, but are clearly there around nine minutes in, and remain steady through the end, which is topped by swirling guitar solos and dramatic synth. The melodic achievements aren’t forgotten and stay prevalent in that synth, and the whole thing acts as one more example of the patience and purpose at work behind what The Devil’s Blood are doing musically on their second album. They’ve impressed all along with musicianship, but what’s more striking on The Thousandfold Epicentre is the breadth ad scope with which they apply it. Selim, who seems to be the only master the band knows other than the Devil himself, is firmly in control across these tracks, and with Farida’s powerful delivery and marked presence, The Devil’s Blood strike with a potency befitting their otherworldly and occult thematics. It would be easy to lapse into hyperbolic praise of The Thousandfold Epicentre’s gorgeousness, but to do so seems somehow to undercut the real value of the work and its place as a step in the overarching progression of The Devil’s Blood. That said, how they’re going to top the orchestral feel of some of these tracks, I don’t know. Whatever devilry compels them has its work cut out for it in building on this majesty.

The Devil’s Blood’s website

Metal Blade Records

Tags: Metal Blade, The Devil's Blood, The Netherlands

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.