The Devil’s Blood The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ván Records/Metal Blade Records
The Time of No Time Evermore, The Devil’s Blood’s 2009 debut full-length, was — ahem — bloody brilliant, one which led me to discover a whole rash of occult rock acts currently burning up black candles on foggy stages all over the world. The Eindhoven band’s ritualistic spin on the classic metal of the 70s was nothing short of spellbinding, and it has been under that spell that many have waited, like patient subjects, for the enchanting follow-up. Indeed, The Thousandfold Epicentre can best be described as enchanting, a more ethereal and mystical offering than its predecessor. With its eleven songs borne of psychedelic desire, and five of those stretching themselves like witchy fingers beyond the seven minute mark, it is a bolder and more indulgent record that leans heavily on epic orchestration as though it were an ash-stained pulpit from which the band is delivering their Satanic sermon. However, it’s stand-outs like “Cruel Lover,” “She,” and “Fire Burning” that employ the galloping, Thin Lizzy-like attack that made their debut so great, and without those, this album most surely would have gotten lost within itself.
Listen to “Fire Burning” from The Thousandfold Epicentre!
Danava have always been able to separate themselves from other Iommi-inspired retro rockers by infusing an unabashed weirdness into all that they do. Hemisphere of Shadows, the Portland band’s third full length and first since 2008′s UnonoU, is no exception, and, in fact, the addition of a second guitarist (Andrew Forgash) means the blitzkrieg of riffs are now twined-out to inflict a maximum assault of strange. With a much shorter run-time than previous albums and a decidedly tighter focus, Hemisphere of Shadows finds Danava reigning in their druggy psych-metal jams without strangling them, and without stripping them of their cosmic, downer, prog, and occult flourishes. Danava seem to be so on point here that there’s no way they didn’t record this album at Stonehenge one white hot and foggy night, and with songs like “Shoot Straight With a Crooked Gun,” “The Last Goodbye,” “I Am the Skull,” and “The Illusion Crawls” (featured earlier this year on a split with Lecherous Gaze and Earthless) galloping around like Ichabod Crane in an Iron Claw t-shirt, Hemisphere of Shadows will find all kinds of favour with fans of ’70s freak n’ roll and fuzzy good times.
I don’t know at what point this retro occult rock movement is going to turn into a silly fad, but I don’t think we’re there yet, which means I can continue to pour candle wax all over myself in the name of this bitchin’ dark art. Sweden’s Year of the Goat is the latest band to delve into the ceremonial castle doom with their debut four-song EP, Lucem Ferre, which tables a slightly cleaner and more melodic psych-rock sound than what you might get from contemporaries like Witchcraft, Ghost, The Devil’s Blood, Dead Man, Graveyard, Blood Ceremony, Asteroid, and others. The EP’s three original songs, “Of Darkness,” “Vermillion Clouds,” and the instrumental “Lucem Ferre,” are powered by Thomas Eriksson’s Buckley-bled voice and a whole cabal of groovy, crimson-tinged riffs likely conjured up in some virgin-killing ritual, while the Sam Gopal (back when Lemmy was at the helm) cover, “Dark Lord,” follows the possessed, fuzzy-cloaked form we’re used to hearing from bands of this breed. Simply put, Lucem Ferre is four songs of ancient awesomeness and I swear it’ll make you want to smoke skull dust, drink from a chalice, and pray for someone’s pagan soul.
The Devil’s Blood
Danava
Year of the Goat