Devil – Time To Repent

site | label | buy

Being flavour of the times, spearheaded by the success of Sweden’s Ghost, Devil are Norway’s leading light in revitalised occult doom rock, having already seen their debut EP Magister Mundi Xum sell well, Time To Repent is their debut full length record. In truth there’s not a huge difference between Devil and Ghost. They’re both just retreading Pagan Altar‘s territory. Devil are a little heavier, and without the kitsch robes-and-masks gimmick, but overall their sound is more or less the same, down to the echoing vocals. And like Ghost’s album the sound is very appealing for a few songs, but when nearly every song is sonically the same, it comes down to the quality of the songs, and that’s where both bands fall short. A very silly Crazy Woman typifies how daft faux occult lyrics are, and tracks like At The Blacksmith and Open Casket don’t improve matters. The band are at their best on monstrous doomy grooves like album highlight Blood Is Boiling and the aformentioned Open Casket, but these moments are fleeting and they don’t offer much to back it up. If they can put on a better live show than Ghost (which won’t be too hard), they should by rights achieve more, but they will need to look for more variety on their next album. This one lacks something which takes an Into The Void approach to a doom rock song, i.e. spends seven or so minutes laying on multiple killer riffs thick and fast, because the music feels like it should provide something more interesting to get lost in, and nothing here manages that.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Doom Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Devil