This sounds to be an interesting proposition. Brazilian symphonic black metal band have been going since 2003 and are now releasing their third full album to go with a couple of early demos and a 2019 EP.
From the onset of blastbeating, ghoulish sounds and atmospheres, and overall bombast, it was evident that this is the world of Dimmu Borgir and Vesania. “Nahemah’s Possession” took me back to the days of “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant”. An operatic soprano female voice sets the scene to start off “I’m sure Your Gods Have Seen This Before”. We then get down to business with a dirty death metal number, interspersed with theatre. It’s like a black metal opera. I found it a bit languid, I have to confess, and was looking for something more explosive. “Satan’s Law” is more dirtiness of a death metal kind. This is accompanied by hissing and growling and operatic tones. The tempo picks up and “Satan’s Law” momentarily becomes a whirlwind before dropping back into sludgier depths, albeit symphonically inspired ones. “It’s All Wrong” is straighter and a more brutal Vaderesque death metal assault. Personally, I preferred the more shadowy and menacing style of “Has Never Seen a World Without Wars”, so too the combination of symphonic chorus and black heaviness of “The Tepes”. The problem I was having with “Devil’s Collection” as a whole however was while individual parts were interesting, and there was by and large a turbulent and indeed devilish atmosphere, there was a lot going on and I didn’t find it an easy album to listen to. “Ripping Off Face Masks” has “destruction” written all over it but didn’t really explode in my face. Time after time I was finding this. The heavy and thunderous lead in to “Hell’s Now” was more promising, and has elements of nastiness and fear, but even this one sank without trace. Dirty riffage and deathly progression bordering on epic territory without frills lifted “Devil from the Sky” above most of the others for me, but it’s not dazzling. All that was left was a sombre outro “No Life on Earth” featuring a piano piece by the sea shore. It represented an atmospheric melancholy but this was just another addition to the many vistas rather than being the conclusion to an identifiable coherent whole.
Judging by the pictures of Paradise in Flames in concert, it looks like they are a dynamic band. Somehow this didn’t come across for me on this dark but rambling album. “Devil’s Collection” was for me more a series of superimposed cameos, mostly extreme, some symphonic, some ghoulish, some black and some death in tone. I sensed intensity and clouds of smoke but didn’t feel it.
(6/10 Andrew Doherty)
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