Four years after leaving us to ‘Fathom The Master’s Grand Design’ everyone’s favourite Devilish Danes are back. They have consistently led us down the left hand path since changing their name from Mareridt back in 2002 and put out seven albums to date. The line-up has been stable for over a decade and the only real change here is a jump of labels from Scarlet to Soulseller. Personally I have been banging my head to their ‘songs of death and damnation’ since second album ‘The Devil’s Music’ back in 2006 and when this new one appeared I was more than keen to jump aboard once more; so without further ado…
‘The Messiah Scourge’ makes it quite clear of any ongoing alliances and takes form with an almighty roar, a mid-paced black morass of melodic riffs and then a flurry of urgent drumming. From then on in the speed is pretty vicious, the vocals hostile and atmospheres dark and maleficent. There’s a rugged groove about it all and founding member and guitarist Hellpig ladles out some riffs that are reminiscent of Thorns and mid-era Satyricon here as S rasps with forked tongue over the top. Blackly thrashing up a storm, the album’s longest track grows like a plague victim’s poxy scabs and gets right under the skin. All four members seem perfectly synchronised, the belting rhythm enforced by Harm and the bass chain rattling of Haxen adding to the driving velocity of ‘Gospels Of Sickness’ as it adds trembling and shivering riffs to rising vocal roars. The group have always had a bit of a punky edge to them and rest assured ‘Vermin on the Mount’ is going to get you jumping up and down and pogoing on the spot as it hits a groove and jauntily injects some bounce into things.
The album is an easy and accessible one to get into with its seven tracks and no messing about 36-minute running time. There’s no getting bogged down in esoteric scripts and orthodox doctrines here either. The group keep things simple, saluting the old ways, spreading their disease in easy to digest lumps of bruising discourse, reinforcing the ethos that the devil does indeed have all the best tunes. Revelling in brimstone and corresponding sulphur and fire this is a one-way ticket all the way down to the bowels of hell and it’s a rattling one too designed to shake your bones and bruise as you hurtle down the precipice. By the time they ‘Darken The World’ with the cataclysmic penultimate number prior to the instrumental outro track you are going to be firmly ensnared in their dastardly grip, wondering if the light will ever shine again. I expected this to be a solid album and it is. All hail Satan and bang your head, damnation is the press of a button away.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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