The Devil's Blood

Dark Occult Hard Rock

2008

The ceremony for the invocation of the Great Goddess has just begun...

The Band	The Music	The Rest
F "The Mouth of Satan" : Vocals	1.Come, Reap	Profound Lore / PFL-041
Selim "SL" Lemouchi : Guitars	2.River Of Gold	Runnin' Time 27:45
T. : Guitars	3.The Heavens Cry Out For The Devil's Blood	EAC v0.99pb5 Secure, No C2, Disable Cache
B. : Drums	4.White Faces	Ape Monkey's Audio 4.05
	5.Voodoo Dust	Winrar 3.90 + 5% Recovery
MySpace		All Scans@300dpi
		Size: 187MB in1 file

Chronique

(MusicWaves.fr)
Tous ceux qui ont découvert l'an passé The Devil's Blood avec son premier EP "Come Reap", vous le diront : "The Time Of No Time Evermore" était attendu comme le messie. Pourquoi cela ? Tout simplement parce qu'en l'espace de cinq rituels, les Hollandais ont dessiné un des plus vibrants hommages rendu au (hard) rock psychédélique des seventies entendu récemment avec les oeuvres éponymes de Diagonal et Blood Ceremony.

Si son équipage demeure assez flou et mystérieux (à peine sait-on que Nachtraaf de Urfaust et ex Fluisterwoud y participe), en revanche on repère assez vite les influences qui servent de matrice à la formation : Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane, Blue öyster Cult et consorts. Le tout baigne dans un climat occulte et (faussement) sulfureux digne d'une bonne vieille série B made in Hammer studios. Certains appelleront ça du stoner. Peut-être, si cela peut leur faire plaisir.

Mais The Devil's Blood s'impose surtout comme un héraut du pur hard rock sombre, mélodique et flamboyant et moins sale que l'imagerie ésotérique à laquelle il a recourt pourrait le laisser suggérer. Une particularité cependant : le chant est assuré par une femme dont les lignes vocales participent grandement au caractère décalé de l'ensemble et à une identité déjà bien affirmée.

"The Time Of No Time Evermore" se présente donc comme le premier essai longue durée de ces nostalgiques des années 70, comme beaucoup d'autres du reste et on les comprend ! Sans surprise, il s'inscrit dans la droite lignée de son récent aîné, tant d'un point de vue formel (une poignée de titres relativement courts qui précèdent une conclusion de plus de dix minutes) que thématique (satanisme bon teint et drogue) ou musical. Sans être datée, la prise de son, chaude et généreuse, se veut l'écrin idéal pour ce genre de trip hallucinogène en forme de machine à remonter le temps.

Après une intro - "The Time Of No Time Evermore" - qui permet tout de suite d'identifier ses auteurs, notamment gràce à ces guitares qui décollent très haut, l'imparable "Evermore" déboule brutalement. Départ direct vers les étoiles assuré ! Avec sa rythmique épaisse et ses relents sixties, "I'll Be Your Ghost" convoque parfois le fantôme de Hendrix (les premières mesures y font penser). Sur un tempo médium, "The Yonder Beckons" est guidé par des riffs veloutés absolument divins ; une fois les avoir entendus, ils ne vous quittent plus. A mi parcours, le temps s'arrête et une atmosphère contemplative s'installe avant que les six-cordes se taillent la part du lion dans une orgie jouissive.

Plus sombre est le sublime "House Of 10,000 Voices", qui s'ouvre sur un voile inquiétant teinté d'étrangeté. Les guitares assurent l'architecture avec leur chorus démentiels et leur mélancolie sourde qui perlent le long de leur manche cependant que le final se révèle de tout beauté. "Christ And Cocaine" débute sur une accroche typiquement hard rock, pourvu d'une rythmique bien lourde, comme "Rake Your Nails Across The Firmament". Presque purplien est "Queen Of My Burning Heart", autre pièce maîtresse d'un album qui n'en manque pas, à l'image aussi de la semi ballade rêveuse "Angel's Prayer" dont les soli sur lesquels elle meurt vous donnent des frissons de partout. Que dire également de "Feeding The Fire With Tears And Blood" où le chant semble avoir été noyé dans un filtre.

Bien entendu, les Bataves atteignent leur apogée avec le terminal "The Antikosmic Magick", pièce grandiose et digne héritière du majestueux "Voodoo Dust" qui achevait le menu de "Come Reap", véritable rampe de lancement pour des grattes qui tricotent des mélodies empreintes d'une vraie tristesse. Puis celles-ci cèdent la place à une myriade de sons et d'effets cosmiques, conclusion d'un album en tout point digne des attentes que son prédécesseur avait déclenchées.

Reviews

(Metal-Temple.com)
The witches and all the creatures of the night are gathered. Inside a deep wood under the moonlight they are dancing and chanting spells for summoning the barons of the outer space. Them, whose epiclesis brings the unnamed pleasure, the without limits contentment and the sweet taste of naked flesh. There where the herbage of the earth opens the gates to the bizarre, there where the logic stops in front the gaping chasm of fantasy. The ceremony for the invocation of the Great Goddess has just begun...

...and it looks like one of her conceptual shape paid a visit to Holland and specific to THE DEVIL’S BLOOD. But let’s take the story from the beginning: during the year 2006 an idea and some songs took place inside a guitarist mind with the name Simon Lemouchi. His music background is worth mentioning. Been a member in many bands and projects among them the Black Metal horde HADES ADORNED, or GODHEAD one of his prime activities was the Doom meets stoner RED KING RISING. The other important is that he was/is(?) the guitarist of the pure Heavy Metal thunder maniacs POWERVICE. Their demo "Behold The Hand Of Glory" back in 2005 is the only recording so far but contains three unbelievable songs full into the N.W.O.B.H.M. and mostly the two first albums of IRON MAIDEN. All these tracks are absolute killer, an anvil of pure Metal right upon your face with some astonishing guitars that are randomly appeared in other bands. I can write for months about them, just check their myspace page and judge for yourself here: http://www.myspace.com/powervice.

So, after finding the members that would be the perfect for his new musical step, S.L. and the newborn THE DEVIL’S BLOOD recorded some demo songs like "The Anti Kosmik Magick", "Christ Or Cocaine" or "It’s On". Imagine some hard rock that comes from the twilight of sixties and the rise of seventies. With a strange occult sound, Great guitars, influences that start from BLACK WIDOW and COVEN mostly for aesthetic reasons and early Satanic N.W.O.B.H.M. things like ANGELWITCH, PAGAN ALTAR, WITCHFYNDE and HELL together with the sweet touch of Roky Erickson vintage guitar these songs is a clear testimony of the band’s power. The water was settled to the ghyll. Female vocals with a weird timbre, summoning and chanting, production and sound coming from the catacombs from the very beginning this band differs and shows us their unholy power.

The first official thing was a year before with the "Graveyard Shuffle" 7" via Van Records including the self – titled opus and as b – side the "Waxing Moon Over Babylon", a jewel piece that is now sold – out. The same year brought the first live appearances for the band that introduced a unique performance for their crowd foul or mysticism and blood. The inferno just exploded.

"Come, Reap". There are no words for enough describing. Really. The second attack, now as a 5 song mini album again from the same label just shows how serious the things are here. Where to begin, where to end! The beginning track, "Come, Reap" is an example of how magic moments can music gives to you. Via its simplicity the band creates so tempting and wonderful feel like no other. "The Heaven’s Cry Out The Devil’s Blood" carries such an aura that every time I hear it I feel so damn happy like a wave of euphoria overwhelming my entire being. The cover of Roky Erickson’s "White Faces" is very nice, the sound is so warm and also so powerful plus they are masters in lost inside the space and time moments by wielding clear psychedelic influences from HAWKWIND or kraut rock bands. The last song, "Voodoo Dust" begins with an ASTONISHING melody and it transforms into a trip by following its ten minutes length. And the funny thing is that although they don’t play Heavy Metal they are ten thousand times heavier that most of the common trendy Metal scene.

This band is a must. They are so good in everything that simply I cannot believe it. Just check their covers, or their FANTASTIC logo. The veil of mysticism that they wear by not mentioning their members rises and accomplishes the whole image perfectly. I wonder, if this is the beginning what will be the future. The anticipation for a full – length is on top. "Come, Reap" can be placed next to albums like the debut of ANGELWITCH or WITCHFYNDE without fearing nothing. Can you understand what are we talking about? I’ll keep the perfect rating for the forthcoming release but it’s more than classic even a few months after its release.

(DeafSparrow.com)
Wicked beautiful record by this Dutch band. Hands down one of the best vintage sounding records of the last few years. So much indeed you’ll have to watch for cobwebs. The Devil’s Blood bring certain doom-laced 70’s laden bands like Blood Ceremony and Jex Thoth to mind. Though as esoteric sounding as both, more dynamic and up-tempo than the latter and way less clumsy than the former, the real comparison should be made to the Wilson sisters. Yes, the uneven pair who as Heart wrote some powerful hard rock in the 70’s and turned into a cheese balloon in the 90’s, is clearly admired enough to have in these diabolic group a dead ringer of their best era. Yeah, that and at the start of “River of Gold”, the sublime throbbing bassline reminded me of bands like Jefferson Airplane and even Bad Company. Wow.

What’s most interesting is how a band as refined as this one manages to sound haunting without falling into cheap heavy guitars or resorting to cheesy atmospherics. The Devil’s Blood is more about the invisible aura, about the era music like this evokes, about the imagery that comes along. In this way, the listener is forced to retrieve past associations to position The Devil’s Blood to their rightful place.

The playing for instance is subtle, the tuning is discreet. For the musicians it’s a matter of taste as the guitars have the same mild witching tone of Witchcraft. A song as expert as expert, knowledgeable of 70’s song structure and gorgeous as “The Heavens Cry Out for the Devil’s Blood” is about control and adhering to parameters as much as it is about paying homage and creating respectful mindful music. When the guitar wails short, the tone isn’t strident, when the vocalist extends a syllable her goal is obviously to serve the song first and foremost.

For a five song EP Come Reap is very well-rounded and quite the satisfactory experience. At the end The Devil’s Blood cover Roky Erickson’s excellent “White Faces” and finishes with a beautiful 10 minute song called “Voodoo Dust”. It’s spacey, dusty indeed, and free falling. Frankly, the only problem I find here is that Come Reap is too short of a record. I want more.