Band: Devil
Title: Time To Repent
Label: Soulseller Records
Distribution: Soulfood / Plastic Head Distribution
Release date: September 09th 2011 (Europe) / October 09th 2011 (North America)
Review: CD

Since a few years, the traditional Heavy Metal scene is on its retour. Very nice, in case you appreciate this kind of music. As a matter of fact, most of those protagonic sub-genres have never been gone away completely, yet the revival of eighties stuff, no matter if it’s NWOBHM-oriented, pre-Speed / Dark stuff, or basical Retro-Thrash, Doom or Heavy Metal, it all gets on a new peak again since a couple of years.
Norwegian act Devil is such a band that dwells on the sounds of the seventies and eighties, and in this case especially the Doom / Heavy-oriented scene. More specifically the English scene is of importance here, yet not, this time, the somewhat slightly currently over-hyped Maiden / Priest-tributing scene, as well as the Scandinavian one. Devil’s bluesy-sounding Doom / Rock comes with an approach à la Pentagram, Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General and related acts (no Ozzy-ish vocals!), having the blood of their forefathers pounding heavily through their concrete-metalized veins. On top of it, Devil inject their rockers with elements from Mercyful Fate and, Ghost, Holocaust or Revelation. Even lyrically Devil follow the long-time-ago-created path of sorcery, graveyard experiences and rituals of sex and blood. Yeah, the old way…
Unfortunately, in spite of the lovely ‘tribute-atmosphere’ and loads of best intentions and nice ideas, Time To Repent is not the most convincing recording in its genre. The lack of having an own face is a shameless and unforgivable error and that’s a shame.

73/100

Ivan Tibos.