The Devil’s Blood – The Thousandfold Epicentre ...

For all our readers with ADD: yes The Thousandfold Epicentre is a brilliant album, yes it gets a 10 and yes you should buy it immediately. So order the album, and then get back here to read the entire review ?. On repeat ever since I got the promo, Thousandfold Epicentre is everything you could have ever hoped for, and more. I’ll try to write some comments that effect the album as a whole. The overall sound is more clearer, and I can think we can properly speak of an so-called ‘epic’ album, in its reach, execution and feel. There is an evident growth in both the craftsmanship or execution of the music by the musicians, and the overall quality of the musical product. I got into The Devil’s Blood when listening to The Time Of No Time Evermore. I got the demo of course, and Come, Reap, but I really started enjoying them with The Time Of No Time Evermore. Why? Because they managed to equal international (and historical) like-minded acts like Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, Coven, Black Widow, Roky Erickson, be it musically or inspirationally. The Graveyard Shuffle, I’ll Be Your Ghost and the aforementioned releases gain in my opinion from the quality of the stellar The Time Of No Time Evermore album. And now there is The Thousandfold Epicentre. I’ll try to calm my enthusiasm, but in every way it’s a very important release, both for the band as for the nice niche of occult rock that The Devil’s Blood now commands.

 It’s nice to be able to accurately hear the lyrics, Selim (guitar & mastermind of The Devil’s Blood) is a true poet of occult doom, and I think this album can be best appreciated when taken as a whole. That’s why I have the feeling we are dealing with a conceptual album here. I mean conceptual in the way that Selim magically focus his total energy in every single second of this release. He channels this nice Edgar Allen Poe sphere of beautiful hauntedness. For the duration of this album we are totally under his spell and we can delve safely in his poetics of lyrical Satanism, magick and what not.


As for the production, a lot of time must have been invested in adding little touches of extra instruments like various stringed instruments and organ or synthesizer. I was a bit hesitant when I heard the new material live in a tryout show, but hearing the total album with all its great details (and overdubs) it’s just plain magnificent. With this album, The Devil’s Blood aims high and the broad, overall approach works like a charm. If I were to describe the album as a whole, I would say: the tracks on this album really ‘belong’ to one another, and can best be appreciated as a whole, because of the story told in the songs. The construction of the tracks is done slowly, and that is why the impact of the album is so strong. Summed up, well, you get The Thousandfold Epicentre. By now we can safely state that The Devil’s Blood have transcended Jex Thoth and Blood Ceremony, and I can only shiver what their next step in musical occult domination will be. The artwork is beautiful, and I’m really looking forward to my vinyl copy of The Thousandfold Epicentre to fully appreciate the extensive artwork.

As for the songs, let’s delve somewhat deeper into them. Starting with Unending Singularity, this track serves as an intro to On The Wings Of Gloria, a seven minutes plus track that immediately shows you the growth that this band has made. On The Wings Of Gloria has this nice twang in the riff, and the vocals of Mouth introduce us to the new level of songwriting that The Devil’s Blood has achieved. Her voice seems even stronger than on previous releases, and I really love the added distorted background vocals. After four minutes, the energy is released, and we hear nice keys added to the chorus. The guitars and rhythm are in a healthy co-op, and Die The Death continues the sphere of the first track. Dig the la-la-la-la chorus! Within The Charnel House Of Love is another epic track, with nicely tempoed guitars and rhythm section. Cruel Lover is one of the favorites, with a galloping rhythm that will make you drool. After four minutes cosmic sounds are added (giving this and a couple of other tracks loose ‘space rock’ elements). She – we have arrived at track number six – is a straight occult rocker with very clear vocals. She is likely to become a live favorite, with a very memorable chorus and a plain and simple good song. The title track is a personal favorite, because of, well, everything. Just listen to the song and be happy. Oh yeah, the memorable riff I suppose, coupled to the lyrics – I’ll call youre your name – Devil! Fire Burning’s lyrics are penned by Saturnalia Temple’s brethren in occult doom, and the last three tracks – Everlasting Saturnalia, The Madness Of Serpents and Feverdance – really serve as one big monster track. Everlasting Saturnalia is fully centered on Mouth’s beautiful voice, and serves as intro to The Madness Of Serpents. More than eight minutes of occult bliss, and we end the disc (or vinyl) with Feverdance – lasting fifteen minutes plus. The track opens up with Mouth’s vocals hypnotizing you into a state where eventually you have to say farewell of wave goodbye to The Thousandfold Epicentre.

It’s a shame really that my scale goes up to 10 only, I wish I had an reviewer’s scale equivalent of Spinal Tap’s amplifier that goes up to 11… Here is a teaser: At YouTube but you can check more teasers at Van Records @ YouTube . I’m proud to be a Dutchman again :D......10/10

Words: Sandrijn van den Oever

The Devil's Blood @ Facebook
Van Records
The Devil's Blood Official