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Already back in 1994 when Siebenbürgen was formed, band leader Marcus Ehlin started working on a side project which was to take many forms throughout the years to follow. While Siebenbürgen signed a record deal and released several albums the side project was living an obscure life in the shadows until late 2001 when Marcus decided to put more effort into it. Now the veils have been torn and Devlin's debut album "Grand Death Opening" is released on Siebenbürgens record company Napalm Records. I have admired Napalm Records a lot for their ability to sign bands who are unique in some way and although they are definitely following trends I still appreciate what they do. Devlin is one of these unique acts. Sounding nothing like Siebenbürgen this is much more straightforward and traditional while still sounding fresh and exciting by adding an extra touch. I have seen several straight out lousy reviews of this album where the reviewer either expected something more black metal sounding or something scary. As usual I will try to keep this review on a higher level. Musically the songs are generally built in two different ways - most of them are characterized by a simple, heavy yet efficient guitar foundation with an electronic beat or haunting keyboards hiding in the background but there are also a couple of ballad like songs. All of the songs are slow to mid-speed and if you were to remove the vocals from this album it sounds a little like a less dense version Rotting Christ. The gothic touch is strong thanks to the use of both a female vocalist called Lexi and Marcus' dark semi-clean growling. Lexi is one of the finest newcomer vocalists I've heard in metal for a long time and she really takes "Grand Death Opening" a step further. Her voice is strong, passionate and simply made for heavy music. Lyrically there is a concept of death and suicide running through the album and most songs relate to this concept in one way or another. Marcus Ehlin proves once again that he is one of the most talented musicians of the Swedish metal scene and I am really looking forward to hearing more from both Devlin and Siebenbürgen. Marcus has told me that on the next album he will be doing a bigger part of the vocals himself but I don't know if that would be very wise. That is impossible to say in advance though. Recommended to all fans of good heavy music. An interesting addition to the album is the cover version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding" which is pretty well done. Stand-out tracks: "Underworld", "Dying Dream", "Sinners Paradise", "Buried Deep". As you can tell this is a wonderful album.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Underworld |
| 2. Death Is Our Kingdom |
| 3. Fade |
| 4. Come To Me |
| 5. Dying Dream |
| 6. White Wedding |
| 7. Divinity |
| 8. Sinners Paradise |
| 9. Queen Of Razors |
| 10. Buried Deep |
: 44.28
| Buy other Devlin albums |
