DEVIL MASTER
Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night
RELAPSE Philadelphia’s black metal punks keep feeling the darkness
Everything about Devil Master rules. From their wickedly ghoulish blend of black metal and vampiric punk, to the fact that their drummer operates under the name Festering Terror In Deepest Catacomb, the Philly quartet’s crosspollinated malevolence is hard to resist. Ecstasies… builds on the evil clangour of 2019’s Satan Spits On Children Of Light, spiking that potent, genre-warping brew with bigger hooks and plenty of gothic grandeur. When hurtling along at a feverish full pelt, Devil Master are as destructive as any more traditional black metal band; Enamoured In The Throes Of Death and Precious Blood Of Christ Rebuked are electrifying bursts of grubby violence, elevated by shards of ornate melody. Even more satisfying are surging post-punk tirades like the closing Never Ending Night, wherein Devil Master sound truly bewitched and simply unstoppable.