Review: Devilment - The Great and Secret Show
By Tim Hurst, Contributor
[Nuclear Blast; 2014]
Rating: 5/10
Key Tracks: “Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me,” “Mother Kali”
The Great And Secret Show by Devilment? What even is this?
Dani Filth has provided his unique vocals to Cradle of Filth for two and a half decades and suddenly, out of the blue, he wants another band? He decided to start up a side project while keeping up with Cradle and the result is questionable. It makes you wonder what his intentions were.
Cradle of Filth started out as a black metal band and transitioned to a more symphonic sound as time went on. Filth’s vocals have remained consistently gritty and his high shrieks cannot be compared to any other voice in the genre. Whether you like him or hate him, you can’t deny that you won’t find another vocalist quite like him. And it is that fact precisely which made Cradle of Filth so popular.
The backing band in Cradle of Filth has seen constant changes throughout its career. With 12 different guitarists, six bassists, nine keyboardists, six drummers and six female backing vocalists, a change in sound has not been foreign to the band. By creating his own side project, Filth took the one consistent thing in the band--himself--and got an entirely new backing band, something that tends to happen in Cradle of Filth anyway. So what is this band, if not just another version of Cradle of Filth? What’s different?
For starters, the music isn’t quite as heavy. Guitar riffs are more pronounced and often catchier. I caught myself humming the riff in “Girl From Mystery Island” even after the song had concluded. The symphonic elements and keyboard sounds are still there, but less focused on. The songs are usually four to six minutes rather than the long tracks Cradle of Filth is known for.
Filth is a little different here too. You can’t hear him growl without thinking of his first band, but in the single “Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me” and in a few other tracks he tries to sing, “tries” being the operative word. His voice is still incredibly scratchy and you can tell it’s not an element he’s comfortable with yet. Other than that, you still hear plenty of his trademark shrieks and guttural growling, although he slows it down considerably compared to many Cradle tracks.
The genre is even harder to categorize than Cradle’s. You couldn’t call it black metal, and although there are symphonic elements they aren’t as prominent as a typical symphonic metal band. You can hear industrial elements, but those take a backseat to the symphonic section. Due to the image and the dark feel the album portrays, you could call them a symphonic gothic metal band.
In the end, The Great and Secret Show is a fun record to listen to without many huge, glaring flaws. The real question it will leave you pondering is why Dani Filth decided to do it in the first place rather than use a little more of this experimentation in his old, fading band.
