Metal Debate Album Review - The Devils (Belphegor)

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Welcome metalheads to another episode of The Great Metal Debate podcast. Today I am here to tell you about the brand new album from Austrian blackend death metal tyrants Belphegor. When I found out that the name of the new album was called "The Devils" I couldn't help but laugh because it sounds just so generic compared to what they usually do. Normally, Belphegor likes to make their album names sound more dark by saying something in Latin. The Devils to me sounds like the name of a sports team or a clan of villains in a Saturday morning cartoon. But don't let the name fool you for this record is full of surprises. Many of the songs have a major change in pace to what you are used to hearing from this group. A few months ago when this band released their first 2 singles for the new record. First they released a re-record in of their 1997 song titled "Blackest Sabbath". I heard the original and the re-recording is far superior with better audio quality and sounds a lot more clear. The second single was a new track called "Virtus Asinaria - Prayer". When I first heard this I I couldn't help but think, did they go soft? The answer is yes but upon a second hearing of the song I realized that it was better than I remembered. According to the website metalshockfinland.com Helmuth stated the following. "... It stands for what BELPHEGOR has always stood: liberty and the everlasting spiritual & bodily manisfestation of carnal sin upon this rotten world!” The album opens with the title track and someone saying 'The wrath of Satan has no mercy. Repent!' Followed by a crushing blast beat from their drummer James Stewart along with heavily distorted guitars. Despite from generic "hail Satan" lyrics, this song still manages to keep you invested for the whole 5 minutes. I think it's hilarious how in the middle of the song you clearly hear Helmuth randomly say "Fuck". "Totentanz - Dance Macabre" has an audio clip beginning with a possessed woman screaming the word 'deliver us from evil' but the rest of the song is very reminiscent of the song "Bondage Goat Zombie" which is a classic Belphegor song. Long time fans would enjoy this tune for sure. "Glorifizierung des Teufels" is my favorite song on this new album due to all the acoustic guitar parts with the dead sounding voice of Helmuth overlapping it. The music fluctuates from calm too heavy. Something else that has a reoccurring theme on this new album is the chanting. There seems to be a lot of it but it never overstays it's welcome. "Damnation - Hollensturz" is yet another fantastic song that is sure to get your head bobbing with that rhythmic groove. This next song is the one I mentioned at the start of this review and its "Virtus Asinaria - Prayer". The song is about 90% chanting and its dark and truly haunting. Give it a chance if you like that slow and scary type of metal. "Kingdom of Cold Flesh" picks up the pace again and it sounds like it could've easily been on the Conjuring The Dead album. Here is that old school and fast classic sounding Belphegor with a Latin language song title. "Ritus Incendium Diabolus". There isn't a whole lot I can say about this one except this certainly has that mid-2000s feel about it with a touch of the new chanting. Its a near flawless mix that will leave you feeling satisfied once you've heard it. There seems to be a brief little intermission track that is boring but short lived. Its another slow chant with moderate electric guitar strumming and a woman singing in the background. The track is called "Creature of Fire". Where not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this one. In fact, I don't need to talk about this last track because its that re-recording I mentioned earlier. Overall I was impressed by this new release. There's nothing for me to complain about as it is yet another solid Belphegor album. It's not their best yet a ton of effort was put into this one. With all things considered, I'm going to give this one an 8.5 out of 10.