Review Summary: Devilment's (not so) great and secret show is not an entirely memorable or interesting sidetrack from Dani Filth's musical career, but it remains a decently fun listen nonetheless.
Devilment could mean one of two things. Either Dani Filth is getting tired of being in Cradle of Filth (unlikely given the band are currently writing new material), or he genuinely wants to go down a different musical route altogether, with new members and a more-or-less new look. Whatever it is, the COF frontman's new "band" (because merely calling it a side project would probably be perceived as rude), like Paul Allender's White Empress, is certainly setting their sights on a very promising future. The band's debut album,
The Great and Secret Show has just been released, and already they are currently touring with Lacuna Coil and Motionless in White, which should give a hint as to how successful Devilment are about to become.
Without a shadow of a doubt,
The Great and Secret Show has arguably the worst two songs to ever begin a metal album. "Summer Arteries" and the ridiculously bad "Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me" are reason enough to skip the whole album, and already you'll be considering why these two songs were chosen to open Devilment's debut release. Thankfully, the remaining eight songs are much better in terms of just about everything. Yet with "Even your Blood Group rejects Me" alone, the album's overall quality is dragged down considerably further than it should be. With Dani Filth trying to sing at points, a generally half-hearted industrial/modern metal stomp, and the completely ineffective symphonic elements, the album's first two songs manage to persuade most listeners that Devilment is anything other than listenable. "Summer Arteries" is very promising for the first minute or so, but when the mediocre riff work and Filth's annoying, grating vocal delivery appear, it feels like what could have been a stunning opener is turned into an unremarkable listen.
With that in mind, let's try and forget that
The Great...'s first two songs ever existed, because there is quite a lot of variety to be found here, particularly towards the end. Whilst songs such as "The Stake in my Heart", "Living with the Fungus" and "Laudanum Skull" all have a lot in common with latter day Cradle of Filth, they have that certain musical twist which makes them also stand out from the crowd. Some songs are faster-paced and more malevolent ("The Stake in My Heart", "Sanity hits a perfect Zero"), others are more majestic and symphonic ("Mother Kali", the closing title track) and there's even "Staring at the Werewolf Corps", a song which seems to have taken its musical ideas straight from the early days of Moonspell. The addition of female backing vocals is very appropriate, and the symphonic elements take their turn in producing multiple musical effects, making the likes of "Mother Kali" and "Living with the Fungus" multi-dimensional as a result. Yet for the most part, the instrumentation here contributes to a very accessible but not necessarily admirable sound. The rhythm section chops and changes between modern metal influences, industrial metal stomps, electronic interludes and thrashier, punkier song structures, and discounting the vocals (Filth's more so than the backing female vocal delivery), you can safely enjoy the majority of Devilment's debut album as a fun listen, if nothing more.
The progression of songs such as "Staring at the Werewolf Corps" and "Mother Kali" (despite predictable lyrical content) are very suitable for the instrumental arrangements, and the performance as a result is much more natural than you would think. Each and every band member seems utterly confident with their instruments, and though there isn't quite enough here to warrant further listens for everyone, it can still safely be said that
The Great and Secret Show is a majestically fun listen. There is nothing here that will change your mind about Dani Filth himself, and the album is certainly a mixed bag in terms of musical quality. Yet discounting the obvious flaws of the album will result
in an enjoyable one-time listen, and perhaps Devilment's debut album won't be entirely forgotten about for years to come.
