Review Summary: One finger, two fingers... nah, one hand into boiling water.
Several decades ago, occult rock started to take shape. This subgenre of rock made his first steps with the ingenious Black Sabbath, which of course had an impact not only on this derivative genre. There are many ways to present demonic beliefs with heavy, laborious and psychedelic music. One of the most recent interpretations of such a sound is performed by the Dutch Molassess in extremely conscientiously way. In this group the vocalist is a diamond. This is because her previous band The Devil's Blood broke up a few years ago. In my opinion she has no rivals, or at least I didn't succeed in finding them. The phenomenon of their previous band is that they played the style of American doom/occult music with dominating climate of the Wild West. I'll just add that the band was entirely from the Netherlands which may come as a surprise. Once again, the non-Americans are doing better than the Americans itself. Farida Lemouchi, together with five men under her wings, is serving us one of the biggest surprises of this year, namely Through the Hollow released by Season of Mist.
The motifs accompanying this genre are always repeated and it is rather impossible to come up with something new in the culture of Native Americans. The undead, beliefs in Voodoo, the Wild West, or pagan rituals performed to the accompaniment of black magic and a large amount of blood are, in my opinion, so interesting and universal that you can boldly present it updated every few years. For every millisecond with Farida's voice, her singing outclasses and sounds like the wind's smoke coming out of the vessels of dark rituals. Moreover, the vocal spreads leaving behind a disturbing and sluggishly falling echo, which is best illustrated by the breakthrough of Formless Hands and Corpse of Mind. The sinister of intent is felt. In this modern version of occult rock, which genre dates back almost to the middle of the last century, there are some bright ideas. Instruments builds a dense atmosphere are no worse than the frontline voice. Compositions are stretched in progressive aspect. The tracks glide like a dragging sled on pitch. The keys add this ghostly thrill, and the guitar riffs and bass guitar, i.e. in Death Is, shows the art of fresh progressive approach. After a couple years, the combination of ideas used in the first two albums of The Devil's Blood resulted in a concise experiment which will be valid even in a dozen or so years.
I was sitting like a statue during the first spiritual session with The Devil Lives. I felt overwhelmed, intrigued and fulfilled at the same time. I knew, that's is it! This single reminded me of the deeply hidden feeling that accompanied me while listening to the breakthrough achievements of artists from every genre of sound. Guitar performances from 4 to 5 minutes were the main reason for my inner happiness. Goosebumps and heart were filled with joy. My heart flaps were opened to their present and past art. It isn't a typical record that you will pass unmoved. I don't know if it's only by temporarily evoking a longing feeling or actually Through the Follow is the answer to the stagnation of sound combined with the hell of circumstances. However, I know that this little conflict of mine will be solved in the next few months, but the debut surprises and shows Molassess as a refined band of The Devil's Blood legacy, who was and is able to experiment.
