Review Summary: In summary, “The Devil Chapter One (Deluxe Edition)” continues Bret’s trend of doing things differently, this is what he’s known for, swapping styles or fusing them together from album to album, and “The Devil” is already proving to be one of
Now I could just review the version of this chapter that came out in December but seeing as how it has been updated with its Premonition track, I shall review the Deluxe edition of “The Devil – Chapter One” by Blue Stahli, featuring three new tracks that Bret is including on his new upcoming album “The Devil” which features a more heavy, aggressive and dark sound design, I will not be reviewing the instrumental versions because I’m more focused on the vocal versions, so if you’re a fan of Blue Stahli and his previous work, you will enjoy this, and for the record, the reason I don’t review much is because I tend to be in favour most of if not all the time.
Firstly let’s talk about “Down In Flames” now I want to relay what Bret said in an interview, in that he wanted to make this song the first song featured off the album because he wanted this album to be heavier and more rock orientated than his glitchy electronic music from the Antisleep albums, and it certainly shows in this song, this song is full of aggressive guitars, hard hitting drums, melodic vocals and just the right amount of glitching and electronic elements, and it’s one of the most amazing songs I’ve heard from Blue Stahli, from a personal stand point the lyrics behind this song to me sound like someone who tries to force people into feeling this for them but fails in the attempt and like the song says “We’ll gladly watch while you go down in flames”
Next song is “The Fall” now I would like to state, this has to be the heaviest song I’ve ever heard Bret create, when I first heard the guitar riff on his YouTube channel, I knew that would be something special, the song itself has thrashy guitars, hard hitting drums, very melodic lyrics and mysterious but powerful electronics, a few people have said there is a Muse influence in the sound of the this song, me personally I don’t hear it but for those who do, you clearly have a more trained ear than me, and from a personal stand point again regarding the lyrics, to me it talks about how a person can want so much more than what they have but lose it all as they are doomed to, this song has one time in my life been my personal theme song, and having been featured on sites like “Loudwire”, it’s definitely one Blue Stahli song you’ll always remember.
And lastly this is the part where the deluxe edition comes into play with “The Fall (Premonition)” now for those new to the concept allow me to explain, the premonition tracks are when Bret takes a part of the song (in this instance the main guitar riff) and puts a unique spin on it, in the case of this premonition the guitar riff in the song “The Fall” is turned from a hard hitting rock song into a creepy acoustic piece of music, with some deep drums and dark electronics, the atmosphere around this whole track is one of a dark and menacing nature, as if you were living out a scene from 28 Months Later, all in all it both tracks, the full one and the premonition have their own unique feelings to them and it certainly shows in the sound design, so if you wanna be creeped out or using something in a horror short, this is the track for you.
