DEVIL ELECTRIC Self-Titled Album Review.

Words El Jefe.

Doom. The name says it all. From the opening riff to Black Sabbath, to the heavier than heavy tones of bands like Electric Wizard and Monolord, it’s a genre defined by dark sounds, and heavy lyrical themes. The breadth of styles within the genre is also as extreme as the sounds. The vocals can range from upper register screams to gravelrash intestine shredding and the music from the dirtiest sludge to plain old heavy rock’n’roll shot through with blues licks. But I love it all, start to finish!

Enter Devil Electric! They’re a four-piece from Melbourne and have just punched heavy music fans everywhere right between the eyes with their self-titled debut. The sound is classic doom, but they’ve also managed to twist an age-old formula to their own perverted uses, and in turn created a distinctly unique collection of songs.

Plenty of light and dark (or perhaps dark and darker!) is provided here, with some blasting guitars, bass with the fuzz set to 11, thunderous drum and some excellent vocals from Pierina O’Brien that soar above the darkness of the songs and provide bucketloads of melody and hooks that arguably set Devil Electric apart from the pack. Think Blues Pills’ Elin Larsson or perhaps Sydney act Web City Limits’ Mandy Newton fronting a ‘70s doom outfit. O’Brien could be this band’s secret weapon.

The cracking ‘Monologue (Where You Once Walked)’ kicks off the record, with an insistent rumble. The riffs and vocals wrap around each other, and provide the other with both support and nourishment.

‘Lady Velvet’ is one of the pacier tunes, and features some tasty “beat your head against the wall” riffmongering, whilst ‘Monolith’ is the perfect title for a song like this one. The kickarse fuzz bass intro leads straight into an Iommi-like guitar fest on this short instrumental track.

‘The Dove & The Serpent’ is the song that most caught my ear, heavy on the dynamics, and some cool “story-telling lyrics”. There’s also a great lumbering riffs hurled into the fray, just to keep us guessing.

So in a nutshell, Devil Electric tread some familiar doom-laden ground but have also managed to grow their own style and this LP is well worth a spin or two!

Devil Electric’s self-titled debut album is available now HERE.
Album Launch: Sat 16 Sept at The Evelyn, Melbourne. Facebook event HERE.
Devil Electric: Site // Facebook // Bandcamp // Spotify // iTunes // Instagram // Twitter // Youtube.