The Deiphobic Syndrome

Devilish Era is an one – man band from France which was formed in 1999 and has released three demos, two splits and a full length album. “The Deiphobic Syndrome (2005)” is their only full length album and it consists of nine tracks of depressive Black Metal.

Their influences aren’t limited only to dsbm which is the main inspiration for Devilish Era, but I noticed also a lot of influences from Doom, Heavy, Thrash sound that they are expressed in the album as passages or changes. The artist is trying to express his different influences by linking them under a depressive atmosphere and he achieves that quite successfully. The riffs inside the tracks have enough variety concerning both their style and the emotions that they express. There are fast riffs which shows the influences by the classic European Black Metal, slow, heavy, self destructive riffs, powerful and atmospheric passages which remind of Silencer and some rhythmic, mid tempo Heavy and Thrash riffs. Here are presented several good ideas, not original and innovative, but quite interesting.

The guitars are in the foreground and that’s justifiable as it is the strongest part of the album. The bass is really buried so that it can’t be heard at all. As always happens with the one – man bands, the drums have been replaced by a drum machine. The programming is good, there are no mistakes and its lines, concerning the composition, are good. From the other hand its sound is that empty, lifeless sound of the bad drum machines. For that we may blame the mix as it has buried the bass and the drum machine leaves the sound empty. About the vocals there is much variety, from classic harsh vocals to screams (Silencer) and heavy, brutal, distorted vocals. The production is dirty, the sound of the drum machine is empty and it seems detached from the guitars. There are no lyrics in the album. The band deals with depressive thoughts and situations as also in atheism.

Devilish Era have now split up. By the album I have in my hands I understand that with some little improvements the band would create a very good album. The fans of dsbm (and not only those) will surely enjoy this album. Good effort.