Bible of the Devil - The Diabolic Procession
Cruz Del Sur Music - cruz20 - July 18, 2006
by Amanda J. Carlson
When I see a name like
Bible of the Devil and song titles like "Ecclesia Novorum Innocentium" and "Legions of the Oriflamme," I'm thinking this is going to be a deep, dark death metal band of some kind. Instead, we get simple, old-style metal with that rough garage band sound; old
Motorhead comes to mind. As for the song titles,
The Diabolic Procession is a concept album about the Children’s Crusade, a supposed event that took place in Europe in the early thirteenth century.
Bible of the Devil boasts of their "twin guitar onslaught," but just like so many bands that claim the same thing, they don't always use this to their advantage. With the exception of some notable harmonized melody sections in "Orphans of Doom" and "Millenialism," it's just two guitars playing the same notes together. Or maybe it's that the wimpy production doesn't do justice to those great melodies. The aforementioned "Legions of the Oriflamme" is some serious heaviness with a fast riff any classic metal band should be jealous of. I can listen to that one repeatedly and not get tired of it.
They take it up a notch after that with a couple decent progressive tunes that bounce around between boring slow and those ear-catching melodies again, but I gotta say, by this point I'm craving something really impressive to keep me from giving up on this album. Unfortunately, I don't get anything until the last sixty seconds of the album, when they whip out a jamming riff.
The Diabolic Procession is a mixed bag, and perhaps it's just that I don't care to take the musical trip back to the 80s, but the gems in the rough aren't enough for me to say I enjoyed this album. Though I will end by saying that it is cool to see some fellow Chicago metalheads get positive attention from others and tour extensively around the world.
6/10
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Bible of the Devil Official Website
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