His eyes were blazing with Devilment whence infamous Britain’s Cradle Of Filth front-man, Daniel Lloyd Davey, took into his embrace the spawning of a musical side project of such witchery kind.
Likely carnivalesque, insanely gutted by flashbacks and uncommon dystrophy, the video premiere for their upcoming studio record release entitled ‘The Great And Secret Show’ set to be unleashed via European merchants at Nuclear Blast Records, quickly defines Devilment as a terrible and grotesque darkened combination in between the commonly familiar circus elements while fusing with freakshow ambiences and the entire spectral aura that sinfully surrounds their visual concept, all combined as if a freakish formula had been carefully architected to achieve the utmost gruesome, yet horror splendidly entwined within human lines of questionable sanity.
‘The Great And Secret Show’ was directed by Sam Scott-Hunter, an almost six minutes long play capturing the act essence into shadowy silhouettes, circense clothes, dreadful make-up and eloquent masks.
[blockquote cite=”Sam Scott-Hunter”]With this video I really wanted to capture the intensity of the song, and then shove it in your face to get the heart pounding – the visual equivalent of listening to it loud on your headphones in a dark room. So to do that we locked ourselves in a studio in deepest, darkest Suffolk, turned most of the lights out and the volume up, and we didn’t come out again until we had that intense groove etched indelibly into the back of the camera. It’s a dark song, and I wanted that heaviness to come across visually, but there’s also an air of mystery and mysticism in what the band are doing, and to capture that we enlisted an incredible dancer, NagaSita, who has a wonderfully different and exotic take on the track. I hope when people watch this, they can turn the lights off, turn it up loud, and enjoy a really intense experience.[/blockquote]
Devilment visionary approach to a visual gesture of their music couldn’t be left a lot behind;
[blockquote cite=”Daniel Lloyd Davey”]When we approached undertaking a video for the track ‘Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me’, the intention was to create something very visually disturbing, yet stunning to look at, in a minimalistic monochrome context. The idea was to really bring out the performance of the track and marry it to phantasmagorical images, all cut to the massive pounding beat. Through the inclusion of smoke, strobe-lighting, fire, Theban masks, exotic dance and silhouette, we have endeavoured to create a mystic atmosphere in which we plunged the entire studio into complete and utter darkness, so that the viewer’s full attention is focused on these aforementioned traits, set adrift against what appears to be the timeless whirls of space. Sam Scott-Hunter the director and his assistant for the day, band photographer Dex Jezierski, both pulled out all the stops to make this video come to horrid artistic fruition, and we even enlisted the help of my wife Toni and daughter Luna for hair, angle-grinding, make-up and costume, all for the benefit of keeping our cinematic occult activities a closed secret from the unsuspecting human world. As a band we are all extremely pleased with the outcome of our dalliance with the dark arts and hope that viewers to this visual feast will enjoy it just as much as we did weaning the video from it’s deep Satanic birth.[/blockquote]
As aforementioned said, ‘Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me’ is a single taken from their debut album, ‘The Great And Secret Show’, which is scheduled to be tentatively released on the Halloween (October 31st). However, it wasn’t the absolute premiere coming from this hellraisers as they previously have set free a lyrical video entitled ‘Mother Kali’, which resounds by far more simpler, rock-ish and thrashing than what we are habituated to hear coming from Cradle Of Filth, which a big thrash metal vibe flowing throughout the full song, piercing oriental overtones here and there, in and out, that brings forth a sense of exquisiteness to the full piece. Daniel Lloyd Davey vocalizations remain in the line of his previous works with Cradle Of Filth, with a lesser usage of raspy and growing vocal chords for the time being, which gratefully contributes to his new endeavor.
The cooperation between Devilment and German record label Nuclear Blast Records, according to his own speech, seems to bare quite of a comprehensive tie;
[blockquote cite=”Daniel Lloyd Davey”]I am thrilled to be a part of the Nuclear Blast family with my other band, the Witch County fiends Devilment. Our debut album ‘The Great And Secret Show’ is a horror-metal fuelled slay ride of maleficent proportions and deserves some deep infernal love from a label that has dominated the metal market for aeons. And we have found that unconditional love at Nuclear Blast. All of us in the band are really looking forward to the forthcoming months, as the proverbial war machine kicks into gear and the album surfaces like some sub-aquatic monster hellbent on smashing stuff. Until then keep a cyclopean eye out for regular social media updates, videos and the announcement of live shows to further whet your appetite…[/blockquote]
- ‘Summer Arteries’
- ‘Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me’
- ‘Girl From Mystery Island’
- ‘The Stake In My Heart’
- ‘Living With The Fungus’
- ‘Mother Kali’
- ‘Staring At The Werewolf Corps’
- ‘Sanity Hits A (Perfect) Zero’
- ‘Laudanum Skull’
- ‘The Great And Secret Show’
- ‘Beds Are Burning’ (Midnight Oil cover, feat. Bam Margera) [bonus track]
- ‘Psycho Babble’ [bonus track]
- ‘Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me’ (Motion Picture Soundtrack) [bonus track]
Seeing the artwork illustrated on the launching album, he also had something to add;
[blockquote cite=”Daniel Lloyd Davey”]The album cover depicts an intended escape by one of Jack The Ripper’s victims, (followed as she is down a moonlit Victorian alley) into another enchanted realm. Some might read it as an imagined release from the horrible pain to follow, but the artist Drake Mefestta and I thought it served to show the lure of the mystical, amid a sea of debauch. The artwork that follows in the booklet is a stunning articulate walk-through of that enchanted realm. The album is entitled ‘The Great And Secret Show’ and concerns itself with the occult pulse behind the world, a land of imagination that can be slipped into at will. Like a generator buzzing behind everything. The truth behind the Wizard’s curtain. A phantasmagorical nightscape. A wonderland. A midnight playground. The fertile land of the dead.[/blockquote]
Devilment formation assembles the vocal and lyrical deviances of Daniel Lloyd Davey (Cradle Of Filth), Daniel Finch (samplist and guitar player), Colin Parks (both rhythm and lead guitar player), Nick Johnson (bass player), Aaron Boast (drum player), and finally, the enchanting presence of Lauren Francis (keyboard player and vocals).
The debut album was recorded at Grindstone Studios, located in Suffolk, England, with producer Scott Atkins, who is best recognized for his work involving Cradle Of Filth, Behemoth, Amon Amarth, Sylosis and Gama Bomb.
Rumored was that MTV Jackass star Bam Margera can be heard duetting on Devilment’s cover version of ‘Beds Are Burning’, the classic originally released by Midnight Oil, which is included on the limited edition of the album as a bonus song.
This, nonetheless, has already been confirmed;
[blockquote cite=”Bam Margera”]Having known Dani for a while now, and having him sing onstage with me at my wedding in Iceland last year, when he asked me to be a part of a song Devilment were covering, I naturally jumped at the chance. The original track was awesome, this new interpretation of it is even better and I am just stoked to be a part of Dani’s new band’s stuff, which in all honesty fucking rocks like a muthafucking fuck![/blockquote]
The explanation of how such unlikely to happen crossover came to be, is quite interesting:
[blockquote cite=”Daniel Lloyd Davey”]It was actually on my birthday last year when the idea came to me to cover this track, as for some strange reason I kept hearing it being played on the local radio station and subsequently, a few times when I breezed into petrol stations and food stores. I’ve always liked the song since hearing it in my teens, as I think it’s very anthemic, and Cradle Of Filth have always been known for undertaking wacky songs and bastardising them to our own twisted ends, so with my birthday epiphany bursting upon me, I put the idea of covering the tune to the rest of the band… to a positive response. As for my good friend Bam Margera, I thought it would be cool for him to demonstrate his vocal prowess by returning a favour, for he’d had me sing with him (strangely enough, Anathema’s ‘Sleepless’) at his wedding ceremony in Iceland last year and I thought it a top notch way to get him back in style! He didn’t require much persuasion… In all seriousness, it was a challenge and as a band we have given the track a slightly more psychotic edge, courtesy of pounding drums, hypnotic bass, industrial-esque guitars and a wicked keyboard melody lending it a John Carpenter/Tubular Bells ‘Exorcist’ vibe. Plus of course there’s the vocals![/blockquote]
Devilment is set to burn the road for the first time afterwards this year during their debutante tour, having already announced a string of dates with Lacuna Coil and Motionless In White. Talking of which, Daniel Lloyd Davey also made his guest appearing on the latest Motionless In White single, entitled ‘Puppets 3 (The Grand Finale)’.
Apart from Devilment, it is to reckon that Daniel Lloyd Davey also embarked as frontman for Temple Of The Black Moon.
