Perverse Devotion

Dark Plague is a French black metal outfit that toiled in the underground for around a decade before unleashing their debut album, Perverse Devotion in 2014 through South Korean label Fallen-Angels Productions. Featuring eight tracks and nearly forty-seven minutes, Perverse Devotion owes much to the grim and frostbitten nature of the second wave. Eschewing the avant-garde environmentalism of much of the French scene, the band focuses instead on the fast paces and fiery tendencies of band further north.

Dark Plague’s debut offering is a raging slab of blazing trem riffs with tempered melodic strains, fast paced, blasting drums, shrieked, raspy screams and prominently striking bass lines. The band’s no frills approach skips any progressive styling, remaining steadfast in their tribute to the style. Taking the furious riffing of early Darkthrone, Dark Funeral and 1349, Perverse Devotion doesn’t reach for anything that hasn’t been done before. That’s not the point though, as even the band states that they are inspired by “true Norwegian black metal.” There are a ton of bands playing the whole throwback, second wave revitalization thing, although really bands never stopped playing the style, but Dark Plague makes an excellent run of it.

By keeping their focus on the darker, more violent side of the genre for the entirety of the album, Perverse Devotion is an exhausting album. The only offered respite is during a handful of short interludes, which seem to tease a slowing of the sound as the band quickly jumps back into blasting black metal. While the constant blazing fast, minor key trem riffing, savage growls and fast paced percussion keep things firmly rooted in vicious black metal, the riffs focus on underlying melodies and precisely timed movements. The unrelentingly fierce approach does offer frigid patterns and captivating moments, but the focus is more on outright hostility and pulsing darkness.

Despite their adherence to second wave black metal’s histrionics, Perverse Devotion comes across as far more than just an everyday aping of the Scandinavian scene. It’s strong enough to stand on its own and has certainly piqued my interest in checking out their recently released sophomore album. Dark Plague has the chops and songwriting skills to leave an impression on the black metal scene, so time will tell if they can continue to craft such a vitriolic and acerbic yet nostalgic sound and if they can truly forge an identity of their own.

Written for The Metal Observer.