A Lullaby for the Devil

I have never heard of any Dead Soul Tribe album before. I never listened or even knew Devon Graves. Thus, I have no point of comparison whatsoever to this album. I purchased it based on the sole fact that I read a bunch of reviews celebrating the guy’s superb skills in this genre, much like Devin Townsend’s (which I haven’t digested yet). Therefore, this review is focused on the fact that this is a masterpiece of progressive rock-metal from wherever you see it.

Progressive metal is but a problem for two reasons: 1.There is the undeniable comparison or reference to (yes, guess who?): Dream Theater, maybe Symphony X here and there, and more recently Threshold, Vanden Plas or Pagan’s Mind. Why is this need to compare every single band to the mainstream and more successful bands? Every band is unique (ok, there are some clones here and there) but what people NEVER see is that the genre is NOT the same as the band cohesion and style. This is unique, like a fingerprint (again, excluding the clones). 2. There are countless bands today, everyone trying to be unique, to sound different, everyone trying to come up with the weirdest mix of progressive metal, progressive rock, industrial elements, power metal elements, symphonic, gothic elements, death metal, black metal, etc. So therein lays the question: How do you create something that can capture the attention of the listener? How do you stand up among the crowd? Well, to me, it is very simple: all you have to do is perform the music you love. When you do that you become authentic, you have identity because the music will come from the heart. If you think too much about what to do, you will get over thinking many aspects of the music but it will impact, most of the times negatively, some others.

Then where does ‘Lullaby for the Devil’ stand? I normally buy 3 or 4 cds per month, different styles and often, at least one is not an instant impact, or catch for that matter but this album is exactly what you need from progressive metal, just like Threshold ‘Dead Reckoning’. It contains heavy riffing, fast songs, mid tempo songs, ballads, instrumentals, calm passages, soft and calm voice, screaming voices, and lengthy songs. What else do you want? That the songs are interesting? I can tell you that. This album has it all: the progressive elements we know from Dream Theater, the metallic approach of Symphony X (without being power metal or anything nearly related), Progressive rock ala Spock’s Beard or IQ, good riffing ala Threshold, melodic sense in the vein of Shadow Gallery, oh, and don’t forget the industrial elements from modern metal influences (don’t worry, it is not Rammstein at all or any other utter electronic-industrial shit) but just some hints and glimpses here and there, all in one single recording.

Opener ‘Phychosphere’ is a delicious fast track that instantly grabs you with that sick evil bass intro and powerful riffing. The riffing is malicious and bombastic. There is a sound mixing problem which causes the drums sound really in the mix and therefore, they lack power but certainly, it gives this certain industrial atmosphere to it, which sounds throughout the album. Very cool track with subtle tempo changes and screaming/distorted vocals which fits perfectly into the dark atmosphere. Second track ‘Goodbye city life’ begins ala Dream Theater around Train of Thought with a build up that goes into a crescendo, keeping you interested and making you wondering what is coming up next. It has calm passages and very soft voices and it is actually a mid tempo song that does quite follows a rhythm riff progression, but more a ultra progressive movement of rhythm parts with the second guitar and drums. Acoustic passages are also heard and texture in the voices which are malicious and delicious. A flute solo is also included. ‘Here comes the pigs’ follows and again it is a heavy track with distorted vocals. Curiously, they go along with the music and the amount of guitar solos is big, for a 4min. progressive track. I’d say ‘Lost in you’ is the catchiest track and it works amazingly mainly due to the vocal lines. ‘A stairway to nowhere’ is a ballad. Despite the hard riffing in the heavy parts, the vocals remain very soft and the softness of the song is very ethereal. This review would be endless if I continue describing each song so I will not go into that. I will let you discover the greatness of this excellent album which will surprise you from start to end.

In the end, if you are looking for originality in your progressive metal field in the stores, then pickup ’A lullaby for the Devil’ that is undeniable accessible, interesting, very well crafted and it certainly combines perfectly progressive rhythm sections, metallic elements, rock elements, industrial elements and will please fans of the genre with something fresh and unique, just like me!

Being a bit of a lazy bastard myself, it’s a bit much slagging off buggers who are way more prolific than me in whatever field. Still, sometimes you’ve just got to do the dirty work.

Ok, for starters when they say something about a murder of crows, that’s just what they call a bunch of them gathered together doing crow stuff, and it’s not a whodunit that’s worth getting the homicide guys out for. Anyway, I bring it up because the album of the same name was my first exposure to Devon Graves and his band Dead Soul Tribe.

The formula wasn’t anything altogether out of the ordinary, but it more than did the job. It didn’t really matter that a lot of the songs on the album didn’t sound too different, or that a lot of the time, things seemed to be simplified down to the bare bones. At the end of the day, it had catchy songs, a full sound and Graves’ distinctive voice, which was reason enough to give it audience.

In general, that presentation was what I associated with Dead Soul Tribe from the few albums that I heard and liked, which set it apart from the more experimental nature of Psychotic Waltz, Graves’ previous band. Lullaby for the Devil seems to toss that right out of the window. Hmm. There’s quite a bit of variety coming across, but I can’t seem to get fully behind it nonetheless.

We’ve got good songs on this album, no denying. In fact, the opening track, Psychosphere is the only track I’d point out as being genuinely bad. Using your weakest song to give people a first impression? Don’t see the point. And Lost in You sounds a bit too much like APC’s Judith for comfort. All the others fall somewhere between somewhat decent and pretty good. We’ve got some industrial sounding chugging in Here Come the Pigs, the trademark Ian Anderson worshipping flute-based tunes in The Gossamer Thread, acoustic thumping in Fear…ah screw this, I’m boring myself here.

Bottom line, I really didn’t like it as much as their previous albums, even though it’s probably more ambitious. Still, it’s definitely worth a listen to see if you can get into it. Sweet album cover, too. Cheers.

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