If thus far Devilment have appeared to be Dani Filth’s Sunday morning kickabout outfit, their second album suggests they’ve started winning some matches.
The “unique sound” that attracted the Cradle frontman to the fledgling Ipswich band emerges more palpably here than on 2014’s hasty debut The Great And Secret Show, although ‘uniqueness’ mostly extends to banging together symphonic melodic tinkly-synth goth and circle-baiting, meathead groovecore.
It’s a perverse fusion that requires full-throttle audacity to pull off, so it’s a bloody good thing Dani Filth’s involved, ratcheting the arch eccentricity even higher than usual on songs like Hitchcock Blonde and Shine On Sophie Moone. His savvy guidance and conviction have seemingly rubbed off on the whole band. There’s far sharper musical quality control, with sumptuous melodic passages, satisfyingly blunt riffs and restless arrangements that teeter gleefully along that fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous.
