CD Review: Devilish Impressions - Simulacra

Written by Petra Whiteley Tuesday, 24 July 2012 07:19

Artist: Devilish Impressions
Title:  Simulacra
Genre: Black Metal/ Death Metal/ Avant-garde Metal
Release Date: 27th July 2012
Label: Lifeforce Records

Album Review

DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS is a Polish band, which is just about to release its third album ‘Simulacra’. They have played with some big names on the scene, let’s name just SAMAEL, CYNIC, SATYRICON for a quick reference and despite of this and a positive reception of their previous two albums they had been having problems regarding their line-up. A change of their band-title would be good though! ‘Simulacra’ contains also some guests appearances (Orion from BEHEMOTH/VESANIA, Jacek Grecki from LOST SOUL etc.), and bears inspirations by works of Baudelaire, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, E.A. Poe and some other famous (and darker) literati.

There are often orchestral undertones done in a quite subtle way to not overwhelm the songs, but they are often where wonderful surprises come from (let’s name ‘Lilith’ and ‘Spiritual Blackout’ as its best representative songs). Some surprise may even be that in the mixture of the Black and Death Metal you’d find some elements of Power Metal. Strangely it works out to a bigger or lesser degree, though when it comes to the Death Metal, the vocal doesn’t come out as well as in its clean and Black Metal-suited ones; for example ‘Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici’ ["By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe" – Aleister Crowley’s magical motto] would be a brilliant track if it had better vocal. Regardless of this, the album shows some interesting music with an approach towards uniqueness and an original take on the genres it forges thus the ‘Simulacra’ is a successful album, albeit not a masterpiece – maybe let’s say optimistically  – yet.


Tracklist

01. Icaros
02. Legions of Chaos
03. Lilith
04. Fear No Gods
05. Scream of the Lambs
06. Spiritual Blackout
07. Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici
08. The Last Farewell
90. Solitude (instrumental)


Line-up

Przemyslaw “Quazarre” Olbryt - vocals / guitar / keyboards
Vraath - bass
Lukasz “Icanraz” Sarnacki - drums
Armers - guitar (recently departed)


Websites

http://www.devilish-impressions.com/


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10