Devil Sold His Soul – Blessed & Cursed

Releasedate: 12-07-2010; Label: Century Media
By: Elvira Visser

Devil Sold His Soul is a band from the United Kingdom that has walked a path from DIY to signing with Century Media. The band has developed during their six years existence into a band that brings dark atmospheric and utterly emotional music. They try to find a special sound that is enthralling for both them and their fans. Paul Kitney, Rick Chapple and Jonny Renshaw and original drummer Tom Harriman formed the initial core of the band when they started. It did not take long for these guys to complete their line up with the addition of vocalist Ed Gibbs and bassist Ian Trotter. Ready to create their music, with crushing riffs, a heavy sound and a tin line between clean vocals and devastating noise.

In the past they have released two albums. “Darkness Prevails” was already very dark but “A Fragile Hope” was even darker. There is a lot of sorrow and desperation to hear on their new album “Blessed & Cursed” but with this new CD they like to show that even when things are really bad and there seems to be no way out there is always hope and optimism that can turn things around. For example “Frozen” has a brilliant sweet and restrained start of the song before it burst out. Finding the perfect combination between hard pounding metal core and soft clean vocals and musical atmospheres. Overall the album has a lot of variation in tempo and volume. Many bands before have already played with the contrast between loud and soft, but Devil Sold His Soul definitely have their own take on it. With this album recorded at Renshaw’s studio’s and mixed by Steve Evetts they know how to present this dark atmosphere where there is hope. There are beautiful melody lines that will take you from to the fist to the last track on the CD. For this record they also teamed up with drummer Leks Wood, who is a new addition to the band. Devil Sould His Sould is presenting a great album, no wonder they were picked up by Century Media.

Line-Up:
Iain – Bass
Paul – Samples
Ed – Vocals
Jonny – Guitars
Leks – Drums
Rick – Guitars

Tracklist: 01. Tides 02. Drowning/Sinking 03. Callous Heart 04. An Ocean of Lights 05. Frozen 06. The Disappointment 07. Crane Lake 08. A Foreboding Sky 09. The Weight of Faith 10. Truth Has Come

Links:
Devil Sold His Soul MySpace