Heavy metal at its mystical, ferocious peak requires a difficult alchemical blend of elements to really work. There is the rock fury, something animalistic and wild, inherited from rock and roll and shared in spirit with punk, all meant to conjure that sense of the untamable. There is the noxious occult air, be it through evil spirits or confrontation with the void or even just direct sonic depiction of the lows of addiction, the violence of war, and the struggles of life. But there is also an element of theater that has to be deployed, be it pitching up the intensities of the miseries and sorrows in the more scabrous and realist wings of heavy metal or the more grandiloquent and lace-lined in the vaunted halls of black metal, traditional heavy metal, power metal, and the like. We know it’s a difficult balance to achieve because so many do it wrong, becoming caricatures of a sound and image rather than sincere greats on one end or campy fun on the other.
Devil Master are one of the few groups to have its cake and eat it too in this regard. The VHS-style music video for “You Worms’ Vain Delusion,” replete with capes and corpse paint and a grungy basement punk jam space, not to mention the candelabras with black candles, all lean in to the natural ridiculousness of occult, Satan-worshipping, deeply gothic heavy metal emerging from Philadelphia. But, importantly, the band’s serious chops and charismatic, human playing underscore that while they understand the natural humor underscoring what they’re doing, they are also deeply serious about the music itself.
The band doesn’t fuss around with quantization, Autodyne, heavy use of click tracks, or overly compressing their sound, all crutches in modern heavy music that moves away from the sense of real players with real instruments giving a living, breathing rock performance. As a result, the song feels wild, feral, dangerous. All of this without losing their sense of fun or camp either. It’s a masterclass in heavy metal from a band that has only grown stronger over their three albums.
Honorable Mentions
Anthrax – “The Edge of Perfection” is a notable mention this week. Genuinely, I never thought I would hear something like this from the New York thrash legends. They pull from their shared history, including time in S.O.D., delivering tons of blast beats as well as some slick little black metal transitions. But there’s also guitar parts that feel closer to a group like Deafheaven than Metallica, vocal and rhythmic melodies that wouldn’t be out of place on a Baroness record, not to mention the group’s trademark approach to thrash metal. None of it feels borrowed or stolen, however; the entirety of “The Edge of Perfection” feels like Anthrax, albeit one where Persistence of Time became the bedrock of their sound.
Another notable mention is Chat Pile – “PEN I S MALL”. Chat Pile are a band that takes the natural theater of heavy music in the complete opposite direction ultimately to the same effect. Everything about the gritty realism of their material is turned up to 11, placing the common despair and decay of the working class in the modern world at the whims of a depraved planet under a microscope to show you all of the fine lines and fissures. “PEN I S MALL” is another instance of Chat Pile giving their most humorous title to their most brutal song, here fusing everything from noise rock to hardcore to sludge metal to doom to death metal in an emotionally harrowing portrait of killers from low places.
Lastly, Left to Die – “Legion of Doom” is also worth mentioning. Teaming up Terry Butler, the bassist who played on Death’s Spiritual Healing, with Rick Rozz, the guitar player who was with Evil Chuck all the way back on the Mantas demos, is such a brilliant idea that it’s wild it took this long to materialize. Left to Die play re-recorded versions of those earliest Mantas demos, delivering songs that have been immortalized in the extreme metal underground for decades with their first proper renditions. Rounded out with Matt Harvey and Gus Rios of Gruesome, this re-recording of Mantas’ very first single could easily be mistaken for an ultra-talented upstart’s brilliant new refurbishment of classic death metal.
In conclusion, these bands are pushing the boundaries of heavy metal and proving that the genre is still alive and well. With Devil Master’s wild and feral sound, Anthrax’s genre-bending thrash metal, Chat Pile’s gritty realism, and Left to Die’s re-recorded classic death metal, there’s something for every fan of heavy music. These bands are keeping the spirit of heavy metal alive and are sure to entertain and inspire fans for years to come.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
Born in the small town of Respawn, Pennsylvania, Pixel grew up mashing buttons on an ancient NES controller, firmly believing that “blowing into the cartridge” was a sacred ritual passed down through generations.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte: proving that life, much like a buggy open-world game, is better with a little lag-induced chaos.
