Devil Master’s Satan Spits on Children of Light Will #$@&%*! Your Face off

It’s unclear whether Devil Master are masters of the devil or devils that are masters, but either way, they’re pulling some serious strings. While the cloaked Philadelphian coven showed promise on their first two demos (reissued last year by current label home Relapse), this time around they’ve enlisted the services of professional filth-polisher Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Sumerlands, Mammoth Grinder) to really bring out their cult of personality. And it rips.

We’ve all heard Venom-alike throwback acts before. Dozens of them. My inbox is filled with nigh-unlistenable lo-fi first-wave black metal. Besides just straight-up better riffs, Devil Master’s Satan Spits on Children of Light takes it to the next level by incorporating influences outside of Black Metal and Morbid Tales. There’s a healthy dose of J-hardcore legends GISM for flavoring, plus it oozes gothic atmosphere in the style of Christian Death. The production gives it a raw feel, but not in a cheap way. There was care put into this low-budget horror schlock.

Guitarist Darkest Prince explains the Satanic connections between their unholy trinity of genre influences. “Metal has claimed Satan since its inception. Gothic music reflects the brooding, Miltonian Satan freshly expelled from Heaven we are all prone to — whilst hardcore punk is the embodiment of that Satanic maxim, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven!’ Plus, we seem to be making plenty of people pissed off who think they own the Prince Himself, rightfully channeling the meaning of His biblical name; ‘the Adversary’…”

It all comes together to sound like something the Templars from Tombs of the Blind Dead would put on their Walkmen while riding their horses after some helpless, curiously slow-running victims (assuming the sensory deprivation didn’t make the visually-challenged zombies crash into some rocks). If song titles like “Nightmares in the Human Collapse,” “Christ’s Last Hiss,” and “Her Thirsty Whip” don’t tempt you to at least look into joining this cult, then let Darkest Prince explain what listeners can get from his band that they can’t find elsewhere:

“A devilishly fun yet sinister breath of fresh air — or total disgust, confusion & contempt depending how open their mind may be and how much they are willing to suspend or totally dispel any notions of musical dogma!”

Satan Spits on Children of Light this March 1 thanks to Relapse Records. Pre-order it here.