After the disbandment of All Must Die the vocalist, bassist and drummer were joined by two guitarists under the name of DEVILOOF. The band combines the very well known visual kei scene with deathcore since late 2015. Their first music video “Ruin” was released on October 1, 2015 and gained an overwhelming response of support despite it’s “aggressive” and “violent” music both from Japan and international fans almost instantly. Since December 2015 they have not only been playing with artists from the visual kei genre, but also more loud ones like BAND-MAID, PassCode, Last Day Dream and idol groups. In 2016 the band participated in Metal Battle Japan and was selected as one of the six Asian acts to join Wacken Open Air (a metal oriented festival in Germany) in 2016.
Later that year they released their first mini-album “PURGE” which not only included influence from deathcore but also from grindcore as well as brutal slamming and grunts, earning them the 12th spot on the Oricon Indie Chart as the second artist ever in this genre.
Shortly after this the band was forced to take a break due to the departure of their guitarist but restarted their activities in October of 2017. In November Яyo Trackmaker (ex-girugämesh drums) was welcomed as a Mix Engineer and Toshihiro Esgawa (known for his illustrative works for BABYMETAL, SiM and ARCH ENEMY) presented the artwork for the album “Devil’s Proof” as well as a new logo for the band. They kicked off a one-man tour in Osaka in December of 2017, and are hoping to come to Europe in 2018.
Tracklist:
01. Devil’s Proof
02. ESCAPE
03 – Natural Born Killer
04. Return of the Curse
05. DESTINATION
06. LOVER
07. InCipit -Instrumental-
08. EGOIST
09. M.F.JAP
10. 怠惰の罪(Taida no Tsumi / The Sin of Laziness)
11. HERO=MURDERER
As expected from a band that incorporates grindcore in their core sound this album is one big chunk of heavy metal. And when I say heavy, I do mean actually heavy. Be prepared for a sore neck with these guys, because if you like this kind of music the urge to bang your head along is almost impossible to resist. If you imagine these guys combine the visual aspects of the visual kei scene you wouldn’t really expect them to present this kind of music, which puts quite a few metal acts I’ve heard this year to shame.
The songs are all very fast paced, and if you liked their music videos for ESCAPE and M.F.JAP you will definitely not be disappointed, as they perfectly blend in with the rest of the album. If death- and grindcore wasn’t your kind of music in the past you might want to reconsider giving this brutal collection of songs a listen anyway, since vocalist Keisuke manages to create a certain tranquility with his singing voice without breaking the flow of the songs. Even on the InCipit – Instrumental- track you won’t even miss the vocals, as the guitars (which are both 7 strings played by Ray and Seiya),bass (played by Daiki) and drums (played by Hiroto) will take you along on a musical ride without you even noticing it.
The heavy metal genre and all it’s sub-genres certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy artists like JILUKA, NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST and FAR EAST DIZAIN “Devil’s Proof” is an album that you should definitely add to your list of stuff to listen to!
Rating: 90/100
