ALBUM REVIEW: Seven Acts To Apocalypse – The Evil
The enigmatic beings in THE EVIL have emerged from the depths of darkest Minas Gerais, Brazil after a six-year absence. Featuring former SARCÓFAGO guitarist Iossif (a.k.a Wagner Antichrist), the band have a sinister and haunting sound and they bring with them a hellish lesson for humanity as they unleash the frightening and horrifying power of the seven deadly sins. Seven Acts To Apocalypse is the soundtrack to the demise of humanity as the planet seems to descend into new levels of chaos and evil on a daily basis. The masked and cloaked entities in THE EVIL dramatically take you to the depths of destruction with sinister efficiency as they chart the downfall of humanity and civilisations through our most vulgar sins.
When tackling the seven deadly sins (alternatively known as capital vices or cardinal sins) as a concept, you can’t help but conjure up images of Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy (made up of three parts Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) which these sins seem intrinsically tied to. His journey through purgatory and eventually the nine circles of hell has quite a profound effect on its reader and in many ways serves its purpose as it horrifies you to the point where you dare not stray from the seven capital virtues. With this in mind, it feels like the Italian poet has inspired THE EVIL as they hold up a mirror to humanity and reveal all our abuses and excesses.
In what feels like a haunting prophecy for the fate of humanity, if we carry on the way we are, we will be living in a version of hell that we couldn’t possibly imagine. As a result, Seven Acts To Apocalypse is a truly evil and sinister album, and one that could possibly summon creatures from the shadow realm. Tinted with the cultic elements and dark atmospheres of black metal accompanied by the spine tingling operatic vocals provided by Mistres Wournous, you feel as though you are witnessing a truly evil doomsday ritual. Each song has a dark, ritualistic feel as it utilises the slow tempos and hulking riffs of traditional doom but with the abrasive guitar tones of black and death metal. The atmospheres throughout the album are heavy, ominous, and foreboding – you can smell the fire and brimstone as the cracks to hell begin to open and a Pandora’s box of demons is unleashed upon the earth.
While these descriptions are certainly dramatic, Seven Acts To Apocalypse does feel like a doom opera; every evil note is accentuated with portentous exaggeration. THE EVIL have made a concerted effort to intricately understand the concept of the deadly sins and what they stand for, in turn creating an album with an intensity that truly matches the concept. This avoids all the stereotypical clichés around the subject, which is refreshing. Given the band’s unique sound that occasionally infringes on the boarders of death-doom, Seven Acts To Apocalypse is a truly unholy, malevolent album which excites and also terrifies.
Opening the album with Envy, THE EVIL thrust you straight into the shadows of these vices, bringing enough devil’s tritones for everyone. The song captures the sad, resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. Pride demonstrates that slow decent into madness and arrogance with swirling riffs, cackling laughter and haunting vocals from Mistres Wournous. Greed is under the microscope next, and in a world where we are surrounded by it in the upper levels of society, this song hits pretty hard. As the soft vocals open the song discuss humanity’s descent into violence over lack of resources, when the riff kicks in it feels like a physical and emotional smack to the side of the head.
Sloth ultimately describes the lack of feeling towards yourself or others in a state of mind that gives rise to boredom, apathy and sluggishness. The song is ironically fast paced, with captivating melodies and hulking riffs that screech around your brain and make you want to throw down. Lust in some ways is a darkly sensual song, but is also an eerie warning about giving into your darkest desires. With uneasy atmospheres giving way to powerful operatic vocals and mammoth riffs, it shines a dim light on the current and various forms of lust in the modern world and how they are ruining lives. Voracity ties in with Greed but is more specifically about food, Mistres Wournous’ operatics shine with a sinisterly angelic melody that reverberates through the void. The album closes with Wrath, a seven-minute epic that highlights humanity’s insatiable appetite and need for violence in a manner which perfectly ties up this haunting and heavy record.
Sometimes the old poets are hauntingly prophetic when their work can be applied to circumstances hundred of years after they were written. Even if this wasn’t the initial inspiration for THE EVIL, they have captured the true darkness of the seven deadly sins magnificently and created one of the darkest doom albums of recent years.
Rating: 8/10
Seven Acts To Apocalypse is set for release on March 31st via Osmose Productions.
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