Favourite bands come and go but the band I admire the most is Devil Sold His Soul. We’ve reviewed them previously but three albums into their career - with more surely to come - they continue to astonish. The departure of vocalist Ed Gibbs earlier this year might have signalled a terminal decline but recruiting Paul Green has seemingly left them stronger than ever. Last week they came to The Borderline and stormed it.
Emerging band Palm Reader opened proceedings and they were on terrific form showcasing songs from their recently released, and excellent, debut album 'Bad Weather'. They are definitely a band on the rise, playing indeed as they claim – loud, heavy, hard and fast.
Then We Butter The Bread With Butter took the stage for thirty minutes of Germanic mayhem. Backed by invisible keyboards they roared through some mighty euro metal and their penultimate song could definitely ‘do a Lordi’ and carry off the Eurovision song contest for Germany – an otherwise distant prospect.
Devil Sold His Soul seemed of more serious intent and they took the stage with no messing. Perhaps Paul Green has brought new discipline to the show but they were supremely tight and ferocious from the off as they crashed into 'No Remorse No Regrets', the opening track from the last album. What I really love about this band is their absolute commitment and as the set unfolded they drew us all deeper and deeper into their intense and surprisingly soulful post-hardcore world. New single 'Time' was a great trailer for the upcoming album and you can experience the video above.
The set continued to ratchet up the energy drawing on songs from 'Empire Of Light' and 'Blessed And Cursed' with 'Crusader' followed by a superb 'Tides', providing a thrilling climax to the set, which then closed with the mighty and complex 'End Of Days'. An encore was both inevitable and essential, and 'Hope' duly provided it.
All told, a magnificent performance where no-one put a foot wrong and Paul Green was absolutely on the money. I’ve been predicting great things for Devil Sold His Soul for a few years now, and I truly believe they’re about to prove me right. The UK tour is now complete but they’re playing dates in Europe for the next few weeks – then I guess there’s the new album to unleash and I, for one, cannot fucking wait.
Find more info at devilsoldhissoul.com.
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