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Devil Sold His Soul
Utterly mesmerizing, at once heartrendingly sad, crushingly heavy and breathtakingly exhilarating….Beautiful noise’ - well if Kerrang love ‘em, they deserve a front cover!
Following on from the critically acclaimed release of their incendiary debut mini album ‘Darkness Prevails’, Devil Sold his Soul are ending 2006 with a limited edition 7’ release of the track ‘Clouds’, on new independent label Black Willow Records, as well as an extensive UK headline tour with the amazing Exit Ten and rising Fell Silent in support. Release date 4th December. Comprising ex members of the awesome UK legends Mahumodo, Devil Sold His Soul is the phoenix rising from the ashes, an epic mixture of ferocious power, bone crunching heaviness and soaring melodies. ‘Clouds’ is a monster of a track, the pivotal centre piece in ‘Darkness Prevails’, filled with waves of Isis style soundtrack beauty, punctuated heavily with the searing vocals of Ed Gibbs. The very limited (500 coloured vinyl copies) single will set up the UK tour in November and December nicely for the guys, and help build up to the release next march of their debut full length album (title tbc). The b-side to the single will be a previously unreleased dub-step, bass heavy monster remix from rising east London producer Ekstrak, from Diesel U Music 2005 Electronic winners, Chalk (also responsible for the entire soundtrack for the new EA Need for Speed computer game). Look out for the ‘Clouds’ video, which will be going out to the music channels w/c 30th October
How did the recording sessions for the new album go? We’re not done yet, we’re about two thirds of the way through and it’s starting to come together nicely.
What goals did you set yourself before you started recording? As we were recording it ourselves, we just wanted to make a record that sounded as good as if we had gone to a big-name producer and we were all confident that Jonny would be able to do that in his studio.
What do you feel are your own limitations when it comes to creating/writing music? As a band we try to write music that’s original and sounds different to what has come before us. I’m not too hot on the guitar, but I have the luxury of being able to pass anything I write onto Rick and Jonny to tech-up.
Tell us 3 of your favourite songs from your career and the inspiration behind them? ‘Some Friend’ off our mini album has an immense amount of emotion in one song. I’m not sure if you would say there was inspiration behind it, it was a discharge of feelings.
‘Like It’s Your Last’ off our mini album was fuelled by our drive to create a song that kept growing from start to finish. The video for the song has inspired a new wave of musicians and that’s a cool thing to have done.
‘One’ by Metallica was a song that as a kid blow my mind and made me dream of being in a metal band, along with other bands such as Skid Row, GnR and Rage Against the Machine.
What do you enjoy most about recording, and in contrast what do you enjoy most about playing live? Its just cool being part of the creation of a record, working together and striving to make the best recordings you can. Live it’s the challenge of trying to match the CD and the freedom to cut loose releasing all the emotions behind and created by the songs.
What are the bands plans for the rest of the year? There are only a few weeks of the year left, but we’ve got a lot to get done - finish our current UK tour, finish recording the album and get our Christmas shopping done.
How would you describe your own/bands sound? Raw power and emotion released through walls of sound and quiet passages - lol How cheesy was that.
Who is currently moving you musically at the moment? The whole ‘metalcore’ epidemic in the UK is driving us harder than ever before. The music is taking second place to the haircuts / image, that has to change and we’re trying our hardest to force the change.
What album changed your life and why? My dad used to play the ‘The Cream Of Clapton’ tape a lot in the car when I was young and I thought it was well cool, I still do, it’s in my CD pouch at the moment. It was the first time I had heard someone ripping on a guitar and I loved his flow, it made me want to play guitar and I guess that’s were all this started for me.
A moment in your life and a song, that seem so perfectly intertwined in your memory? We used to come onstage to ‘And when I die’ by Blood, Sweet and Tears - Now whenever I hear that song it brings back cool memories of when we were first starting out, it’s a kick-ass song.
Your proudest achievement so far? Seeing the video for ‘Like It’s Your Last’
on TV in the daytime. I remember thinking; the people at the TV station must love this song, if they’re playing a video with screams in it during the daytime.
If you could erase one single/album from history (your own or someone else's) which would it be and why? ‘St Anger’ by Metallica - It’s the only album of theirs I don’t own. I loved the band, but after ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ my faith in them was waning and ‘Stanger’ disillusioned me to such an extent I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. Watching ‘Some kind of monster’ just reinforced my decision and furthered my disillusionment.
How do you see yourself altering the band and your sound in the future? Is there anything you wish to attempt in the future that's inspiring you right now? We just want to keep stepping up and pushing what we do. I hope we’ll continue to refine our sound and produce recordings that blow our fans away.
A rumour you'd like to start about yourself, or one you'd like stopped? I did not used to be in Poison, I just liked their ‘Flesh and Blood’ album as a kid.
What drives you? I love the music we make and I just want to get it to as many people as possible, as I think they’ll dig it as much as we do.
What are your fears? That we won’t get the chance to get our music to people because of the pop bands in our scene taking all the limelight and polluting the music we love.
The revolution comes, who would you like to be first against the wall (and if you're feeling particularly bitchy, a second, third, fourth and so on...)? I’d just like see a revolution against this whole ‘metalcore’ scene, which brings it and all its crap bands to a swift and much needed end.
Best piece of advice you'd give to aspiring musicians, or the best piece of advice you were given when you started? If you don’t follow the trends of you scene, don’t expect to get much love from it, but if what you doing is what you really love, stick with it and people may come round.
If you're in a car going at the speed of light and someone turns the headlamps on, would they do anything? They should do, due to the laws of momentum and I’m sure they’d be brighter than the ones on the piece-of-shit tour-van were renting at the moment.
Devil Sold His Soul limited edition 7’ ‘Clouds’ set for release on December the 4th around Nov/Dec tour with support from Exit Ten and Fell Silent
Dec 12th LIVERPOOL Barfly
Dec 13th BRISTOL Croft
Dec 14th NEWPORT TJ's
Dec 15th STOKE The Underground
Dec 17th LUTON Student Union
Dec 19th EXETER The Cavern
Thanks to Matt @ Hungry Like The Wolf…
Jeremy Chick
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