Diabolical, Demonical, Dimmunical... Damn, I know this band, but I never heard 'em before! I've seen their logo and albums in print zines and the web for years, but I never bumped into their music before this occasion. Sweden's Diabolical was formed in 1998, and 'The Gallery of Bleeding Art' is their third full length already.

Diabolical play death metal. It is evil kind of death metal, not so much gore stuff, except for some of the lyrics (if it were gore, then the album would've been called 'The Gallery of Bleeding Arse'). It's not old school dödsmetall either, even though this influence can be heard, of course. Diabolical is a fucking regular metal band name, so how is the band's music then? The band aren't afraid to tread into other styles of metal music, so expect to hear black metal and thrash metal bits, and todays' big trend: Polyrhythms. Diabolical do both raw and technical style here and incorporate some melody in a nice way, and really does work well.

'Caedes Profana' introduces the strings section of two violins, a viola and a cello. It might sound limited, but it works perfectly with two guitars and a bass, as it does not sound overblown like on many metal band plus symphony orchestra forays. "The Necro Quartet", as the strings section is known, add a lot of eerie atmosphere. It is not heard all the time, never overused, but more like sparingly utilized, again unlike on many pompous metal band plus symphony orchestra forays. It feels more like Therion than Dimmu Borgir, when Diabolical use it. No cheap-sounding synthesizers needed, then.

This mixture, that the band have built on the death metal foundation might not sound characteristic at all, but the band made it sound theirs. At least they managed to do it for a big part, but there are some things that are clearly loaned: 'Ashes IV' ends in the way that sounds like how Opeth sounded at the change of millennium, and generally the thrash elements sounds pretty much The Haunted-like or such Swedish groups, or Destruction-like 'Extinction'. The death metal side is Swedish (no real idea what band or bands I should point out, which is a bit strange, eh?!), European (something like Behemoth isn't too far from Diabolical's fastest technical bits I presume) and US (Cannibal Corpse style gobbing riffage) styles mixed. One thing that gives Diabolical its own identity is the finger-tapping riffage they do, which is actually that aforementioned Cannibal Corpse style played with higher notes. The vocals are pretty gritty and impassioned screamy growl, in typical death/black style. There's some Swedish heard too, and I must admit that Swedish have never sounded so good, hehe.

Explosive energy and soulful feeling from the band in their performance. Add the technical know-how to that and damn, it is simply so engrossing listening. Sound-wise this is very clear. It really brings out the details of the performances. The album's painted artwork on matte and craggy paper (with ink that smells funny) gives it a convincing detail and feel. Damn, am I getting too deep with this review already?!

Let's fucking stitch it together now... Diabolical are as slippery as bream, but when you get used to how it tastes like, you really can dig it. You wouldn't want to eat it every day, but at last once a week. Why? Because Diabolical haven't been able to create water-proof songs, they just aren't intriguing enough generally (e.g. 'Religionism' just doesn't leave much marks in my brain). I mean I feel this is very, very close to something very good, and I can't pick out any other reason why this cannot make me bellow out of true enthusiasm. So, if this review roused any interest in you, give this band and the album a try, because you might well find it better than I do.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
06/26/2009 12:58