The big return of Deviser is a fact. One of the first and most historic bands of the Hellenic black metal scene releases its fifth full-length album. The last one was 2011’s very experimental and different “Seasons Of Darkness”, so if we focus on the sound you can say that “Evil Summons Evil” is the successor of 2002’s “Running Sore”. The 2017 EP “Howling Flames” was essentially the precursor for the band to return to their familiar sound.
“Evil Summons Evil” is a thoughtful and well-crafted album. The distinctive guitar melodies sound amazing (exemplified by the awesome “Absence Of Heaven”) and it’s clear that Deviser focus more on building an imposing atmosphere, which they succeeded in doing. This is helped by the keyboards, the symphonic elements and the generally mid-tempo direction of the compositions since the speeds are increased in a few parts.
But in the album there are also guests that contribute with their vocals. Androniki Skoula of Chaostar in “Of Magick”, Heljarmadr of Dark Funeral/Grá in “Where Angels Fear To Tread” and Efthimis Karadimas of Nightfall in the amazing “When The Lights Went Out” which closes the album. And I have to note that we are not talking about those cases where a guest steals the show and is the only worthy mention on the album. On the contrary, they put their own touch on the final result but the protagonist is the band itself.
The production by Dinos “Psychon” Prassas (Septicflesh, Nyne) is at a very good level although personally I would prefer the vocals to be less up front in the mix. Just a detail. Deviser with their new record show how much they have been missed from the scene as “Evil Summons Evil” is a resounding return. I hope it will be the reason for their releases to become more frequent as well as their concert activity.
