One of the most anticipated albums of 2009 within the underground heavy metal community, The Time of No Time Evermore follows up on the Devil's Blood's euphorically received 2008 EP, Come Reap, which arguably set a new standard for unearthing the roots of heavy metal with its psych- and prog-infused slabs of occult rock. So it goes without saying that expectations are inordinately high for an album that coincidentally marks the 40th anniversary of that fascinatingly eclectic, proto-metal year of 1969 -- the eve of Black Sabbath's definitive forging of the heavy metal genre template via their eponymous 1970 debut. Especially since that template and the vast majority of its subsequent evolutions figure only as a hazy glimpses of things yet to pass amidst the rich variety of styles found in the Devil's Blood's songs (single-minded head bangers be warned). Instead, The Time of No Time Evermore sees the Dutch band achieving what much hyped (especially in retrospect) ‘70s bands like Black Widow and Coven never could: a visionary blend of hard rock, psych rock, acid rock, and even art rock, dripping with obsessively detailed satanic ritual. Declaimed in haunting, vibrato-laden fashion by singer F, the Mouth of Satan (who generally performs drenched in blood), the band's creative range includes the dusty garage rock riffs of first single "I'll Be Your Ghost," which connects the Nuggets generation to Pentagram; the cleverly named "Christ or Cocaine" (one of the band's earliest demos, reworked), which sounds like the Rosemary's Baby of Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" (i.e. evil!); the beguiling dual guitar harmonies gracing the ten-minute epic "The Anti-Kosmik Magick," which seem to invite classic Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest to the funeral; and, perhaps best of all, the sublime gothic melancholy of "The Yonder Beckons," which one can almost visualize moving King Diamond to tears. In short, for all of their at-times head-spinning diversity, these and the remaining, consistently memorable tracks on offer here add up to the very definition of "proto-metal," as it could only be defined after the fact, ironically enough. Perhaps that's the meaning behind The Time of No Time Evermore‘s curious title.
© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo