Song Of The Day: «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» by Devil Master

There are songs that require several minutes to develop their atmosphere, gradually introducing their riffs and melodies until everything finally explodes, and then there are songs like «Nightmares In The Human Collapse», which need barely three minutes to drag you into their particular universe of darkness, noise and occult imagery. Philadelphia’s Devil Master are one of those bands that seem to have appeared from a parallel dimension where black metal, punk, hardcore, deathrock and old-school Heavy Metal have been sharing the same basement for decades, and although that combination might sound completely absurd when described on paper, it makes perfect sense once the needle drops on «Satan Spits On Children Of Light», their magnificent debut album from 2019. After the sinister introduction of «Listen, Sweet Demons…», there is barely enough time to understand what is happening before «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» comes charging at full speed, and from that moment onwards Devil Master make their intentions perfectly clear.

The first thing that immediately catches your attention is the rhythm. The drums possess that frantic, almost primitive character associated with hardcore and D-beat, while the guitars add a layer of blackened melody that prevents the song from becoming just another punk attack. There is an urgency to the way everything moves forward, but at the same time the guitars create an atmosphere that feels strangely hypnotic, almost as though there were something underneath the main riff constantly pulling the listener towards a darker place. This is where Devil Master become particularly interesting, because their black metal influences are not simply a matter of putting tremolo picking and harsh vocals over a punk rhythm; the darkness is incorporated into the entire composition, creating a song that is simultaneously aggressive, catchy and genuinely sinister.

The vocals of Disembody are another fundamental part of that equation. Rather than trying to sound powerful in a conventional Heavy Metal sense, his voice seems to emerge from somewhere behind the music, buried beneath echoes and distortion and sounding more like an invocation than a traditional vocal performance. It fits perfectly with the band’s fascination with demons, witchcraft, horror and all things occult, while also reinforcing the feeling that «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» belongs to a different era. There is nothing particularly clean or polished about the song, and thankfully there is no attempt to make it sound that way. The production preserves enough dirt and rawness to make the whole thing feel dangerous, while still allowing the guitars and drums to hit with considerably more force than the band’s primitive aesthetic might initially suggest.

Much of the credit for this belongs to Arthur Rizk, whose production on «Satan Spits On Children Of Light» manages to find the perfect middle ground between chaos and clarity. The guitars sound filthy without becoming an indistinguishable wall of noise, the drums retain their organic character and the vocals are given enough space to become another instrument within the overall atmosphere. It is precisely the sort of production that this kind of music requires, because cleaning Devil Master up too much would destroy a considerable part of their appeal. The band are supposed to sound as though they have emerged from some forgotten rehearsal room covered in candle wax and dust, but they are also musicians capable of writing remarkably effective songs, and Rizk makes sure that both sides of their personality remain audible.

One of the most fascinating aspects of «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» is the way Devil Master manage to bring together influences that, at least theoretically, should be fighting against each other. The frantic punk attitude and D-beat rhythms immediately recall the raw energy of Japanese hardcore, with G.I.S.M. being one of the most obvious points of reference, while the guitar work and vocal delivery introduce the atmosphere of early black metal. At the same time, there is something unmistakably Gothic in the way the melodies are constructed, and the band’s visual identity seems to have been taken from the darker corners of eighties horror cinema. None of these elements feels artificially attached to the others, however, because Devil Master understand that the connection between them is not technical but atmospheric: all of these genres share a fascination with darkness, rebellion, death and the supernatural, and the band simply throws them into the same cauldron.

This is also why the song has a surprisingly strong cinematic quality. Not the grandiose cinematic atmosphere of an epic soundtrack, but something much cheaper, dirtier and more unsettling, like one of those old horror films in which the protagonist makes the fatal mistake of opening a door that should have remained closed. Listening to «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» I can almost imagine an abandoned building somewhere on the outskirts of a city, a corridor illuminated by a flickering light and a staircase disappearing into complete darkness, with the certainty that whatever is waiting downstairs is considerably worse than anything that could possibly be found upstairs. Devil Master do not need to explain the story because the music creates the setting by itself, and that is one of the reasons why their songs are so effective despite their relatively simple structures.

The title itself is also a good indication of what we are dealing with. «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» sounds less like a conventional song title and more like the name of a chapter from some apocalyptic horror story, and the music fits that image perfectly. There is a sense of humanity falling apart underneath the surface, although Devil Master never turn the song into a political manifesto or attempt to explain exactly what this collapse means. Instead, they leave enough room for the listener to create their own interpretation, which works particularly well with the band’s occult aesthetic. The result is a song that can be enjoyed simply because the riff is fucking good, but which becomes considerably more interesting once you start paying attention to the atmosphere surrounding it.

And the riff really is fucking good. Beneath all the distortion, screaming and frantic drumming there is an extremely memorable guitar line that gives the song its identity. This is perhaps the most underrated quality of Devil Master: for all the talk about their image, their genre-bending and their occult aesthetic, they are actually very good at writing riffs that remain in your head. «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» is a perfect example because the song can initially feel almost chaotic, but after a couple of listens its structure becomes increasingly obvious and the main melodies start appearing through the noise. This is not an experimental composition interested in demonstrating how many styles can be compressed into three minutes; it is simply a very good song played by musicians who happen to have extremely dirty musical tastes.

At barely three minutes, the song also benefits enormously from its brevity. Devil Master never have the opportunity to overstay their welcome because just as you begin to settle into the rhythm, the track is already heading towards its conclusion. There is no unnecessary instrumental section, no extended solo and no attempt to transform a simple idea into something bigger than it needs to be. The song attacks, establishes its atmosphere, delivers its riffs and disappears, leaving you with precisely the reaction a track like this should provoke: the desire to listen to it again. It is the musical equivalent of walking into a dark room, discovering something you were definitely not supposed to find and getting the hell out of there before it notices you.

Placed at the beginning of «Satan Spits On Children Of Light», «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» also works as a declaration of intent for the entire album. The sinister piano of «Listen, Sweet Demons…» acts almost like the opening credits of a horror film, and then the band immediately throw everything at the listener. From there, Devil Master continue exploring their peculiar combination of black metal, punk, hardcore and Gothic influences, but the second track remains one of the clearest demonstrations of what makes the band so attractive. It contains practically all of their essential ingredients without sounding like a checklist, and it establishes an atmosphere that the rest of the record can develop rather than having to create from scratch.

There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about all of this, but it would be unfair to describe Devil Master simply as a retro band. Their influences are obvious and they make absolutely no effort to hide them, yet «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» does not sound like a museum piece. The song has the rawness of an older recording, the attitude of punk and hardcore and the occult atmosphere of underground Heavy Metal, but the combination is sufficiently personal to sound like something that could only have been made in the present. It is not an attempt to recreate the past so much as an attempt to recover a particular feeling from it, that sensation of discovering some forbidden record in a record shop and wondering what kind of fucking lunatics could possibly have recorded it.

That is probably the greatest compliment I can give Devil Master. They have created music that feels as though it belongs to a secret underground scene that has always existed somewhere just beyond our field of vision. You can hear the references, you can identify the influences and you can trace many of the ingredients back to bands from previous decades, but once they are mixed together, the result has its own personality. «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» is dirty without becoming monotonous, aggressive without relying exclusively on speed and catchy without sacrificing its sinister character, which is a surprisingly difficult balance to achieve.

For that reason, if you have somehow managed to reach this point without listening to Devil Master, there is really no excuse left. Put on «Satan Spits On Children Of Light», wait through the eerie introduction and let «Nightmares In The Human Collapse» do the rest. Turn the volume up, preferably late at night, and allow those guitars, drums and possessed vocals to drag you into the band’s particular nightmare. You may not know exactly what is happening, you may not understand where the hell you have ended up, and you probably will not care either. All you need to know is that something very unpleasant is happening somewhere in the darkness, and the soundtrack is fucking excellent.