SOMETHING WICKED | The Devil Probably |

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES: The band’s name, The Devil Probably, sets the tone for the music. Film buffs will recognize this Denmark band’s moniker as the name of a nihilistic movie by French director Robert Bresson, about a youth disappointed in the morals of grown-ups, who seem to destroy everything in sight for the sake of greed and self-interest. That may not be the reason for the band’s name, but it might as well be.

The last track on the EP, “Africa in a Suit”, feels like a song about oncoming doom, with images of war, armies, whips, coffins, “waterproof children”, a frozen western world, screaming trees, honest pursuits made in vain, and the hellish image of someone playing their dead mother’s hair. This piece of lyric seems to be the encapsulation of the song: “Who will throw the first stone? / Who will get to chew the last bone? / Peace will never stay quiet for long / There are so many mountains, that I keep climbing.” It’s as if poet W.B. Yeats’ famous line from “The Second Coming” were put to music: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” The lead singer (the band lists one member on its myspace page, Dragut Lugalzagosi) drags his slightly off-key and fragile vocals beautifully across this scorched earth of a song, that makes it feel like an apocalyptic dream-gaze in a way that recalls the most morose musical creations of Velvet Underground and Jane’s Addiction.

The EP opener “Go To Sleep Beehive” begins with an ominously strummed guitar, hollow piano and drum loop, signaling something wicked this way comes: “A third-degree burn night / It will soon be good / And you just sat there /And played the harp in moonlight / Those days were so cruel to me / You can’t help it though.” The band lists their musical topics as, ” … nicotine-psyched TV-sets, woman-swallowing wallpaper, angels with dirty humming faces, fat-sucking vampires, beehive masks, swamp things, piss-smelling wrists, stuff like that.” Well, whatever it is, this is a fantastic debut EP. Other songs include, “Severe Hesitation of Hands” and “One of Us”. You can download the entire EP for free at the band’s bandcamp site. — Artwork and words by David D. Robbins Jr. (Note: Art is not the EP cover. This is created by Their Bated Breath)

The Devil Probably “Go To Sleep Beehive”