The devil's work can sometimes take even the most dedicated satanists by surprise. Early in 2020, the theatrical, hardcore-fueled, black-metal band Devil Master had just finished three solid months of touring, and things were getting tense. Three band members would soon leave for good.
Then, in March, the COVID-19 pandemic landed hard in the U.S., freezing much of the music world in place. By year's end the coronavirus would kill nearly 2,500 people just in the band's hometown of Philadelphia (as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer). And like other cities across the country, Philly became a hotbed for protests after the on-camera death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minneapolis police. Then came riots, looting, rubber bullets, vigilantes and the National Guard.
"Everything felt totally apocalyptic, and I was going personally insane at the time. The fact that the world around me also reflected that was kind of comforting," says guitarist Francis Kano, a.k.a. Darkest Prince, a dedicated occultist who says all that chaos can now be heard within Devil Master's new and second album, Ecstasies of Never Ending Night.
His band of playful devil's advocates in capes and corpse paint bounced back in the face of adversity, with a 10-track collection of shimmery guitar twang and lyrics of eternal darkness, as if bringing to life the words of the French poet Baudelaire: "The Devil pulls the strings which make us dance/We find delight in the most loathsome things." Ecstasies of Never Ending Night is their most potent incantation yet; so strong, in fact, that it caught the attention of emo icons My Chemical Romance, who handpicked Devil Master to open select dates on their tour later this summer.
But before that record could happen, Kano had to escape the city, and the "soul-sucking and brain-numbing" atmosphere he felt around him. He weathered the first two months of the pandemic back in Northern Ireland, where he'd spent much of his childhood and maintained strong family connections. It's where he was an altar boy in the Catholic church and where he first embraced satanism at age 10.
"I went to Ireland to do lockdown and it was the most magical time of my life," says Kano, who keeps a satanic altar there in the woods behind his family's house. "I felt like the whole world was just being reborn and I got to spend more time in nature than I ever had, which I'm really grateful for. I can go through bouts of depression and not even believe in magick. And that was a period of my life where magick started happening all over again."
With his senses and attitude recharged, Kano returned to Philadelphia and Devil Master, ready to create. In the band, he still had two key collaborators: the singer called Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure, who has now added bass to his duties; and the rhythm guitarist Infernal Moonlight Apparition. On drums and keyboards, the band recruited a gifted new player, Chris Ulsh from Power Trip — who chose the alter ego of Festering Terror in Cursed Catacomb, a name he lifted from an Effigy song.
"We had a rebirth as a band," says Kano, who writes most of their material. "I love writing chaos, so it was all good. I think that reflects in how weird our album sounds."
Early on, the plan was to rehearse for two months and then enter a recording studio. As the pandemic dragged on, Devil Master ended up rehearsing a full year, which added depth to their playing and shows itself in the final product. "COVID really made us slow down and, if anything, that was good," says Kano. "It just refined our sound and it doesn't feel rushed at all. I feel like it's a pretty competent record — for a metal- punk record, and a progressive death-metal record."
The album was recorded analog with producer Pete DeBoer. Kano says the band excitedly embraced the challenge of tracking live to tape. "Everyone's playing at the same time," he says. "No one can fuck up. I loved it."
Ecstasies of Never Ending Night is 40 minutes of fantastic terrors and shivering guitar lines, with shades of Venom, classic goth and Devil Master's ongoing obsession with Japanese hardcore. The album title came after searching for something that evoked "very decadent themes and poetic phrasing," starting with Disembody jokingly offering the phrase: "laughing at the teat of luxury."
The death-metal jams include the instrumental opening track "Ecstasies...," with its spooky swirling riff, and the psychedelic "Acid Black Mass," the last song Kano wrote while wasted on K2 synthetic marijuana. (He won't be doing that again and definitely doesn't recommend it.)
"Enamoured in the Throes of Death" collides goth riffs with a galloping punk-rock beat and Disembody's haunted, growled vocal. "Precious Blood of Christ Rebuked" rushes and slows, shifting multiple times in a track Kano described on Apple Music as an "adventurous vampiric orgiastic climax before the end." The mostly instrumental "Never Ending Night" closes the album with danceable goth-metal flavor and a Eurodisco beat. These are songs of death that take surprising journeys, filled with energy and life.
Once COVID restrictions lifted, and live performing opened up in 2021, Kano got busy touring with a variety of bands, including his longtime solo project Cape of Bats. Devil Master played only a few shows, in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York, but Kano says they provided him with some valuable insight.
After Devil Master's first show back in action, on Halloween Eve last year at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, New York, Kano listened to a recording and didn't love what he heard. "I was way too drunk," he says with a laugh. "Also, we have a higher standard for the band and our playing now, so I was like, 'Damn, I can't get blackout drunk before I play anymore.'"
Ahead of the album release, the band dropped a pair of music videos for "The Vigour of Evil" and "Acid Black Mass" — both featuring a vintage DIY look, partly inspired by the example of underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger. The attraction, says Kano, was the raw aesthetic, not an obsession with the lo-fi past.
"We're literally just punks who only listen to bands from the Eighties and watch VHS. There's not much modern nowadays that interests us," Kano explains, noting how Devil Master's theatrical, mischievous approach isn't always embraced by certain over-serious corners of the black-metal world.
"When people call anyone 'false black metal,' I'm like, nothing should ever be judged or put in a box, because that isn't the vibe of the people who invented it," says Kano, who counts among his influences Dead, the doomed singer from Mayhem. He also notes that many of the Japanese hardcore bands he loves (G.I.S.M., Zouo, Mobs) reflected a satanic aesthetic in the early Eighties. "People think that black metal owns the occult and these aesthetics, which just isn't true."
At a time when politicians looking for attention can refer even to pop artists Billie Eilish and Cardi B as tools of Satan, things can get confused — even for heavy-music fans and artists just starting out.
"I can appreciate the zealotry of youth because it brings about the best, most genuine and almost innocent music and art," says Kano, who also cites early punk singer Darby Crash of the Germs as a cultural hero. "I take their art seriously ... But the people I don't take seriously are 30-something-year-old neck beards who are telling me my band is corny."
