Bible of the Devil - _Freedom Metal_
(Cruz del Sur, 2009)
by: Jeremy Ulrey (9 out of 10)
Kicking around the midwestern tour circuit for several years -- now on album five -- Chicago natives Bible of the Devil sound like they've been around longer. Much longer. In fact, I'd almost guarantee if you walked up to any rock and roll post-1978, they'd immediately rabbit punch you in the nards. Singer Mark Hoffman has a remarkable ability to channel both Paul Stanley -and- Gene Simmons, either separately or in some sort of weird tandem. Musically, not every song sounds like Kiss, but "Hijack the Night" sure as hell does, and it's better than anything Stanley / Simmons have written since... I don't know, '78?

Actually, "Ol' Girl" is a brilliant Thin Lizzy clone that is so close to the classic period of that band that initially I could have swore it was a cover. It just goes to show that if by aping a band you produce material that would have been considered some of the influence's top flight material, you can pretty much get away with anything. The genius of BotD is that they sound great in a familiar, nostalgic way without evoking any hint of the usual suspects: Sabbath, Zep, Purple, etc. All traces of these done-to-death influences are absent, the band favoring a loose synthesis of the aforementioned Kiss / Thin Lizzy dichotomy as well as sprinklings of Ted Nugent, Grand Funk, Foghat, etc... a veritable smorgasboard of '70s FM rock highlights. Bible is nothing if not a classic rock jukebox mixed with a few early NWOBHM boogie influences. Eight tracks of essential greatness, BotD pave the highway to tomorrow through the gravel rutted back roads of the Deep South.

Contact: http://bibleofthedevil.com/

(article published 31/1/2009)


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