Rising from Poland since the year of 2000, DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS is a three-piece Black/Death Metal band, influenced by free-will, and religious rebellion. These themes are prevalent throughout their music, and evident in the symbolic album cover for their recent album "The I". Released on 22 September this year, "The I" is a 7-track album, holding a raw and heavy expulsion of rage and dark atmosphere. Including guest appearances by Mike Wead (MERCYLFUL FATE, KING DIAMOND), and Ares (AETERUNUS, ex-GOGOROTH, ex-IMMORTAL), this is a heavy multi-collaboration, involving the occasional ambient, ritualistic sound effects.

The first track named "The I" (like the album name) begins with traditional black metal guitar riffs and dives right into foreboding harsh-ness with Quazarre's powerful, high-pitched vocals that fill the space. The music seems to fit the 'classic' black metal style at first, but the death metal influences soon emerge from more 'technicalized' guitar break downs and tom fills. In the background are deeper screams that contrast with the lead vocals. This interplay of backing vocals is continued in "Eosphoros", which starts off with a catchy rhythm and riff, leading into a wall of throaty vocals and blackened reverberation. Here, sound clips of mumbles and cries add to the dark atmosphere.

'Ipse philosophvs daemon Devs at omnia' conveys a religious, ritualised atmosphere, as it begins with pulsating, screeching guitars and grim chants. Here, I feel I am drawn into a dismal church setting as echo-ed speeches transition into raw black metal, speeding up towards the end with blast-beats, and trembling distortion. The structure changes consistently throughout, from blast-beat filled madness and wavering guitars, to punchy chord changes, punctuated with raspy vocals. The final track "The Fatal Messiah" is introduced with sustained guitars and whirling winds and whispers. I did find it hard to see where the song was going, though the guitar riffs added more structure and build up as the song progressed. In its outro of distortion and confusion, a dense sound of bass rounds this album off.

After listening to "The I" album, the powerful vocals, reinforced by the heavy instrumentation has been chilling to hear. These vocals are the memorable element for me, showing varied textures and expressions throughout the tracks. They lead the story on and give the album its sense of outcry that is in line with the project's theme of rebellion. The whole band is evidently tight and talented, as they transition through varied terrains of black metal and death metal styles. These inter-weaved themes actually flow together very well throughout the album. Despite these combinations, I don't think the music doesn't show a great deal of experimentation or originality, even though the songs are certainly not predictable. Nonetheless, I would call it a powerful performance of black metal, produced at a high quality.