Review of “Heavily Ever After” up on German metal website

http://www.metalnews.de/?metalid=05&action=show&cdid=5281

(translated from German)

“Thirteen-thousand Horse Power“

Once in a while you discover a record from a band that, though they won’t bring something new to the table or even sweep you off your feet, will keep you in a good mood with the help of other characteristics. Yet, it doesn’t matter, as long as the material provides enormous amounts of heart, soul or similar. Sometimes I catch myself humming or singing a technically boring song for days, just because the song’s got a certain feeling that takes complete hold of me. DEVIL TO PAY belong to my preferred sound these days, though due to maybe “wrong” motives – but I don’t really care about the latter.

With a handful of influences in the vein of grunge and early ORANGE GOBLIN, they won’t work any wonders, but provide you with very entertaining, compulsive songs with a serious Bang. The goal of “Heavily Ever After” is the entertained listener and the record strives for this goal without causing a headache for the audience. Straightness is the main attraction of this record: there’s the main riff, a little down the road you find its variations and right before the end you get the elegant bluesy solo. Within 52 minutes the guys rethink their approach from contribution to contribution, of course – so you get to be astonished by broad bass-intros or instrumentals (“Grimoires”). And yes, considering the stylistic borders, this walks the thin line between good old basics and the recognizable fun these guys have playing together, this is to a bigger part a successful release.

In times of excessive competition and technical finger-dislocation, it’s a pleasure to discover such an unpretentious record like this one from DEVIL TO PAY. Right now, the record can only be ordered from overseas, but considering the weak dollar exchange rate this makes it a pretty cheap treat.