Italian Brutal Death Metal purveyors Devangelicreturned with their 4th album "XUL" via Willowtip Records.
We had the chance to speak with guitarist Mario (Di Giambattista) who talkes in detail about their new material and the making process of the album as well as the future plans of the band who is heading in a more classic "death metal" direction.
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Rockoverdose: Mario welcome to Rock Overdose, it’s a big joy for us to host you. How do we find you at the moment with the release of “Xul”? Does it bring a relief to you now that it’s complete? How much did it take you to create it and other which circumstances?
Mario (Devangelic): Thank you for having me! So far so good, we had a lot of positive feedbacks and reviews and we are very happy and satisfied how the album came out.“Xul”'s songs were written entirely during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022.
The writing process was completely natural, not forced, probably due to the fact that we were all more "relaxed" from a mental point of view and totally devoid of other various commitments (concerts, tours, travel / travel arrangements, etc.).
Rockoverdose:I really love all your albums, but I consider “Xul” is easily the best one so far (until the next one). Ιt’s more mature and multi-layered I believe. What is your opinion on the album? Did you want to go on this direction from the beginning or it came during the recordings?
Mario (Devangelic): “Xul” is surely our best and most mature release of our discography, a great step up from the previous releases. As I wrote before the writing process was completely natural, I found it very fun to experiment with new compositional solutions also using atmospheric samples and using various samples of ethnic instruments to enrich the songs. Being the main composer in Devangelic I tell you that I have always listened to Nile clearly, yes there are evident influences in “Xul”, but I think there is also a lot of Devangelic style, after all it is my way of composing.
I have certainly simplified many things in the pieces compared to the past; I tried to create not songs, but songs with their own identity and I think the initial intention was very successful. I'm always very critical of what I write and especially when I listen to our releases, but this time I can tell you that I wouldn't change anything either on the songs or on the production.
Rockoverdose: For some reason, I believe the line-up staying the same since “Ersetu” has tied the band even more and everyone comes back with his best possible performance. Is it something that played a part for “Xul” to come more dynamic and brutal?
Mario (Devangelic): Having a stable lineup is definitely a strength for a band, so yes I think it's one of the reasons why “Xul” is a more mature album than previous releases.
RockOverdose: The video for “Udug-Hul Incantation” is really amazing. Did you have a special concept on this, or did the director gave you his vision? Also, this song is quite different for Devangelic and I consider it a wise decision to promote the album. Could you tell us a little more about shooting the video and the story of that song specifically?
It was an incredible experience to shoot the video as we had never made a real professional video until now. The idea of making a video for this specific song had already been around for some time as we wanted to surprise our audience a bit both by promoting a slow song, rather unusual for Devangelic, and precisely with an impactful first video.
The choice to work with Martina and the Sanda Movies team was rather obvious as I have and we have always greatly appreciated the beautiful works they have created over the years for many important bands; since they are also from Rome and the province, well, everything was much simpler.
I presented my preliminary ideas and the hypothetical storyboard that I already had in mind to Martina and I must say that together with her team they did an extraordinary job both from a studio point of view and from a scenic point of view, therefore with wonderful costumes used in the video. It wasn't easy at all to be able to create something so beautiful with our concept, but they succeeded in full and I hope it was also appreciated by our audience.
Talking about the song I can say that “Udug-Hul Incantation” it’s the second song that I wrote in 2020 for “Xul” during the pandemic quarantine here in Italy, and I think it's one of the best songs I've ever written for Devangelic, it's a very intense and evocative track but brutal at the same time despite the slow tempo. I wanted to create something groovy on this track. As many listeners told us, and they are right, the song is mainly inspired by the slow tracks from Nile and Morbid Angel, plus I wanted to include some dissonant arpeggios. In addiction the symbolism of the number “3” has always fascinated me, so I kept that position in the tracklist reserved for a slow song. I used the same formula on our second album, “Phlegethon”, where track #3 ("Of Maggots ..") is the album's slow track.
When I started to compose the first riffs and dissonances for “Udug-Hul…”, I already had in mind to write a song that dealt with an ancient exorcism, and I started to imagine the evolution of the whole story. So let's say it is a song that was born and evolved almost spontaneously, both as a slow progression and as disturbing and dissonant melodies. There are in fact some compositional solutions that I had never used on any other tracks.
The text is inspired by the book Healing Magic and Evil Demons by Markham J. Geller. It details an ancient exorcism that ends in the worst way, one in which all the participants end up possessed by the spirit of Evil Udug, rather than being released from possession. With this epilogue I wanted to give a representation of man's perfidy, which has characterized human beings since Earth's beginnings. Man is faced with his own inner demons: evil as a representation of 'darkness' and the duality of man, as one tries to exorcise negative emotions. But as history teaches us, the negative almost always prevails over human efforts to the contrary. It is an evil that still emerges today, as numerous recent events demonstrate.
RockOverdose: I find the artwork of “Xul” something we will remember forever at least. It’s so threatening and impressive that you just can’t forget it. It’s like “listening” to it before you put the album to play. Can you give us some more details for this amazing work of art?
Mario (Devangelic): For “Xul” we've worked once again with Nick Keller for this album cover as we did with our previous album “Ersetu”.
He captured perfectly the concept we wanted and brought our ideas to life in an outstanding piece of artwork. You can see the giant demon holding a human figure, indicating that human beings can't overcome their weaknesses; their inner demons will always prevail over them. For this artwork we worked together to put out ideas, talking a lot via email, sending some videos to each other where some ancient demons were described, and this process was cool because the topic of the album was not so easy to replicate. The main giant demon is inspired by a Mesopotamian mythological divinity named Humbaba, the one who causes earthquakes and is represented with dragon's teeth and a repulsive face made of entrails. VERY BRUTAL!
RockOverdose: From what I understood, the album focuses on the theme of evil on our lives and how we deal with it in our everyday lives. Do you believe we face a struggle with evil in general and the lyrics can awaken the listener on how he has to be prepared for it?
Mario (Devangelic): Yes, the main concept is based on the duality of the human being; this continuous struggle with one's internal demons understood as evil that very often prevails over good. Actually this concept seems to be more modern than ever considering so many sad events that are affecting some European countries.
Looking around for some interesting readings I’ve discovered that the name "Xul” was originally a Sumerian word used to denote the "Evil" and I’ve started to think about to use this name/topic on the new album's concept. How I wrote on the official press release the main concept is basically an introspective journey in which the human being, since his appearance on Earth, is forced to face his own inner demons; evil seen as a representation of the "darkness" and the duality of man, who tries to exorcise his own negative emotions. But, as history teaches us, the negative almost always prevails in a battle against human weakness. You can listen in part of this “duality” mainly on the vocals of the album, there are 2 kinds of vocal patters on all the songs, like a conversation between good and evil.
RockOverdose: Ι find some connection to the covers of “Ersetu” and “Xul”, with the former showing us a whole civilization and the later showing us the destruction of it. Also they both focus on middle-eastern territories, is it something you tend to continue on next albums?
Mario (Devangelic):Yes definitely! Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology have had a significant impact on me since when I was at school. I have several books about magics and demonology of the ancient civilizations and Sumerians always attracted my curiosity because it has always been for me a mysterious civilization, full of charm and also very sinister especially as regards magic, funeral rituals, exorcisms, demonology so after the release of Phlegethon I felt like that I personally wanted to change direction and find our own identity musically and lyrically using this very cool and brutal concept.
I think it was a natural progression. Furthermore mixing old history element, incorporate those themes into an album, it can be a way to explore and connect with ancient cultures, express a sense of awe and reverence for the past, or simply to create music that is brutal, epic and evocative.
RockOverdose: This time apart from lifting the level of your playing higher than ever, I sense some Nile destructive aura in your music. Does it have to do with the previous question, focusing on more oriental-sounding brutal music? The result fit even better and the best part is it seems you can do even better in the future.
Mario (Devangelic): Personally I believe that the difference with Nile is great, the Devangelic songs are not as technical as theirs, can ours be more brutal? I would not know. We don't have 3 voices, Paolo's voice is in any case unmistakable and totally different from Sanders and Dallas so in my opinion the reference to the Nile comes more than anything else for some evocative names of the titles and perhaps for the artwork. The general concept is also different. We have gone more towards the themes of the Sumerians.
However I think that as Devangelic we are heading in a more classic "death metal" direction, the difference with the past is remarkable.
RockOverdose: You haven’t done any gig since 2019, so practically you have to tour for “Ersetu” as well. Do you believe with “Xul” is a great chance to bring the energy of both albums live and gain back some of the chances you lost due to the pandemic?
Mario (Devangelic): Yes the plan is definitely to continue the online promotion of the new album, also having practically two albums to promote we have different situations in the works. We had gigs in South America and North Italy and the reaction has been very good, now we are working with our booking agency to a European tour for September and some side festivals, so yes I think is a good way to promote our last 2 albums.
RockOverdose: We would like to thank you deeply for your time and wish you the best for the future. By all means, you are one of the best bands of the last 10 years and we know we can count on you. What lies ahead for your future and how possible is to see you in Greece one day? You are not that far from us.
Mario (Devangelic): Thanks for your words! We would like to come back playing in Greece (we played in Athens back in 2016 at the Brutality Over Sanity and was so good). Hopefully some local promoters can call us to play over there once again, we’ll see! Meanwhile to all our friends and supporters keep listening to “Xul” to all platforms and see you on the road!
For RockOverdose,
Angelos Katsouras
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