DEVILMENT Guitarist COLIN PARKS Pens Open Letter To The Fans - "You Have Picked Us Up When Times Were Hard"
November 3, 2016, 8 years ago
Devilment guitarist Colin Parks has posted the following open letter to the fans:
"To all you wonderful people, thanks for all your support over the last two years, it has meant so much. Especially those of you who have followed me in my other previous bands, you know who you are, and you guys were there from the start for me personally. I have got to know so many of you, in one capacity or another.
In truth, some of you that I have met along the way, I now hold close to my heart as friends.
We all wanted to ensure this album was something special for ourselves first and foremost, it has been a long journey this last 12 months, members have come and gone but the core of the band has stayed tight. We are in truth a family, we miss Aaron (Boast / drums) in a big way, and he will always be a part of us, but things change and we all have to respect that of each other.
Matt Alston joined us shortly after Aaron's departure. In this time Matt has worked tirelessly, grafted and just given everything, The band welcome him in to our family with open arms as our full time drummer and our brother.
Now on to you guys!
So many of you have stuck with us through it all, and even though you may not know it, you have at times picked us up when times for Devilment were hard, and you have also kicked us up the ass and lit the fire when we needed it! So in essence this album is for you, and it is as much yours as it is ours!!
We will see you on the road in in December throughout the UK.
Thanks Devilheads. Life is better with you fuckers at our sides!"
Devilment recently announced an extensive UK tour which will commence this December. The run will kick off on December 6th in Colchester, taking the band through 11 UK cities - before wrapping up at eminent Southampton venue, the Engine Rooms on December 19th.
Devilment, led by vehement frontman Dani Filth, will release their forthcoming masterpiece Devilment II: The Mephisto Waltzes on November 18th via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Today, the band have released the first official music video for “Hitchcock Blonde”, streaming below.
The video was directed by Sam Scott Hunter with a skeleton crew of academic students, with thanks to Film Suffolk. It features actress Leanne Joyce as the Hitchcock Blonde, who has appeared on Britain's Next Top Model, Call The Midwife and The Royals to name a few.
Dani comments: "This is all about the legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock's infatuation with his on-screen heroines; cool, controlled, aloof and sophisticated blondes. The song even name-checks ten of his favourite actresses. As ever there is a psychotic bend to the lyrics and the accompanying video, which was shot in a derelict, haunted hotel in the middle of Ipswich (the band’s home town) where Lord Nelson was said to have stayed on numerable occasions. The various hideous frights throughout the video were past denizens of the hotel captured on camera."
Dani had this to say on the subject of the new record: “Everybody in Devilment is very excited about the prospect of releasing our latest album, II - The Mephisto Waltzes, which we have worked extremely hard on. The album is definitely a step-up from our debut, featuring a more mature, dissonant presence coupled with a darker edge, yet at the same time utilizing our better musical assets to deliver a unique metal hybrid. I don't even know what to classify it!”
Dani’s crew have meticulously pieced together a second blood-spattered batch of deranged anthems that brings vastly more color, intensity and lyrical versatility to this band’s spectral palate. The second Devilmenet record makes no splintered bones about its nefarious intent, offering a bewildering torrent of disparate and demented ideas and delivering them with refined, ultra-gothic panache and several jolting doses of Dani’s trademark verbal subterfuge. Assisted by long-time collaborators Lauren Francis (keys and vocals), Colin Parks (guitar), Nick Johnson (bass) and new drummer Matt Alston, Dani has arrived at the telling moment where Devilment become a genuine force to be reckoned with.
Regarding the album’s artwork, Dani revealed: “Winner of many international awards, the artist for the new Devilment album is Elena Vizerskayaaka Kassandra, whose photography and photo-manipulation perfectly complements the mysterious and magical world of Devilment. Elena's work is sometimes compared to Dali and Magritte due to the complexity of artistic figures and the perceptible amount of layers, something to be felt and not necessarily understood, exotic dreams filled with reflections and allusion. I have been a fan of Elena's work for a long while now and had originally wanted to utilize it for the Cradle Of Filth album, The Manticore And Other Horrors as far back as 2011, which only fell through when band politics intervened and an in-house label artist was used instead.”
“In conjunction with Elena, the booklet was compiled and further augmented with illustration by Dan Goldsworthy, who has also undertaken album artwork for the likes of Accept, Hell, and Sylosis, amongst others. His contribution to the album has provided it with a minimalist dark uniformity, punctuated by slick and classically macabre imagery, the perfect balance to Elena's gorgeously vibrant photography.”
The album was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered at Grindstone Studios by close friend and long term collaborator Scott Atkins (Cradle Of Filth, Behemoth, Savage Messiah), between March and July of this year.
Dani added: “Scott has worked very closely with the band to share our vision and we are very proud of the finished result, especially the megalithic production values and the hammered-home emphasis on song writing.”
Tracklisting:
“JudasStein”
“Hitchcock Blonde”
“Under The Thunder”
“Full Dark, No Stars”
“Shine On Sophie Moone”
“Life Is What You Keep From The Reaper”
“Dea Della Morte”
“Entangled In Our Pride”
“Hell At My Back”
“The Seductive Poison” (bonus track)
“Father Dali” (bonus track)
"Hitchcock Blonde" video:
Trailer #1:
“Under The Thunder” lyric video: