WEEDEVIL ~ PROFANE SMOKE RITUAL ..... review

Flavio Cavichioli (drums); Poison (vocals); Jimmy Olden (guitar); Henrique Bittencourt (guitar) and Claudio HC Funari (bass) are Weedevil a Brazilian outfit from São Paulo who number among their influences Black Sabbath, Windhand, Acid King and Lucifer. The band have gone through quite a number of line-up changes since their formation, but their sound has remained pretty much anchored in the genres/sub-genres of doom, heavy metal and occult rock. Latest album, "Profane Smoke Ritual" (DHU Records), continues much in the same vein as the bands previous releases, dank dark riffage and thundering rhythms coated in soaring clean vocals, only this time with a little more emphasis on melody and a harder leaning towards a more traditional heavy metal sound.

Opening song "Serpent's Gaze" begins life metallic and crunchy but then subsides into a throbbing proto-doom groove when Poison's soaring slightly smoky vocals join the fray, her voice punching through the miasma of heaviness surrounding it like a sunbeam through a dungeon window, the moments between her impassioned tones filled by Olden and Bittencourt laying down a mixture of thrumming dank guitar riffage and soaring solo's ably supported by Cavichioli's solid tight drumming and Funari's growling bass lines. The sound of chirping insects and bird calls introduces next track "Chronic Abyss of Bane" followed by a sedate doom groove accompanied by a male voice narrating a speech referencing Lucifer and Satan before Poison enters stage right with a lilting, but not quite ethereal, vocal telling us of a place where "mushrooms unfurl" and "illusions persist" her voice only really going up a gear in the songs psych tinted and proto flavoured middle section. Title track "Profane Smoke Ritual" begins with Cavichioli beating out a solid drum tattoo accompanied by an effect heavy Funari bass motif, the pair are then joined by Bittencourt and Olden's guitars in a thrusting and swaggering metallic groove that boasts a blending of crunching chord progressions and palm- muted refrains, Poison's soaring swooping vocal the icing on the cake. "Veil of Enchanted Shadows" sees Olden and Bittercourt trading chords over doomic rhythms with Poison channelling a little Candlemass type dramatics in her vocal performance while "Necrotic Elegy" finds the band mixing Iron Maiden like gallop with Sabbath-esque chug to frame what is probably Desert Psychlist's favourite vocal on the album, a mixture of stoner smokiness and heavy metal holler. Lastly comes "Serenade of Baphomet" a song that shifts from off-kilter and bluesy to strident and face melting before returning to bluesy again and then signing out on a wave of droning noise.

Weedevil's "Profane Smoke Ritual" is undoubtedly a sum of the band’s influences, it is hard not to hear aspects of both Windhand and Lucifer in what these Brazilians bring to the table and there is no denying that Sabbath's shadow looms large over many of the album’s songs but there is much more going on here too. Although "Profane Smoke Ritual" sits predominately in the canon of doom/occult rock there are also elements to be heard on this album that have their roots in early heavy metal and proto-metal, which only enhances its appeal. 

Check it out .... 

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