���Though on the surface Devilsy appear to be another in a long line of new bands combining modern atmospheric black metal influences with traces of shoegazey pop, this Lithuanian outfit somehow manages to avoid sounding like every other new "blackgaze" band that's drifted into view lately, thanks to a heavier-than-usual approach that actually reminds me more of contemporary post-hardcore. Their debut album A Parade Of States came out recently on the Japanese label Maa Productions, which has become one of the preeminent labels for this sort of stuff, with releases from the likes of White Ward, Happy Days and Smoking Culture; like most of the Maa roster, Devlsy ride on a heavy undercurrent of dolorous gloompop beneath all their blasting drums and effects-drenched, jagged riffage, and all six of these songs are steeped in a thick melancholic haze, their blackened metallic crush tempered by arresting guitar melodies that are intricately woven around the downtuned darkness.

��� On some of Parade's more majestic songs like "To Confine" and "Cold Glow", Devlsy's metallic gloom can almost begin to resemble a more malevolent, metallized version of Japanese post-hardcore crushers Envy, with intense dramatic leads and moments of explosive emotional power. All of this stuff centers around the band's blackened, sometimes mathy riffs and roiling rhythm section, shifting from churning blasts to driving off-kilter rock tempos, the singer belting out the dour, brooding lyrics in an appropriately abrasive snarl; the songs build into crescendos of dark grandeur as they layer on heavy swooping space-rock guitars drenched in delay, washes of cold black synthesizer, swells of gleaming e-bowed feedback, and frequent shifts into passages of cold gothic gloom , the latter of which feature bleary echo-laden guitars that have a whiff of Cure-like drama and melancholy. It's catchy stuff that manages to weave together fragile emotional melody with a meaner blackened metallic streak in an effective and infectious manner; that melodic quality would probably turn off hardcore black metallers, but fans of the fairly recent wave of bands combining black metal and gloom-rock influences might dig this as much as I have.