Diabulus In Musica – Secrets (2010)

Forming from the ashes of Dragon Lord, today we have Diabulus In Musica and their first full-length: “Secrets”. Hailing from the Basque region of Spain, this newcomer to the Gothic Metal scene has what it takes to surprise the world. The band combines a bombastic Symphonic Gothic Metal foundation with beautiful female vocals that sound as powerful as Simone from Epica or even Floor from ReVamp.

While the band is not re-inventing the genre in anyway, they are pretty darn good at making great songs. For over 55 minutes the bands brings us some fresh Gothic Metal that like we said is not super original, but at least it sounds different than all the bands we are currently used to.

Having secured a spot on the 8th Metal Female Voices Fest, you can be assured that Diabulus is a very good band. “Secrets” features mostly bombastic Metal songs that will make you forget that After Forever split, that Within Temptation is highly commercial (and watered down), and that Epica will not be releasing a new album until next year.

Starting off with the band’s female singer, Zuberoa Aznárez, she has great range when it comes to going from operatic parts into the ‘normal’ sections. We love that her natural voice has a very sweet tone to it and it’s different than other singers. She does not try to sound much like Liv, Simone, Sharon, or anybody else in the scene. We would have loved some songs in Spanish or even Basque, but English has to do for now.

The band’s keyboard player, Gorka Elso, does a great job in creating very well crafted orchestral passages that feel very rich and dynamic. Rocking out a key-tar (keyboard-guitar) he can surely compose great Symphonic music and has pretty good growling skills as well.

The guitars are like in any other Gothic Metal release, providing solid and powerful riffs that are very well mixed with the rest of the instruments. The same goes for the drumming; Diabulus In Musica has such a rich sound that the drums provide a nice backdrop to the melodies created by the keyboards.

Diabulus In Musica has quickly earned a spot on our constant rotation of Gothic Metal since “Secrets” is one of the best albums that will be released for this genre in 2010. Having to compete (as of now) with Mortemia or ReVamp for the album of the year in this category. So you can rest assured, that if you love Gothic Metal, you will LOVE “Secrets”.

Release: May 25th, 2010

Country: Spain