DeVicious is a hard rock band from Germany formed in 2017 by bass player Alex Frey, releasing an incredible five albums in just six years – ‘Never Say Never’ (2018), ‘Reflections’ (2019), ‘Phase Three’ (2020), ‘Black Heart’ (2022), and ‘Code Red’, released in 2023.
Featuring a brand new singer – Baol Bardot Bulsara (former vocalist for Norwegian metallers TNT) – DeVicious starts the next chapter of their career with a new album of melodic hard rock mastery! ‘Code Red’ is ten songs and fifty minutes of infectious rock to head nod and foot tap to, all coming to life with the bombastic majesty of ‘Are You Ready For Love’ – definitely not a ballad despite its ballad-sounding title! The energy is sprightly, the level of oomph impressive, and DeVicious is launching its new album with elegance and poise.
Much beefier than ‘Are You Ready For Love’, the album’s second salvo, ‘Highway To The Stars’, is infectious, powering on with an intensity you wouldn’t expect on a rock album! But I’m glad it’s there – ‘Highway To The Stars’ an immediate like, turning heads wherever it’s played or heard. And the energy? Sky fucking high, along with the singing ability – listeners and concertgoers heartily singing along to the chorus.
What a cracking opening double! That becomes a triple, with the heavier, but nonetheless melodic ‘Madhouse’ – maintaining the incredible intensity level, grabbing everyone’s attention and never letting go! Regular readers will know this, but I’m a metalhead at heart, yet hard rock is also a part of my make-up – we metallers are rockers, too!
Buzzing guitars light up the album as ‘Stuck In Paradise’ gets underway, pounding the ground hard, causing nearby buildings to shake and windows to shatter! The bombastic nature is big, bouncy and flouncy, saluting a sound from the eighties that is very much still in favour with fans of all ages.
And before any of you ask – no, ‘No More Tears’ is not a cover of the Ozzy Osbourne classic from 1991. It’s a DeVicious original perfectly suited as a driving anthem – windows down, stereo turned way up, cruising along the beachfront in the summer sun! Not in the UK, though, we’ve had a summer of constant misery with rain and gusty winds every day! But at least I’ve got ‘Code Red’ to keep me company and brighten my summer, with every song a smile-inducing, happy mood-inspiring slice of enjoyment. And with the enjoyment level increasing with every song that passes by, ‘Raise Your Life’ lifts it even higher! My head hasn’t stopped moving in a rhythmic back and forth motion since the album began, my feet doing the fucking same!
It’s intoxicating, infectious, and totally involuntary – the rock on offer is that good! And with no sign of the energy and oomph going away any time soon, DeVicious marched on with the heavy-hitting ‘Not Anymore’. Portraying an immense eighties feel, the band mixes pop rock into their root melodic hard rock sound, the band’s fanbase growing song by song! I’m in!
And with harder-hitting songs such as ‘House Of Cards’ picking up the pace to a canter, I’m sure more and more metalheads like me will be enticed into the DeVicious soundscape – with head nodding nearly becoming head banging! Yes, ‘House Of Cards’ is that close to stepping over the wall into heavy metal land, just dipping its toes in for now to see what it’s like – a sea of metallers looking skywards, wondering where the rumble in the distance is coming from! Germany that’s where – in the mighty shape of hard rockers DeVicious with their latest album ‘Code Red’, the band striding on with ‘All My Life’. And an elegant majesty to match any of their rock peers, ‘All My Life’ a pulsating slab of unrelenting hard rock! And with the final song just around the corner, this album has been a sizzling ride of energetic rock! Definitely one for the car, each song an anthem to be played loud – especially the metal-edged melodic finale ‘Walk From The Shadows’ – a thundering, lumbering, lolloping feel-good force of nature.
Overall, a non-stop roller coaster of rock, DeVicious excites with a sparkling array of infectious and hard-rocking anthems.
TRACKLIST
Are You ready For Love
Highway To The Stars
Madhouse
Stuck In Paradise
No More Tears
Raise Your Life
Not Anymore
House Of Cards
All My Life
Walk From The Shadows
DeVicious: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Metalapolis Records
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
