Review by Vladimir on April 2, 2023.

The Evil is a doom metal band from Minas Gerais, Brazil which you may or may not be familiar with, but if you’re fan of Brazilian metal scene, you may or definitely know their guitarist Iossif, better known by many as Wagner “Antichrist” Lamounier of former Sarcofago fame. As of recently, which was on March 31st, their second full-length album Seven Acts To Apocalypse was released via Osmose Productions. The Evil may not be considered as an exemplary band with a lot of hype surrounding their recent release or overall reputation, but I am certain that fans of Brazilian metal bands such as myself, are very much intrigued to hear what they have to offer.

The music of The Evil is very apocalyptic sounding doom metal with a big focus on the occult and satanic themes, comprised of extremely wicked, slow and sometimes catchy doomy guitar riffs, evil melodies, operatic and clean female vocals by Mistres Wournous, which at first glance reminded me a lot of Farida Lemouchi (ex-The Devil’s Blood). Apart from these wicked riffs and melodies, you will come across other interesting bits such as bell sounds on 'Envy' and keyboards on 'Sloth', that add more flavor to this form of wickedness. These traits of songwriting are constant throughout the entire album and don’t stray away at any point, which certainly creates and upholds that feeling of impending doom from start to finish. Maybe some people may not like the female vocals, because their misguided instinct might lead them to believe that they’ll be hearing some growls, shouts and screams on top of extreme doomy riffs, but I must say that these female vocals are indeed a fine addition and a welcome change which breaks away from the expected doom metal template of the modern age. Whatever you make of these operatic female vocals, I personally like them a lot and I consider them very suitable for this kind of music. Although the music of The Evil is mostly considered to be doom/stoner metal, I personally wouldn’t call it so much stoner doom since it doesn’t rely heavily on stoner metal styled songwriting and lyrical themes typically used by Electric Wizard and Sleep, despite there being some musical resemblance. The Evil is much more apocalyptic and eerie in their sound when compared to aforementioned bands, and would probably be more suitable for fans of occult oriented doom metal. What I find interesting about the album is the concept of seven deadly sins, which beside the album title is also present in songs themselves, focusing individually on each deadly sin, with 'Envy', 'Sloth', 'Voracity' and 'Wrath' being some of my personal favorites (songs that is). The album’s production has very heavy and sharp sounding guitars and drums, with vocals being the predominant factor beside the instruments. One important thing to note is that it’s not the case of fuzzy distorted guitars and bass, which was heavily abused by so many bands that completely mishandle everything, even the entire point of using that sound.

Seven Acts Of Apocalypse is a heavy and wicked album with an eerie occult atmosphere of the coming apocalypse, and is definitely a release that you must check out, especially if you’re a doom metal fan. I can’t say for sure that this album will draw more attention from this kind of audience in the future, but I think that The Evil deserves a bigger word of mouth and not just support. I was totally surprised how this album turned out to be in terms of both concept and overall execution, and I love it for being so “evil” in every way possible. 

Rating: 8.7 out of 10