Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By The Amazing devil, Independent 2021.
The Amazing Devil is an alternative folk band from the UK formed by Joey Batey and Madeleine Hyland, and they released their first album Love Run in 2016.
The album received considerable critical acclaim with FATEA (For All The Exceptional Artists) calling it “a masterpiece” and the reviewer at For Folk’s Sake writing that “it’s the best thing I’ve heard this year.”
Ruin is the first album of The Amazing Devil’s that I’ve heard and I am impressed.
It’s short at eight tracks but it packs a lot into those cuts.
The album opens with Secret Worlds which is a rhythmically uplifting and high energy track.
This melds into the second track The Calling which starts slowly before building considerable pace as it develops and Madeleine Hyland’s vocals soar above a wall of sound.
The Amazing Devil sound is a blend of acoustic instruments, mainly guitar, with an underpinning of energetic drumming by Tom Addison, double bass by Sam Becker and highlights provided by Michael Crean on violin and Fraser Parry on cello.
The third song, Drinking Song For The Socially Anxious, is performed with Joey and Madeleine’s vocals accompanied only by an enthusiastically strummed guitar.
Their lyrics are wonderful and their vocals brilliant. They really are a talented band.
Each song is beautifully constructed, constantly changing pace and intensity so that we’re taken on a journey.
It’s the old classic light and dark, fast and slow; one moment being as light as a feather the next a cacophonous sound as heavy as lead.
The entire album was written and composed by Batey and Hyland and produced by them with the assistance of drummer Tom Addison.
The orchestrations were composed by Batey and celloist Fraser Parry.
It’s rare to come across an album that completely grabs me from the first track and holds me firm in its grip to the end.
The Amazing Devil is an impressive band.
The writing is intelligent, the musicianship top rate and they are presenting a unique vision of modern folk music that draws broadly from a variety of influences and then presents a new and fresh sound for today.
