BIBLE OF THE DEVIL - A Sharp Pain To The Templars!
by Martin Popoff

For anybody looking for a brainiac metal experience like Hammers Of Misfortune, but set to a beard-pullin' kick ass soundtrack somewhere between Brand New Sin, Wolf, Artimus Pyledriver and Trivium (play the new album - it's thrashin'), then look no further than this four record, seven-years-on Chicago contingent. The twin leads are flyin' and the timeless metal positively explodes in epic wonder track after intellectually imposing track.

Strangely expected of anyone who knows that what they got is class, drummer Greg Spalding calls the Bible, a cross between "Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Zeke, and Trouble." Pretty good company, and wrong one by one, but oddly bang-on if you mess 'em together (add in The Illuminati).

"We get AC/DC or Accept a lot, probably due to Mark's vocals," adds guitarist Nate Perry. "Not that those aren't a couple of our favourites, but we hope the critics will get some other things out of this one, as we've changed considerably since our early days."

And then set all that to a concept, and you get a remarkable package. Concept you ask? Guitarist and vocalist Mark Hoffmann has the answer...

"As I mention in the liner notes, a lot of the inspiration for the album's concept come from a great piece of historical fiction called Deus Lo Volt! Chronicle of the Christian Crusades by Evan S. Connell. I've been reading a lot of that sort of stuff lately. Freemasonry has been of much interest to me lately as well, and I've been reading a couple of books about that. It used to be that a lot of our lyrics were about living in the city, nefarious substance abuse, and violence. These are all nice topics, but I wanted to take on the challenge of other topics."

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