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Sarah Jezebel Deva

A Sign Of Sublime

Written by: PP on 28/01/2010 17:01:58

Sarah Jezebel Deva is known to the metal world through her roles as the backing vocalist for Cradle Of Filth until 2008, and for her other project Angtoria, but now she's decided to go for it on her own, composing a debut solo album called "A Sign Of Sublime". A couple of her friends are helping out on the instruments (Dave Pybus, Martin Powell), and she's even managed to get a hold of Max Blumos, the ex-Trigger The Bloodshed drummer.

As you might expect from someone involved with Filth, Sarah's music is symphonic, violin-driven, slightly poppy goth metal with bleak atmospheres where her medium-range voice is at the center of the stage. People are saying that she wasn't a very good singer in her Filth parts, but I beg to differ based on the songs here. She may not be brilliant, or anywhere near the best singers in the gothic / female fronted metal genre, but tracks like "The Road To Nowhere" demonstrate her capability as an entirely decent and enjoyable singer. "The Devil's Opera", possibly the best track on the record, even sees her effortlessly stretch into operatic territory, fitting the dramatic, theatrical gothic/dark metal atmosphere of the song. Otherwise, the album deviates between straight forward rock tracks and typical gothic metal tracks with epic soundscapes and so forth.

Max Blumos has a couple of great fills on the drums, but all too often he is forced to play an all too simple set to avoid overwhelming Sarah's vocals, which are obviously the centerpiece of the record, given that this is her solo effort. The lack of interesting instrumentation is ultimately the pitfall of "A Sign Of Sublime", because like I mentioned earlier, Sarah can't always carry the songs on her own. This is painfully evident during the straightforward rock tracks, where you don't have operatic leads or symphonic soundscapes supporting her. As such, the record may be of interest for Filth fans, but honestly, there's way better stuff out there.

Download: The Devil's Opera, The Road To Nowhere
For the fans of: Cradle Of Filth, Angtoria, Imperial Black
Listen: Myspace

Release date 15.02.2010
Rising Records