A Devil's Din -
One Hallucination Under God


(CD 2017, 41:49, Island Dive Records IDR003)

The tracks:
  1- Eternal Now(3:25)
  2- Brave New World(4:26)
  3- Nearly Normal(4:06)
  4- Home(5:16)
  5- Who You Are(5:03)
  6- Where Do We Go(5:04)
  7- One Hallucination Under God(4:10)
  8- Sea Of Time(5:18)
  9- Evolution(5:02)

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Probably most people who read our reviews haven't heard about A Devil's Din. I can tell you that they are a trio from Canada. Led by UK-born Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist David Lines. His main instruments are guitars and keyboards. He is also responsible for the vocals in the band. Next to him you can find bassist
Tom G. Stout and drummer Dom Salameh. One Hallucination Under God is their 3rd studio album after releasing One Day All This Will Be Yours in 2011 and Skylight in 2016. I always find it better to read the bands info sheet after listening to their release. This way you never get prejudiced. Afterwards you can always check out if you have the same opinion about their music. So let's get started.

The album opens with Eternal Now. A track which reminds me of The Byrds. It is followed by Brave New World. Here it is as if you are listening to early Pink Floyd with Syd Barret in their line up. While listening to Nearly Normal The Beatles come to mind and most of all the track Tomorrow Never Knows. On the track Home again the comparison with Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd can be made. The next composition moves music wise a bit towards a different direction. More modern influences seems to have inspired the band on Who You Are. I was most of all thinking about Steven Wilson. On Where Do We Go the band moves again more towards a Syd Barret composition. Next is the title track. Here the early British hard rock scene can be heard. Black Sabbath came to mind a little bit. But not as heavy as they were in the seventies. The guitar and Mellotron parts give the song certainly a progressive rock twist. On Sea Of Time the band sounds rather mellow and some blues kind of guitar parts made me think about Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. The album ends with Evolution and again the early Pink Floyd with Syd Barret in their line up come to the surface.

Now it's time to have a peak on the bands info sheet and see if I got it right with the comparisons. Well this is what I did read; “ A Devil's Din certainly takes listeners on a trip...a journey to the centre of the psyche with their superb mind-expanding music created for all the right reasons. Inspired by The Beatles (66,67), Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Byrds”. I guess I got the right names right in my review and did hear what most other people heard as well. Only Steven Wilson was not mentioned. But I did hear it only on one piece of music and therefore probably not worth mentioning in the bands bio.

Moreover they wrote; “A Devil's Din plays a form of rock music that takes cues from both psychedelic and progressive styles. Our goal is to create adventure through sound, hopefully allowing out listeners to connect with something more along the way. We know it's only rock 'n' roll, but we want to have a positive effect on their psyche, not just through the music, but with words as well...This album is a trip to listen to, full of grooves and hooks and colour and meaning that will resonate with the Experienced Mind!...Overall the theme of the album is about “Perception Versus Reality”, our world is essentially a subjective experience, a reflection of our individual thoughts and judgments!” I guess I don't have to add anything more. Only to tell you that according to the bands pictures on the bands website, they go very much back to the days when psychedelic music was hip in the sixties. If you compare them to the pictures of Pink Floyd with Syd Barret in their line up, you would believe they were shot in those days too. The flower shirts survived the swinging sixties after all!

One Hallucination Under God is certainly not a bad album music wise. Maybe the real proghead can't find that much on it. On the other hand those who enjoy psychedelic music and enjoy the music made by Pink Floyd with Syd Barret in their line up, have a blast with this release. For me a was a nice trip back to the sixties.

*** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)

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