As far as I can tell, the members of the Philadelphia band Devil Master aren’t exactly joking, but they aren’t exactly serious either. Devil Master wear corpsepaint, put on theatrical live shows, and play a rasping lo-fi punk-metal hybrid that sounds like it comes from the ’80s tape-trading underground. They go all-in on occult signifiers, and they use beautifully ridiculous stage names — lead guitarist Darkest Prince, rhythm guitarist Infernal Moonlight Apparition, singer/bassist Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure. They also commit completely to their chosen aesthetic, and they rock hard.

Devil Master have just announced plans to follow their 2019 debut album Satan Spits On Children Of Light with their sophomore LP Ecstasies of Never Ending Night. The band recorded the new album live to analog tape with Blood Incantation producer Pete deBoer. This time around, the band has a new member. Chris Ulsh, of Power Trip and Iron Age, has come aboard on drums and keyboards, except he’s now known as Festering Terror In Deepest Catacomb. This band rules.

In a press release, Darkest Prince says that the new album is “the perfect evolution of our sound. It’s Japanese metal-punk d-beat meets black metal. There’s plenty of GISM and Mobs in there, but also Celtic Frost and Gorgoroth.” You can hear that stuff at work in first single “Acid Black Mass,” which sounds like a mysterious cassette covered in pentagrams that you might find in some unexplored recess of a dark attic. Director Erica Frevel’s video for the song is all glitchy VHS occult-ritual evilness. Check out the song and the Ecstasies of Never Ending Night tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Ecstasies…”
02 “Enamoured In The Throes Of Death”
03 “Golgotha’s Cruel Song”
04 “The Vigour Of Evil”
05 “Acid Black Mass”
06 “Abyss In Vision”
07 “Shrines In Cinder”
08 “Funerary Gyre oO Dreams & Madness”
09 “Precious Blood Of Christ Rebuked”
10 “Never Ending Night”

Ecstasies of Never Ending Night is out 4/29 on Relapse.