Location: California
Country: USA
Genre: Industrial thrash metal
Full length: Call Me the Devil
Format: Digital, CD
Label: Independent
Release date: January 29th, 2025
As on their 2014 album "Know God, No Peace," Three Sixes are honing their craft at relevant lyrics, presenting their thoughts and attitudes toward world events with a relentlessness reflecting their horror-themed industrial thrash roots, albeit more straightforward and aggressive. They’ve come a long way from writing about hell and damnation, shifting to social issues, media censorship, climate change and large scale geopolitical conflict.
Their realism fueled, socially conscious topics center in particular on religion and government, church and country, increasing both the drive to think and increasing the intensity of their musicianship. Issues that concerned people since the 2000s appear to have escalated in recent years, prompting more people to raise awareness. The line "I'll sell your soul, to give you hope" seems to fit a society increasingly reliant on TV and social media and less likely to ask questions or conduct responsible research.
Additionally, Three Sixes honors bassist Johnny Cardenas, who passed away recently following a lengthy illness, with their determination to move forward and effect change. "Call Me the Devil" opens with a vivid mental image of the media's pervasive and overpowering brainwashing. Kind of similar to movies like "The Man Who Fell to Earth" or "1984". It raises the question of why more people just don't grab their remote controls and switch off the television. Or at the very least, choose for themselves what they choose to view on the relevant platforms. It would be a start.
There are not as many electronic sounds here, but time shifts and experiments with robotic guitar and bass sounds and percussion like a digital hammer persistently emphasize direct speed and heaviness. These produce something sounding as ruthless and frigid as the brave new world they portray. Besides complacency and a propensity to believe anything you're told, the album portrays an over reliance on technology and artificial intelligence that, if allowed to continue unchecked, could consume us.
Concept albums, in one way or another, have long forewarned of the possibility of such a fate becoming reality. Three Sixes supports the notion that bands may still make powerful and relevant statements with "Call Me the Devil." Emphasizes individuality and the human element, it can be seen as the equivalent of Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Damien: Vocals
Killswitch: Guitars, bass, backing vocals
Blake/John Cross: Drums, programming
Track list:
1. IndoctriNation
2. Welcome To The New World Order
3. Reject Control
4. They
5. Call Me The Devil
6. Where Evil Lies
7. Anticipating Death
8. Watching The God King Bleed
9. Sheol
10. Unflawed
11. Anti-theist
12. All In God's Name
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