SARAH JEZEBEL DEVA - Redemption Songs ...e

SARAH JEZEBEL DEVA - Redemption Songs




By Carl Begai


It doesn’t matter if you don’t like Sarah Jezebel Deva’s first solo
album, A Sign Of Sublime. It matters that she doesn’t like it.


Released in early 2010, A Sign Of Sublime should have been Sarah’s
triumphant return to center stage after making her mark four years
earlier fronting Angtoria. A host of production woes and assorted
cock-ups turned into little more than a nice try as far as she’s
concerned. Rather than cop a wallowing “why me?” attitude, however,she
played live as much as her wallet and promoters would allow with her
heart set on a follow-up that would smoke A Sign Of Sublime into nothing
more than a drink-addled memory. That mission has been accomplished in
epic fashion with The Corruption Of Mercy, the album that should have
followed Angtoria’s debut, God Has A Plan For Us All, and shares a
similar vibe and attitude.


“You know, to be honest I don't think it sounds anything like
Angtoria in any way, other than some big orchestrations,” says Sarah,
“but people need to find something to compare it to. And yes, it does
smoke A Sign Of Sublime. That was the intention; to make sure people
forgot that album, but only because of the mess it was left in thanks to
a certain man at a certain record company. Dan (Abela / guitars) and I
wrote this album together, alone, in a dark room, naked.... actually, no
dark room (laughs). AblaZ (God’s Army), the bass player, wrote a track,
so did Luke Sibthorpe (The Dead Lay Waiting), and then Pzy-Clone (The
Kovenant) added his amazing parts, which was the icing on the cake for
us.”


“So, to answer your question, Dan and I were directors with an aim,
and that aim was to take over the world and to make sure people could
notice a major difference in writing, recording and all aspects of
production. We have the same musical tastes, or very similar, but of
course we never once said ‘Right, gotta rip this band off’ or ‘Gotta
sound like this band to give us huge record sales...’.”





Sarah may have a hard time downplaying the Angtoria comparisons, as
the orchestral sections of the new album are even more intense than what
can be heard on God Has A Plan For Us All. Opening track ‘No Paragon Of
Virtue’, for example, is worthy of being dubbed soundtrack material
thanks to the musical score backing up the band. Credit where it’s due
according to Sarah.


“Pzy-Clone (Amund Svensson, previously known as Blackheart) asked to
get involved, and of course we were like ‘Hell Yeah!’ We had timelines
but we just said, ‘Do what you like, we trust you.’ I mean, he does a
lot of writing for TV and, well, when we got ‘Paragon’ back we were very
close to weeing ourselves. He’s just amazing. We wanted big, we got
big. Some tracks we wanted small, we got big and loved it. You don't
mess with the master Clone and we didn't want to (laughs). He did us the
biggest favour, he’s a dear friend to me. We’re lucky there, people
want to help us. We must be too nice (laughs).”


“The new drummer Jamie Abela changed the entire album in our eyes,”
Sarah adds. “He’s 20 years old, he drums with barely any mistakes and
hardly needed any editing. When we did "The World Won't Hold Your Hand"
in the studio, which was the last song written for the album, Dan sent
it to Jamie and said ‘Look, we need this done fast. Can you listen to it
a few times, come in and record?’ Jamie got to the studio within one
hour, drummed the track about three times after hearing it once on his
computer. For being so young he’s an immaculate drummer.”


Asked if she and her bandmates went darker and heavier than God Has A
Plan For Us All and A Sign Of Sublime on purpose, Sarah chalks up the
sound on The Corruption Of Mercy to not over-thinking the music.


“Two of the tracks I wrote about eight years ago and believe it or
not, they were very old Darkthrone / Satyricon sounding to begin with,
not that anyone would ever tell now. When I listened to them, I knew
that would all change during the writing process. We never plan for
things, I never plan. I tried to plan with the last album and it went
tits up because there were too many people involved. This time, we just
wrote over a period of time and sat back and watched it progress. We
just took chances. We all have to take chances and I still say, don't
plan stuff because it never ends up the way you want it to.”


“Oh, and no, no Cradle Of Filth, Angtoria, Therion or anything was
an influence on the new album. We did know, however, that this album had
to be on par with God Has A Plan For Us All. We just tried to push A
Sign Of Sublime to the back as far as possible.”


The lyrics on The Corruption Of Mercy echo the music’s dark mood, in
stark contrast to Sarah’s rather upbeat view of life at the moment.
Between having a solid band with a strong chemistry and preparing, at
press time, to get married, she doesn’t come off as fed up or pissed
off.


“(Laughs) I’m really happy, but I focus on situations and people. I
know many, many good people but they’re crap for writing songs about. I
did ‘That’s What The Wise Lady Said’ (Angtoria) for my godmother because
she deserved something like that, but writing that kind of song was
hard, almost felt gay for me. I did explore banshees and sirens on this
album, which is unlike me, so for the best part it’s people, life and
situations that have affected me. Actually, my ex just found out that
some of the tracks I wrote on the last album are about him. I wrote them
when I was angry, as you do (laughs). Now I kind of feel bad because I
know he has a good heart. Thankfully he found it funny and said he wrote
one for me, too, called ‘Black Metal Deva’ (laughs). I’m dreading it,
and sadly, I can't kick his arse ‘cos he’s in Oz.”


Click here for more.





The title track of Sarah's new album, The Corruption Of Mercy, is now available for streaming. Check it out at this location. The song 'The World Won't Hold Your Hand', also featured on the album, is still available on the audio player.


The tracklist for The Corruption Of Mercy is as follows:


'No Paragon Of Virtue'

'The World Won't Hold Your Hand'

'A Matter Of Convenience'

'Silence Please'

'Zombie'

'Pretty With Effects'

'What Lies Before You'

'Sirens'

'The Eyes That Lie'

'The Corruption Of Mercy'


Check out Sarah's new official website here for updates. Her official Facebook page can be found here.