Artist: Devil’s Emissary
Country: Poland
Label: Putrid Cult
Formats: CD EP
Year: 2026
With two albums in 2013 and 2014, ‘Malignant Invocation’ (Under The Sign Of Garazel Productions) and ‘Evangelic Decimations’ (through the same label) respectively, and the ‘Demiurge Asceticism’- EP in 2017 (via Third Eye Temple), this Polish Black Metal band seemed to be off to a flying start. But after those three releases, nothing more was heard from this trio. And at a time when we are virtually drowning in a deluge of new releases every day, leaving a gap of almost ten years is pretty much fatal. A band like Devil’s Emissary, which had just started to build up a bit of momentum, will have to start all over again. And in all honesty, whether ‘Auribus Teneo Lupum’ will succeed in doing so remains to be seen.
To start things off, let’s state that ‘Auribus Teneo Lupum’ is by no means a bad EP not worth your time and effort, and in a way if feels like a natural continuation of that last EP from nine years ago. Especially if you are drawn to a more contrarian sort of Black Metal that feels stylistically close to the blooming Black Metal scenes of about a decade ago in Iceland and Trondheim (Norway), this new EP is definitely worth checking out. These six tracks, with a playing time that nears the half hour mark, is filled to the brim with a rather meaty kind of Black Metal, that has lots of dissonant riffs and contrarian structures and, maybe most prominently audible, some of very loud and unpleasant-to-the-ears sort of blaring vocals. As a consequence, this is not quite what you could call easy listening Black Metal, but those into the more complex and inaccessible kind of Black Metal will definitely find their fix and might paint Devil’s Emissary in the same musical corner as Daraza or fellow Poles Deus Mortem (their earlier work, at least).
While the ‘Auribus Teneo Lupum’ checks all the boxes and is definitely a very interesting and intriguing come back EP, I am afraid that this one comes like a decade late and, with all due respect, I am equally afraid that the change of labels, whether by choice or not, will not help matters. On the other hand, there’s no harm in people still being able to seek out more obscure releases; it certainly adds to a certain mystique within the genre that has been lost over time.
