Written, directed and shot by Emmanuella Zachariou, this 15-minute black-and-white audio-visual is a cinematic blood pact with Portrayal of Guilt’s Devil Music album. The band’s sound is American black metal at its most corrosive, and Zachariou meets it head-on with a vision that is part gothic hallucination, part medieval death ritual. The result is staggeringly crafted, viciously beautiful.
Split into chapters, each section dragging you deeper. We see Sophie Becker’s lone Knight cutting through a world where light is currency and darkness bleeds from every corner. Laura Gabay’s Goat Lord presides over this corrupted kingdom – part deity, part nightmare, all power. The narrative is skeletal, more sensed than spelled out, and that’s its strength. You do not watch Devil Music; you are pulled under by it.
Visually, the film is stunning. Zachariou’s cinematography is unapologetically brutal. The gothic styling is thick enough to taste, with corrupted nuns, bleeding moons and infernal rites rendered in agonizing detail. Horror oozes from the video, not from cheap tricks but from sheer atmosphere and conviction.
The production quality is highly commendable all round. This is a rare case where visual storytelling actually matches the intensity of the music it’s built around. ‘Devil Music’ is a true expression of the album’s narrative and mood, not just a side project. You can feel the sweat and obsession of the team behind it.
