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Devil-fancying in heavy rock has been out of fashion ever since those pesky church-burning Norwegians started actually taking it seriously in the early 90s. But if anyone can bring it back into vogue, it’s this fiendish foursome from Poitiers.

Recently signed to US label Ripple, they prove on this six-track debut that there are still a fair stock of tunes in Lucifer’s long-neglected locker.

Salem Girl Part I and Black Marble House benefit from magnificently Maiden-esque twin guitar stings as they channel elements of goth portentousness, doomy vocal grunt and vintage melodic flair. Elsewhere, Grand Orbiter lurches between high-octane tritone-centric heaviness and atmospheric incantations, creating a sound as wealthy and tasteful as Old Nick himself.

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.

The Necromancers - Servants Of The Salem Girl album review

French occultist quartet’s splendidly diabolical debut