Description
Dávid Makó began The Devil’s Trade in 2014. His early solo work, often performed with only an acoustic guitar or banjo, quickly garnered attention for its emotional depth and stark beauty. Drawing on Appalachian folk, dark Americana, and Hungarian folk traditions, Makó’s music has been praised for its haunting vocals, minimalist arrangements, and profound emotional honesty. Recently, and especially in this new release, elements of post-metal and doom have taken Makó’s sound into new, exciting territory, whilst retaining his unique intimacy.
‘Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép’, translated as “there is no uncontaminated beauty”, is a record forged in grief and the unflinching confession. Fans of The Devil’s Trade will immediately recognize Makó’s signature elements: the deep, rugged baritone, the uncanny ability to transmit raw emotion and melodies drenched in melancholia. With his fifth studio album however, Makó reclaims the heaviness of his early years, pushing his sound into new, atmospheric territory. “Nincs szennyezetlen szép is much darker and heavier and more complex than anything I have done”, says Makó.
Working within a larger, more dynamic canvas, Mako’s confessional power is met with metal-wrought anguish, reborn as an intimate, haunting journey toward authenticity. ‘Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép’ is an elegy to his late mother. “Between the death of my mother and the birth of my son we only had two weeks” explains Makó, and this complexity of emotion is felt in every beat and breath of the album. Survival, suffering, isolation, the endless human turmoil that hangs over our shared and personal grief. All this is expressed defiantly, through a voice that is devastatingly vulnerable and resilient.
“My music is a pure and uncalculated reflection of my progression as a musician and always a gut reaction to what is happening to in and around me.” (Makó)
Against this atmospheric spine, Makó has woven percussive muscle and electric weight in which archaic drums feature prominently as a driving, emotional force. The result is a soundscape of swinging moods: eruptions of doom, passages of plaintive lament — the volatility of grief itself captured.
While The Devil’s Trade remains a deeply personal, largely self-driven project, ‘Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép’ also reflects the input of key collaborators.
“Just like with (previous album) ‘Vidékek vannak idebenn’, my old friend Gaspar Binder helped me write and record the drums and I wrote and played everything else. Szabolcs Szűcs, our local legend engineered the album and my best friend Márton Szabó helped us as a producer, or I love to use the term: musical conscience. This time I dared to ask another friend of mine, Nikita Kampard (Der Weg Einer Freiheit) to be the mastering engineer and it makes me so grateful that he said yes.” (Makó)
‘Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép’ is not an easy listen, nor was it meant to be. It is a sincerely painful document of mourning and the myriad of emotions that grip us, from bitter rage to catatonic sadness. It is a testament to the resilience found in surviving and continuing through all, a reminder that “There is no uncontaminated beauty” (Makó).
FOR FANS OF
Neurosis, Pallbearer, Bellwitch, Amenra, Yob, Monolord, Steve Von Till, Der Weg Einer Freiheit
