The Devil Wears Nada – Postalgia – Deluxe Album Review

30th May 2025 0 By Jon Deaux

Have you ever gotten slapped in the face by nostalgia wearing fishnets and a cape? No? Well, you will, once Postalgia sinks its manicured claws into your earholes. The Devil Wears Nada — ridiculous name, great band — have carved a blood-slicked valentine to the gods of melodic rock, sprayed it with cheap cologne, lit it on fire, and danced around the wreckage in leather pants three sizes too tight.

Let’s start with “Adecence.” It’s not a real word, but who gives a toss? It struts in like it owns the place, synths shimmering like neon in a puddle of Jack Daniels, guitars slicing through your hangover like a straight razor. Then boom — “Patient Zero” kicks the door off its hinges and throws a chorus so sugary you’ll need insulin after.

Linus Johansson belts like he’s got David Coverdale in a chokehold. Dude croons, snarls, wails — probably cries in the shower, too, but that’s his business. And the rest of the band? Tight as a miser’s wallet. Guitars squeal and snarl with the precision of a surgeon who learned his trade at a cockfight.

“Late Night Talking” is pure 2 a.m. sleaze — like calling your ex just to remind her you’re still pretty. “Make Me Feel” drips with sex and desperation, like the last cigarette in a motel room before the cops show up. “Someone Slightly Buried” — great title — sounds like Meat Loaf ghostwriting for Ghost. Melodrama dialed to eleven, backed by riffs that would make Dio raise an eyebrow.

“Juliet” and “Dear Marilyn” are the ballads you pretend not to like but secretly play when no one’s watching. Think neon tears and eyeliner running down your face in the rain. It’s all very theatrical — like Queen if Freddie got possessed by a glam rock demon with a keytar fetish.

Now, “The Devil Wears Nada” — title track, obviously — kicks like a mule in heels. The chorus has more hooks than a pirate convention, and the solo sounds like it was recorded in the middle of a lightning storm on a cocaine budget. “Infinity” and “Prima Nocta” keep the pedal down, the latter probably getting them banned in five countries for blasphemy and general indecency.

“Til Death Do Us Part” is what happens when you mix wedding vows with a satanic ritual and still somehow get laid. And then — because why the hell not — they toss in a cover of Nestor’s “1989.” It’s like icing on a cake that already has firecrackers inside.

The bonus track “Victim” is a fistfight at a glam rock funeral — angry, sad, and strangely danceable.

The production is raw, loud, and occasionally unhinged. They recorded some of it in a “grungy wasteland,” apparently — I don’t know what that means in Sweden, but it probably involves abandoned IKEA furniture and wolves. Whatever they did, it worked. This album bleeds character, like it’s been dragged through a back alley but still showed up to the gig on time.

Postalgia isn’t reinventing the wheel. It’s burning the wheel, smashing the ashes into vinyl, and yelling “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?” through a vocoder. It’s rock ‘n’ roll in lipstick and leather, carrying a boom box blasting 1986, and it doesn’t give a toss what year it is now.

Recommended if you like: Alice Cooper, Ghost, Lordi, sex in graveyards, and the smell of hairspray before a fistfight.
Score 7/10
Track List
01. Adecence
02. Patient Zero
03. Late Night Talking
04. Make Me Feel
05. Someone Slightly Buried
06. Juliet
07. Dear Marilyn
08. The Devil Wears Nada
09. Infinity
10. Prima Nocta
11. Til Death Do Us Part
12. 1989 (Nestor cover) (Bonus Track)
13. Victim (Bonus Track)
Label – Eonian Records
Release – 23rd May 2025