Well, this is basically Demoniciduth's first release. This is a six song EP that runs in at about 20 minutes. I have heard some positive about this band, but a lot of negative. However, I'll put that all aside and try to do a fair unbiased review for those who've heard nothing of this group from Switzerland that dubs themselves "Primitive White Metal".
Demoniciduth plays metal for sure. I've heard descriptions that vary from thrash to grind to death to black. Musically, to me them seem to be somewhat similar to "Break the Curse" era Mortification, but not exactly. The music overall sounds somewhat "simple", but still gives you plenty of heaviness with even some occasional blasting. We even get a few guitar solos, which are nothing to write home about but better than none at all. Production-wise, it's not all that fantastic, but the good thing is that you have no problem hearing any of the instruments or the vocals. The guitars sometimes have a bit of a "thin" sound. And the drums tend to have that "sticks on a trash can" sound, but to be truthful, I've heard much worse drum sounds.
Vocals are what I believe to be one of the stronger points of the band. They are probably closest to black metal vocals than anything else, with some occasional slight growls. For the most part the vocals are pretty intense, yet fairly understandable.
The songs here are kinda catchy, which may not be a very good quality for extreme metal. I would like to see this band go in a much "darker" direction as sometimes the catchiness seems to be a little to happy for this style. But this is not a blanket statement for the entire album.
Lyrically, the band is EXTREMELY bold for their beliefs in Christ. They are not afraid to speak out against what they feel. The opener "Unholy Chants" speaks out big time about "a satanic metal fan listening to stupid antichrist bands". They exhort the fan to "Reject it, vomit it, and change your ways." They use a lot of scripture in the lyrics too. It's even obvious in the song "Megiddo Massacre" that they've been listening to their Horde album with the line "Ritualistic goat killing, brutal carnage, total destruction, complete annihilation." Sounds kinda familiar.
The CD booklet layout is not bad for an indie EP. The cover is actually pretty cool, although I could've done without the cheesy "advisory" logo that says "Satanist Advisory: Christian Lyrics". I admire their boldness, but this is not the way to get a Satanist to listen to buy your album, much less listen to it. The back inside cover even has a Satanic pentegram with the words "We blaspheme the sign of the goatlord" printed across it.
One of my big problems, which is what I feel many base their judgment upon the band is their look. The face paint is not all that professionally done. Actually, it's quite far from professional. Now Antestor, they look pretty cool in corpse paint, but Demoniciduth need a new make-up artist cause this gives a very unserious, cheesy impression. I've seen them get slammed big time for this on a secular messageboard.
This seems like a long review for a 20 minute album, but it's been quite a controversial album. Musically, the band is not the best by any means, but has some potential (with the strongest being the song "Notre Pere"). As far as how they approach things lyrically and with artwork, it's very bold, but they may need to rethink the approach a little and tweek it. However, the image seems to be the big problem. It just is not going to be taken seriously by anyone in the secular music realm, and as I've seen, even with Christians. Maybe the band should consider losing the advisory logo for the next album and do away with the band pictures, at least any with chessy corpse paint. On the upside though, one of the guys in the band pictures is wearing a Virgin Black t-shirt. Gotta give him some credit for that!
I'm not gonna slam this band completely cause I see some promise, and I also think it's also unfair to completely dismiss a band just because of an image. I've seen the same thing happen with Sanctifica.
Not a bad release, but definitely could use some work. (Review by Matt)
