Demiser is back on the attack.
Three years after their debut album, the American band featuring Demiser the Demiser (vocals), Defiler (bass), Infestor (drums, Black Eucharist, Primitive Warfare), Gravepisser (guitar, Black Eucharist) and Phallomancer (guitar, Primitive Warfare) sign to Blacklight Media, sub-label of Metal Blade Records, for the release of Slave to the Scythe.
The band’s approach is immediately bestial with Feast, an opening track of pure unbridled Black/Thrash where furious vocal parts meet scathing harmonics on a near-permanent basis. The choruses remain unifying, then the band slows down ever so slightly with Slave to the Scythe, where the ominous melody and Heavy influences soon accelerate again to match the musicians’ aggression on the eponymous track. A strange sample introduces us to Carbureted Speed, but the Old School approach soon takes over from the engine failure and offers fast riffs where the guitars never hesitate to add their personal touch, then Phallomancer the Phallomancer starts again at a similar pace while reinforcing its blasphemous screams, even adopting Black/Death roots at times. The rhythm slows down, offering a few softer touches, then the band offer us Interlude, a rather dark acoustic composition before returning to their jerky riffs for Total Demise, the following track, which immediately displays its savagery. The cruising rhythm is barely disturbed by a few catchy moshparts and a frenetic solo, then Hell Is Full of Fire slows the pace down again before the piercing scream sets the composition ablaze, returning to its usual snarling pace, from which the leads emerge with ease. Dissonance and speed mingle to create Infernal Bust, a track as lively as it is disturbing, which looks promising for live performance, then it’s with In Nomine Baphomet that the quintet summons dark forces one last time, first with the sound of their infernal triplets, then with regular changes of pace to feed what is by far their longest track to date.
Blasphemy and Black/Thrash animate Demiser‘s musicians, who deliver a very respectable performance with Slave to the Scythe. Their Old School influences are perfectly matched to their aggression, and they spit it out with their dark touch to perfection.
80/100