Demiurg—The Hate Chamber (2008)

Details

Recorded at Unisound and Rotpit Studios. Drums recorded at Excess Studio. Mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound. Produced by Dan Swanö. All music/lyrics by Demiurg.

Band

Rogga Johansson—Guitars, vocals
Dan Swanö—Lead guitars, keyboards
Johan Berglund—Bass
Ed Warby—Drums
Pär Johansson—Clean vocals

Tracks

Resurrecting the rotting (Flesh festival, pt. II)
Cremated lies the day
The terror before sleep
Wolves at the gates
The apocalyptic
World destroyer
The convulse meridian
Dawn dusk delusion
Opus morbidity (City of Ib, pt. III)
Cult of Dagon

Review

According to Wikipedia Demiurg may refer to:

“The deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity in some belief systems.”
An alien species in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe.
A small video game development house.

No mention at all of this Swedish death metal outfit, who have released three full length albums since 2007, of which this is the second. What does Wikipedia know, anyway!?

This incarnation of Demiurg appears to be a Swedish death metal ‘supergroup’ that feature (ex-)members of Paganizer, Bloodbath, Ribspreader, Gorefest, and Ayreon.

To be honest, I’ve rather enjoyed this week’s metal offering. The album reminds me, in equal measure, of Morbid Angel, Death, and Gorefest. Even if all the songs sound largely the same.

“Resurrecting the rotting (Flesh festival, pt.II)” opens with a quotation, then bounces to life with a Gorefest/Death-style groove. Fabulous vocals: throaty, bassy, and totally incomprehensible. Perfect!

Track two (“Cremated lies the day”) opens with something akin to an angelic chorus, before blasting into a staccato-ed riff that also closes the track, accompanied by what sounds like the audio from a police radio.

Track three: much of the same. Track four: a slow track, with a funereal guitar solo reminiscent of early Paradise Lost, which then kicks into a Gorefest-style groove. Track six (“World destroyer”) sounds like a B-side from Death’s 1988 album “Leprosy”.

And so it continues. Death metal riffs fused together, twisting and turning, growling vocals (the exception being the final track, “Cult of Dagon”, which includes—gasp!—clean vocals, like proper singing and everything!), grooves, machine-gun kick drums, symphonic embellishments and spoken vocal overdubs. This is a lesson in death metal.

Conclusion

It’s not the best album I’ve listened to this year, but it is by far not the worst. (Is that a recommendation by default?) I enjoyed the power, I enjoyed the consistency, I enjoyed the riffs and the groove.

But most of it is entirely forgettable because most of it sounds the same. That could be a weakness but I rather think of it as a twisted strength: it means that the next time I’m listening to the album again for the first time!

Despite what definitely appears to be feint praise, this is definitely another win for me in the 195 metal CDs music lottery. This one I’ll keep.

Review score: 85%