Demiser - Slave to the Scythe

Angry Metal Guy

I generally avoid metal music videos. Way too often they’re overly self-serious retreads of the same spooky/angry/edgy schtick and ultimately just serve to remind you that metal bands don’t have the budget for music videos. Lyric videos are even worse, as they expose metal’s unfortunate dearth of skilled lyricists. So I was surprised when, after watching the lead video single from Demiser’s sophomore full-length Slave to the Scythe, I was left thinking “Damn. There’s a band who know who they are.” South Carolina’s leading researchers of all things infernal, Demiser present the findings of their scholarly research into the contents of Hades with the peer-reviewed case study “Hell is Full of Fire.” Like the song title and self-same chorus, the accompanying video is charmingly direct. Here’s the band playing in a garage or small club setting. Here they are drinking in a cemetery at night. Back to the band playing. Back to the cemetery, where they’ve somehow lit a grave on fire. Band playing. Someone brought a scythe to the cemetery and it’s on fire. Ope, hard to play that guitar when it’s on fire. The whole thing is lit low but warm and looks well shot for what it is.

Demiser are a metal throwback in spirit: hard drinking, fast playing, “Fuck yeah/you!” attitude. They’re a throwback in sound too, in that way only newer bands blend a bunch of throwback sounds into a sticky paste of pastiche. This is blackened thrash with a deep vein of NWOBHM combining the likes of Overkill, Motörhead, and Gorgoroth. “Feast” kicks things off with a very “Painkiller”-esque drum intro followed by sinister riffage and lightning-fast fret-work. It sets a blazing pace that rarely lets up over the next 40 minutes of vicious axe-wielding (Gravepisser, Phallomancer, and Defiler) and machine gun time-keeping (Infestor) while Demiser the Demiser holds court with his blackened shouts. Lyrical themes are mostly of the blasphemous variety, with memorable declarations of damned-ness in “Feast” (“All! Hell! Now! Opens wide!”), “Hell is Full of Fire,” and “In Nomine Baphomet,” but they do take a break from hailing Satan to talk about driving motorcycles real fast in the delightful “Carbureted Speed.”

All this results in a comfort food metal album that’s more fun than a Hell themed roller coaster with dangerously loose safety bars. I defy any metalhead, regardless of sub-genre preference, to keep their figurative pants on when the guitar solos hit in “Feast” or to keep their invisible fruit in their pockets when Demiser the Demiser declares “Hell! Is Full! Of Fire!” Slave to the Scythe is best when it keeps the gas pushed all the way to road pavement, which it does a lot, but the addition of a foot-stomping bop and some surprising melodicism elevates “Phallomancer the Phallomancer” to the position of album highlight. After the debut included the memorable “Demiser the Demiser,” the next record better give Gravepisser and Defiler their own eponymous ditties or else feelings are going to get hurt.

My issues with Slave to the Scythe are all relatively minor. When played front to back, the title track falls a little flat compared to the two rip snorters that sandwich it. As for the acoustic interlude, it’s nice enough and it adds to the 80s thrash vibe, but I quickly began skipping it after the second spin or so. The record is in no way overstuffed at a blazing 40 minutes, but final track “In Nomine Baphomet” stands out for being 8 minutes long, and it does go a bit mushy in the middle of that run time. Thankfully, these moments do little to detract from a record where even second-tier tracks like “Total Demise” or “Infernal Bust” have stank-face riffs and drive-it-like-it’s-stolen energy.

Demiser are a band who know who they are. They aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they are putting it on the front of a motorcycle and driving it recklessly. If you were a fan of their rollicking debut Through the Gate Eternal, you’ll get more of the same breakneck goodness on Slave to the Scythe. Given the talent involved here, I expect they’ll just keep churning out albums of sack-whipping blackened thrash for years to come.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: demiser.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/demiserofficial
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024

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