OK, hear me out…

2024 has been a friggin’ WILD ride for the world of metal and extreme music. Like it or not, the spotlight has perhaps never shone brighter on our little deranged corner of the music world than it is right now. Ignore for a moment legendary stalwarts like Metallica, Iron Maiden or even Slipknot who’ve had literal decades to build worldwide success, and look to more recent phenoms like Spiritbox and Sleep Token who have appeared on some of the industry’s biggest festival lineups and making genuinely impressive waves on Billboard’s Top 200 list (regardless of your personal opinion of either act, it’s still alarming to see these two on a list where the next heaviest representatives are The Black Album and System of a Down‘s Toxicity). And it’s not even just the acts more willing to embrace a poppier, more radio friendly sound, either – with bands like Lorna Shore and Knocked Loose bringing a level of intensity and extremity to bigger audiences than anyone would have thought possible even 10 years ago. Think whatever way you want about either of those bands, objectively they would both be utterly terrifying to the non-metalhead.

Of course, with this increased attention comes a wave of the uninitiated, folks who have neither the context or understanding of what exactly it is they’re hearing. As such, we now have folks on twitter discovering Cannibal Corpse and summarily trying to “cancel” them once they’ve read some of their lyrics . And now, perhaps even more famously, MAGA types have been using Gojira‘s performance at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony as part of proof that the International Olympic Committee is in fact a cabal of Satanists looking to spread propaganda to an international audience.

I know that these are outrageously irrational people, but it’s goddamn 2024. I can’t believe this is a real plot line happening in the world. Never mind the fact that I haven’t heard a peep from anyone complaining about Anthony Kiedis (The Red Hot Chili Peppers), who has VERY openly admitted to unknowingly, AND THEN KNOWINGLY fucking a 14 year old girl when he was in his 20s, being in the closing ceremony – the fact that folks think they gotta worry about GOJIRA? Who are only a vague threat to poachers? No. I won’t have this.

What I propose is this – Go right ahead and bring out Snoop, Dre, Kendrick Lamar, any and all of the LA rap elite to represent the host city for the 2028 ceremony. This is fair and good. But this isn’t just about LA, IT’S ABOUT AMERICA, GOD DAMN IT. Fuck rolling out Weezer or Maroon 5 or the live, rotting husks of Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses. You really wanna get people’s attention? Let’s get real weird with it. Let’s lean all the way in to this new Satanic panic, fly over to the other coast, and bring in South Carolina’s heathen horde of Black Thrash, Demiser to show the world a real dose of goat-headed, unabashedly American fury.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

For those unaware of my personal love for these southern sons, Demiser released my absolute favorite album of 2021 with Through the Gate Eternal. Hell, I feel pretty comfy calling it one of my favorite albums of the last decade. It’s not that Demiser are necessarily bringing anything new to the table, it’s just the conviction and energy with which they delivered their brand of Blackened Speed and Thrash that won me over completely, and it’s remained a constant presence in my rotation ever since. So now in comes the ever-important sophomore album which is always forced to face increased scrutiny and expectations – and without wasting any more of your time with my nonsense I will tell you this meets, and exceeds every single one of them. In a world gone fucking bonkers, I think I can comfortably rely on Demiser to continue bringing the goods.

Working in their favor is the tongue-in-cheek attitude that made Through the Gate Eternal so endearing. Slave to the Scythe, if anything, leans further into the fuck-all mindset of blistering guitars, hellish themes and pedal-to-the-metal delivery. It’s a clinic in not taking yourself too seriously AS SERIOUSLY AS FUCKING POSSIBLE. Opener “Feast” comes barreling out the mouth of hell like an absolute fiend, going right back to the well of familiar scorching riffs and ostentatious leads that seem to take the very idea of “balls out” in it’s most literal sense. I can only imagine a lot of on-stage thrusting going on with guitarists Gravepisser and Phalomancer as the dive bomb away on your eardrums with reckless abandon. And of course they haven’t abandoned the anthemic, metal-as-hell bridges the band is so good at delivering. There’d be riots if they had (or at least one. By me). I don’t care how simple it is, when they break that shit down with a bellowing “OUGH” at the 2:33 mark,” it makes me feel all sorts of ways I’m not sure you really want me to divulge. If it doesn’t fill you with the same kind of headbanging, chest-swelling fizz as it does with me, I’m not sure we have much to talk about moving forward.

The mayhem does not let up for one second, either (save for “Interlude” which is honestly just a very considerate intermission to let you collect yourself, maybe grab a cig). Title track “Slave to the Scythe” hits with all the hell-born fury of a demon horde, armed with yet another cache of killer riffs and screaming guitar solos, but still never venturing so far as to question whether the band is in on the joke. Even if you think the band has lost the plot, “Carbureted Speed” will change that immediately. When asked, guitarist Gravepisser says the song is about “doing cocaine and riding choppers.” That’s it. There’s no subterfuge, there’s no beating around the bush, it’s an old school thrash anthem about being blitzed out of your skull and bombing down the road hailing the gods of leather and steel. I’m compelled to say I am not here to condone these acts, but the track is just as as balls-to-the-wall fun as the subject matter calls for, the kind of thing that would give Lemmy himself a smirk and a stiffy (despite all the whisky and coke… and coke). To that end, “Phallomancer the Phallomancer” continues the band’s tradition of biographical tracks (See “Demiser the Demiser” from Through the Gate Eternal), which buries the accelerator into the floor even further, pummeling with the sort of breakneck speed that only further incites visions of circle pits and hailing gunfire. It’s metal for the sake of metal and nothing more, and it’s all the better for it.

The album’s second half following “Interlude” does perhaps lean a little further into the darkness. Less “We’re gonna fucking rage and probably die together in a glorious fire bomb of carnage” and a little more “Hi I’m here to murder you,” if you will. But still in a super fun way! The guitar tones of “Total Demise” and the mighty-as-hell closer “In Nomine Baphomet” cut with just a little more bite and sinister intent, reminding the listener these are still some dudes not to be taken lightly, that as campy and grin-inducing as the whole package may be, the band’s edge is still plenty sharp to cause you a whole mess of problems. Granted, “Hell is Full of Fire” still begins with an outrageous falsetto and familiarly finger-shredding riffage, but we’re getting right down into the guts of demonic warfare – of asserting all of Hell’s thunderous force over the God-fearing and holy. Everything your mom ever told you about the perils of Heavy Metal – it’s all here in full, blasphemous glory, and it’s making no apologies for it. I love it more than words can really express.

I’ll admit this much – you’re going to listen to Slave to the Scythe and likely think “this really didn’t merit this long a review.” You’re not wrong. But  damn it, I just can’t help myself – this album just has me to hyped to be too business-like in this review. No, the band have not expanded upon any of the ideas presented from their first album. Yes, this is a good thing. Demiser is letting their freak flags fly baby, and I’m fucking here for it. I will continue to be here for it as long and far as this coke-binged, heathenistic ride will take them. If the world is suddenly more interested in peering into the darker corners of the Metal world, then I say lets blast the doors off and let them come get a load of this shit. Who knows what kind of hell on earth it could unleash.

[Visit the band's website]

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