Death Infernal

Every now and then, I tend to put an album down because it isn't doing anything particularly novel or new, but I want to try and dispel the idea that making generic music is inherently a bad thing. I understand that not every band can be as outlandish as Mr. Bungle, Sigh, Unexpect or whatever and that sometimes you just gotta write what you're best at and what comes naturally to you. That's more-or-less the philosophy of Demonical, formed by the members of a Swedish death metal band in order to make....more Swedish death metal, apparently. Can't fault the guys for just wanting to do what they do best. I imagine this band was created as an outlet after the demise of Centinex, but Centinex is active again, so perhaps Demonical is just a redundancy at this point.

Fuck that! Through a more aggressive, modern, and less overly melodic style than Centinex, Demonical have created their own little niche. On Death Infernal, they strip away most of the rock'n'roll vibes that Dismember and Entombed loved to throw in (save for "Return in Flesh" and "Black Inferno", perhaps), leaving a skeleton of manic, blasting death metal that has a lot of bite, but is still very catchy in the process. Other Demonical albums are functionally very similar to this one, but for whatever reason Death Infernal turns my crank the hardest. I can't give you a concrete reason why--maybe it's because it's the first album of theirs I own, and by extension the one I've spent the most time getting acquainted with, but pretty much every track on here is distinct and has something to get excited about. The delicious chorus riff in "March for Victory", the ominous synth line in "Ravenous", the crushing ballad that is "All Will Perish"...I'm just going to end up listing all of the tracks if I keep this going for too long. Memorable moments are plenty, even within an ostensibly unoriginal Swedeath framework. I've owned this album for maybe four or five years at this point, and I find something new in it to come back to every time. Death Infernal has a depth and staying power to it that you wouldn't think was possible with such straightforward aesthetic and songwriting.

Even other Demonical albums aren't on the same level as this one. The vocal lines on Death Infernal are catchy, decipherable and ferocious in a way that few death metal vocalists are able to accomplish, and even Demonical hasn't crafted anything that grabs you as much as when Sverker Widdgren growls "master lord/lucifer/lead us through the flames" as the drums go silent for a second and then kick it up a notch in "Through Hellfire", not to mention the tastiness of "prince of disobedience, rise" right afterward. Then the pulverizing breakdown right after that...oh man. At 38 minutes, they've packed just enough killer moments and ripping songs that it's not at all taxing to listen to the album start to finish, and it still feels complete and satisfying by the end. There's a chemistry between all of the band members that can only come with decades of playing together and feeding off of each other's ideas. Everyone in this band knows exactly what kind of music they want to make and how they should go about making it given their own individual skill sets. No one ever sounds out of place, there's never an aimless moment where it's obvious that one guy really liked the riff and everyone else didn't want to include it but did anyways. Everybody's on the same page, and it makes for a more concise and passionate album overall.

There isn't some specific trait that sets Death Infernal apart from the thousands of Swedish death metal releases aside from the fact that it's just...better. This shouldn't be anything new for fans of Dismember, Centinex or Vomitory--if you've heard that trademark chainsaw guitar tone before, you know what you're in for, but this just uses all of those Swedeath genre tropes in the best way possible. If there is one album I would show somebody who asked me what proper Swedish death metal sounded like, it would be Death Infernal, not any of the early classics. Albums like Left Hand Path, Like an Everflowing Stream, Into the Grave, even Blood Rapture that are considered staples of the genre have their own idiosyncrasies that ended up defining an entire sub-section of music. Every element of Demonical's sound is recylced in one way or another, but somehow, the end result is an album that not only holds its own with the classics of Swedish death metal, but ends up surpassing them and retroactively defining what its own genre should sound like.

Buzzing and sawing guitars, death reeking growls, morbid atmosphere - yep, pure old school Swedish death metal is once again the name of the game, this time on Demonical’s third full-length offering Death Infernal which doesn’t truly surprise with its music, but since when has that been the point? The album simply showcases how brutal, coffin-like death metal is supposed to be spewed and it’s up to the listener if that’s enough for his musical preferences.

Actually I lie a little when I say that there’s no surprises here. For the most part, as tracks on the first half like the savage ”Ravenous” and the mid-tempo ”Return in Flesh” imply, Demonical stays true to its Entombed influences, but as soon as the seventh song ”All Will Perish (The Final Liberation)" begins, one can notice the evident melodic death metal elements of Amon Amarth, and this continues throughout the last tracks ”Slain Warriors” and ”Darkness Awaits”. The two additional bonus songs retain the same melodic inclination, including the Emperor cover ”Night of the Graveless Souls”.

Delving deeper into the compositions, it must be admitted by everyone that Demonical does know how to craft captivating death metal pieces. This becomes clear right on the first track ”The Arrival of Armageddon” that goes up and down the fretboard with ingenious riffs and on ”Black Inferno” where Bloodbath esque malicious melodies appear in front of the distorted low-pitch instrumentation. Some stagnation is to be found from the album as well but nothing totally fatal that would make the listening experience an annoyance in any way.

Despite that the occasional melodic death elements are somewhat refreshing to hear on an album of this sort, I find those tracks to be the album’s weakest links, as Death Infernal seems to be at its best during the most brutal assaults. To conclude my nagging, the production could be a bit filthier as there’s slight sterileness in the sound, so that it’s not quite like the dirty eponymoys Interment album, for instance. In the end, Death Infernal leaves a positive taste, and is definitely recommendable for the lovers of the genre, and I mean those who still can endure the similar ideas initiated in the early 90s already.

3 / 5
[ http://www.vehementconjuration.com/ ]

Have you ever bought an album this way? You just go to your local heavy metal store, pick up what you came for and then realiize you still have money left! You take a good look around, your eyes see something interesting : "wow this cover looks badass". Then you buy and listen. I have done this quite a few times and I've found awesome albums in the past. This is how I stepped on this album.

On to the music! This piece of art is only 5 seconds old that you begin to sense that you've already felt this before. You know, this Dismember-esque old school swedish death metal vibe. The only difference being with a rich, agressive 2011 production. Death Infernal is in no way an innovative album, but it's just really good. I really love the crispy, sharp-as-a-knife guitar tone the producer managed to create.

The song formulas are quite typical : mean guitar riffs, swedish vibes and melodies, pounding drums and growls coming from Satan's mouth. The best tracks on the album are March for Victory and Through Hellfire. March Victory stands out from the other tracks because of two elements : the melodies are very close to Amon Amarth sounding (the rest of the album melodies being in an At the Gates vibe) and the awesome chorus which goes like this, Sverker's voice is perfectly suited to scream this as the result is truly epic :

"we destroy them one by one
we head on and on
towards a victorious destiny
as we march for our victory"

To summarize, let's enumerate the album qualities : awesome guitar tone, crushing riffs mixed with dark melodies. There's a few leads here and there but nothing too much. Sverker's performance on the mic is absolutly 5 stars. I also love the tempo of the album. It's fast, in your face death metal. But not fast like Nile or Cryptopsy, which tends to be too much for my tastes. The songwriting is also good, considering the 4 minutes straight to the point format. There's only two little defaults I can find to this release : the drum, while crushing everything in it's path, is a bit too repetitive. Or too Slayer-esque if you prefer. The last default is the bass. It always follows the rhythm guitars. A few, small, off the rhythm, bass licks would have been a great idea. In the end, this album is full of qualities and has very few flaws. And to whomever drew the cover art, thank you! I would not have discovered this excellent piece of heavy metal if not.

Like old school Swedish death metal? Well you're going to bloody love Demonical. Album number three for these maniacs is a fiery burst of Swedish death metal, ripping up the (left hand) path Entombed, Dismember, Grave and co. laid down throughout the nineties. No frills, nothing pretentious, just balls to the wall, corpse-flinging death metal that is played with a burning intensity and really puts the pedal to the metal.

Demonical set out to destroy you from the get go, the tone is wonderfully Swedish and rips away at your flesh. The bass fucking thunders and the drums crash and smash away. There's a reason the Swedish scene is my favorite death metal scene, and Death Infernal shows exactly why. While the band do mine an already well-mined vein, they gladly avoid the mundane with a cracking set of songs, and as mentioned before the band have intensity in spades, they sound like they really mean business. Standouts include the mammoth "Slain Warriors", the Amon Amarth tinge of "March for Victory" and the all-out attack of "The Arrival of Armageddon". They also do a smoking cover of Emperor's "Night of the Graveless Souls" which lends well to the death metal sound, incentive enough to grab the special edition of the album.

All in all I was really surprised with Death Infernal, obviously not because of its originality (come on, Swedish death metal) but because of how fucking bad ass the album is. One of the finer death metal albums I've heard this year. If you care about Swedish death metal you need this in your life as soon as possible. Recommended.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

I've honestly been waiting for this album more than for anything else, as two previous Demonical LPs, "Servants of the Unlight" and "Hellsworn" were absoFUCKINlutely killer. Already since my first listening session with Demonical (few years ago when I got their demo), they became one of my favourite death metal bands of nowadays and so there was no hesitation whether I should or should not buy their third LP, "Death Infernal", again released on vinyl by Cyclone Empire. And here it is... Packed in cool artwork with the crucified one, hanging on the cross on the hill of skulls, from the start it looks grim and promising.

Music wise I didn't expect anything more than I already know from the previous albums. Let's be honest, once the band finds their formula and myself, as a listener, I like it a lot, I don't expect the band to take too extreme steps into other directions. Of course it's also bad if the band cannot find anything more in their style and explored it to death, starting to repeat themselves, but I wasn't worried about that happening to "Death Infernal". There are still many killer riffs and songs to be composed in the Swedish death metal style and Demonical surely is one of those bands that are able do that in the best possible way.

Definitely there are songs on "Death Infernal", which are played in classic Demonical way - straight forward, aggressive as hell, relentless and killer, heavily influenced by the cult Swedish albums, like "Left Hand Path", only played in much more furious way. Such anthems as "The Arrival of Armageddon", "Ravenous", "Through Hellfire" are exactly like that and well, if you think that your death metal should be pure fast riff slaughter, these songs are for you. I think each of them could easily have been taken from "Hellsworn" LP, as they're played in the recognisable Demonical style totally. But they're great, I think "Ravenous" especially is one of the best songs this band has recorded so far, so respect!

Meanwhile "Death Infernal" offers also songs, which are slightly different to the previous albums. Oh, don't think the band started to wimp out, no way! All songs are Swedish death metal, although few of them bring some new kind of riffing for the band. Three tracks on "Death Infernal" are so melodic and catchy that one may think they've been played by Amon Amarth, really, and honestly, at the first listen I was very surprised by that, but also not totally convinced and sure if I like it or not. I rather prefer Demonical playing more aggressive and fast tunes, but with every next listen of "Death Infernal" I started to find songs like "All Shall Perish (The Final Liberation)" more and more enjoyable. Man, they're really catchy and infectious, with the scream-with-me kind of choruses, etc... I think the coolest song is the so called bonus track (which I have no idea why is it called like that, as it's normal part of the album), titled "From Northern Shores". Epic Amon Amarth-esque melodic riffing is brilliant here and even the lyrics I think are about the vikings: "...From Northern shores, fearless soldiers breathing war. From Northern shores mercy shown nevermore...". Cool!

I must also say a word about song titled "Darkness Awaits", which reminds me Dismember a lot and its final melodic instrumental fragment is I think one of the best minutes of the entire album, I really love it and such melodic riffing on the Swedish death metal albums are always highlights and special. From the other hand "Slain Warriors" seems to be rather mediocre song, it's definitely the weakest part of the LP and it's the first time I have a feeling of listening to filler instead of a killer.

Even though I have "Death Infernal" on LP, I also had to download the mp3 version of it, as I was really intrigued by how did Demonical play the cult Emperor song, "Night of the Graveless Souls", which unfortunately didn't end up on the vinyl. I must say I'm not totally convinced if it was good choice for the cover, as the raw black metal differs too much to Swedish death metal, above all in the production standards. Raw and filthy black metal sounds primitive and obscure, but thanks to that it has the charm and special feeling. And then if you take song like "Night of the Graveless Souls" and give it polished death metal production, I think it loses all the magic. And that's the case here... Even though it's OK and Demonical tried to play it their own way, I can't say I really like that cover. Definitely it doesn't have the atmosphere of the original and that's the main reason why I don't think it was good choice. Try Sodom or whatever else next time, but leave raw black metal.

Uffff... And here it is. "Death Infernal", great album, one on which I couldn't complain much. I love it: the production, razor sharp riffs, which are cutting without remorse, fantastic vocals from Sverker... It was worth waiting for this album and surely Demonical didn't disappoint.

Listening to "Death Infernal" makes me wonder why Centinex called it a day in the first place. Shoving my nonsense aside, Demonical emerged from the ashes of the long-running Centinex and features several members of the now-defunct Swedish death metal machine. Engaging in a straightforward escapade of pure death metal in the vein of Entombed, Dismember, and pretty much the remaining herd of traditional Swedish craft, this kind of equation isn't like solving a bazillion logarithmic functions without a calculator. In fact, "Death Infernal" reminds me of Swedish death metal in its most digestible form, with nothing but meaty riffs and crispy destruction to boot. All in all, "Death Infernal" is abominable and terrorizing despite its simplicity, and sometimes you really can't ask for anything more.

The opening moments of "The Arrival of Armageddon" sum up what Demonical has to say, and it honestly isn't deeply original or varied, but I really don't give a rat's ass. All nine tracks are systematically constructed with trademark qualities of Swedish death metal, using menacing riffs that reek of bass-heavy Entombed worship, deep growls, unrelenting brutality, and the signature 'buzzsaw' distortion dripping from the sharp guitars. As one could expect, the album is chalk-full of mutilating riffs and fiery tempos burning at unholy temperatures, never once dropping the iron grip of pure, unadulterated, bestial death metal. Performance wise, Demonical is dangerously scrupulous and explicitly natural in its unhallowed rituals just like any death metal juggernaut. Nothing amazingly technical, but who cares?

Demonical alternates the album's progression from trademark ruthlessness to other standards often regurgitated in death metal, such as the rolling sequences and simplistic beats of "Return in Flesh" or occasional nods to modern death metal bands like Amon Amarth in some areas as well. Once again, you'll be sorely disappointed if straightforward death metal isn't your thing, but otherwise you've hit the grimmest jackpot around. "Death Infernal" is lethal, nihilistic, pulverizing death metal. Frills have no place in Demonical's playground of torturous violence, and this is certainly a mandatory listen for traditional death metal freaks everywhere.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Death metal doesn't have to be anything other than what it is. Originality counts for zilch. It is an elemental music, like blues or bluegrass. All you have to do is keep pumping out those thick, meaty riffs, churn up some throat shredding growls, throw in a few blast beats or 10 thousand, and you have the basic ingredients.

Demonical stick to the basic formula and deliver the goods with conviction and devilish glee. This is old school Swedish death at it's finest. The guitars are a buzz-sawed delight, and the band is tight and grooving. Actual, Entombed and Dismember never had so many good mid-tempo grooves, skins-man Ronnie Bergerståhl clearly driving this tank straight to hell.

If any criticism is due, it is for the lack of memorable 'songs', (you know, those things with a verse and chorus) or compositions. Nothing really stands out as a whole, this being album being about little moments(!), a deft drum fill here, a sick lead there. It all adds up, as this is music meant for pure headbanging and pit slamming.

And, as a bonus, Emperors 'Night of the Graveless Souls' is covered, the complex chord work simplified into Swedish death, the only real experiment on the album. The weird dissonant, ambient riffing is almost lost in the thick buzzsaw, but it's still there, for what its worth. It's a strange experiment for band that takes pride in it's traditionalism and craftsment, but worthwhile, as is the album as a whole.

http://thesocietyforexcellenceinheavymetal.blogspot.com/

I can say with ease that Demonical are one of my favorite Swedish death metal acts, retroactively inclined or otherwise. Servants of the Unlight was a spectacular debut in 2007, and Hellsworn a crushing follow-up in 2009. Granted, the band can be fairly rationed among the multitude of old school worshipers clamoring for that elusive crown that the style's originators (Entombed, Dismember, etc) have failed to polish in years, but they have far much more to offer that mere aesthetic redundancy. In fact, I'd argue that Demonical are among the best songwriters in this space in some time now, even in their former incarnation Centinex; carefully pacing their albums through cycles of brutal ballast and rampant, sepulchral tension.

Death Infernal is no different, and while its surface promises only more of the same: with its meager crucifixion cover and the derivative, dense guitar tone we've expected since the 1990 classic Left Hand Path, it fully delivers as an album. "The Arrival of Armageddon" and "Return in Flesh" make for a formidable opening salvo, the former a head on burst of classic Entombed style aggression, the latter a memorable, mid paced hammering with fibrous, roiling guitars that drive its steady rock beat. Other strong points include "Ravenous" and its seared, subtle vipers of malice; "All Will Perish (The Final Liberation)" for the teeming, bristling melodies that offset the crushing weight of the chords; "Slain Warriors" for its Amon Amarth level of bruising, and ditto on "From Northern Shores". A few tracks like "Through Hellfire" and "Darkness Awaits" lacked the same fortitude of riffs, but they serve as functional ligaments to the rest.

Lastly, there's a cover of Emperor's "Night of the Graveless Souls" which sounds great in this death metal format, the descending melodies of the bridge hung subtly upon the precipice of the meaty Demonical tone, and insanely groovy during the breakdown. It's what you essentially want from such a cover: the band adopting it into their own, beloved orphan. In all, you pretty much know what you're getting into with Death Infernal. It doesn't detract from the formula the band exploding into with the previous albums, and might not feel so dark as Servants of the Unlight in particular, but it's fun and has held up through a number of listens thus far. I'd place its sum quality below Hellsworn, but its dynamically self-aware, and well worth acquiring if you're into Demonical, Centinex or other retrograde criminals like Tormented, Evocation, Internment, and so forth.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com