Demigod

Demigod are about that: halfway to entirely godlike and very cool, but a band that faded away too quickly to live on in Adramlech. Heavy old style death metal with a melodic tone and powerful rhythmic low-end depth. If you like Gorguts-style melodic doomy death metal much of this will appeal also.

Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)

Slumber of Sullen Eyes

Drowned

1992

Production: Reasonable, flat.

Review: In the greatest tradition of eurometal ever, the Finnish death metal outfit Demigod produced an evolution classic to the metal of the time from Scandinavia which emphasized ambient rhythm, in this case adding atmospheric perceptive cues through its tendency to use longer phrase melodies which emphasize multiple stages of a simple harmonic transferrence over a thrash-style internally reflective drumming.

Ambient metal in this definition relies on consistent percussion which often does not vary with phrase in its effort to render engaging a rhythmic expectation to which the riffing can counterpoint, giving it a space to shift melody by structural variation and techniques of internal rhythm such as tremelo picking. Demigod vary their approach from flutterthrob melodic riffage to riffing based more on the percussive power of a chord and variants off its return, in the style of death metal open-string bashers or speed metal rockers.

Tracklist:

1. Apocryphal (intro)
2. As I behold I despise
3. Dead soul
4. The forlorn
5. Tears of God
6. Slumber of sullen eyes
7. Embrace the darkness/Blood of the perished
8. Fear obscures from within
9. Transmigration beyond eternities
10. Towards the shrouded infinity
11. Perpetual ascent
12. Darkened
Length: 48:07

Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes - Death Metal 1992 Drowned Productions

Overwhelming all other characteristics through deep saturation is a core direction in death metal, with a strong concept of heavy and impactive music played well, as tight structures building into roaring images of song. The use of harmonic application and disapplication within the riffs, combined with the spatial relationship of tremelo-powered phrasing, builds a visual perspective of the music, but here the structures are more solid and less flowing than even the faster-strumming and melodic Swedish death metal to which this edged stuff is a reaction.

Clearly well-played but not necessarily "technical" this band have an enlightened and selective eye for editing their own material, as these songs are in arrangement and composition tight and enduring of many listens. Each song fulfills a unique and reasonably human poetic vision of aggression and encroaching dark existential weight (heaviness). This construction lends itself to distinction between songs encouraging a realization that this music attempts something both central and innovative to its genre.