March 2022 Feature Release – The Revolution Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Revolution has been nominated by Andi. It's the 2010 fifth album "The World Is a Thorn" from Seattle-based melodic metalcore outfit Demon Hunter. I'm only vaguely familiar with this band through my time programming the playlists for The Revolution so I'll be interested to see what they have to offer.

https://metal.academy/releases/5480

Thanks Daniel for accepting my feature release submission! Here's my review summary:

Demon Hunter still remain a Christian metalcore legend. Since their very beginning, they've been making some of the most original and consistent music out there. The band continues to significantly evolve, and anyone during the waiting period 10 years ago would've been wondering what's next. Their previous album Storm the Gates of Hell is a solid album to enjoy where the band heads off in progressive directions, and it worked! Well, most of the time, with only one flaw in that system. With The World Is A Thorn, Demon Hunter has put most of their progressive experiments aside. And one big thing about this album is, this is the band's first one since the departure of guitarists Ethan Luck and co-founder Don Clark. They were replaced by Patrick Judge and Ryan Helm. Patrick would stay with the band, while Ryan is only here for this album. With those new members, The World Is A Thorn has great guitar improvement. The band's previous albums had some good guitar work but never really impressive, yet here we are, listening to nice riffing with new occasional technicality. While many tracks have the usual fast heavy metalcore action, "Collapsing" is one of the strongest and greatest tracks of the album. That's my usually alt-rock-loving brother's favorite Demon Hunter song which got me into listening to this band. The vocals are mostly clean singing from Ryan Clark and guest member Björn "Speed" Strid of Soilwork, while keeping the song's heaviness along with a delightful guitar solo. Other guests in the album include Christian Älvestam, vocalist of formerly Scar Symmetry and now Solution .45 (two melodeath bands from my younger melodic side), and Dave Peters of Throwdown. Too bad this is the band's last guest-filled album before continuing their journey themselves in subsequent albums. The World Is A Thorn might just surpass The Triptych as the absolute perfect Demon Hunter album, but it was almost brought down from its 5-star rating by a certain 2-minute track. This is an excellent contender for one of top metal albums to begin the 2010s. Bless this band!

5/5 (95% to be exact, due to "LifeWar")

Recommended songs: "Collapsing", "This Is The Line", "The World Is A Thorn", "Just Breathe", "Feel As Though You Could"

For fans of: Throwdown, Unearth, Bad Wolves

I can't say that this release got my blood boiling too much I'm afraid. It's simply too commercially focused for my taste. It's a well produced & executed collection of tracks of course but the tracklisting is very inconsistent with even the highlight tracks having their potency limited by the uncomfortable feeling that this record was really intended for commercial radio & a much younger audience than myself. Musically, there's a lot more to "The World Is A Thorn" than only melodic metalcore. In fact there's almost as much alternative metal here as there is metalcore & groove metal plays a very strong role too with Pantera, Machine Head & Sepultura clearly have been an influence (particularly the former). There's even a genuine thrash metal tune in the title track. I do tend to get a fair bit of enjoyment out of the heavier material but the clean melodic choruses are frustratingly hit & miss. When they're on the money they can be annoyingly catchy, even if they'll never reach the upper end of my ratings system. But when Demon Hunter get them wrong they can be pretty high on the cheese factor (see Nickelback, Linkin Park for points of reference). Admittedly, I do get enjoyment out of six of the eleven tracks included however the other five leave me so cold that it cancels out all of the band's hard work. I guess this is just another melodic metalcore record that's not for me really.

3/5

OK, so I've relented from and deleted the original vitriolic rant I posted for Demon Hunter's 2010 album, The World is A Thorn, although I still think that's a terrible title. I truly don't like shitting on any metal albums too much because there's always bound to be someone who enjoys the album in question even if I don't and I suppose you have to respect that. Despite that, I didn't enjoy this at all I'm afraid and I know it isn't aimed at me, but that is part of the issue - why should it be "aimed" at anyone? 

I think I am so affronted by albums like this that are so obviously aimed at maximising commercial success because they go against the fundamental principles of why I listen to metal. I want to hear bands that maintain their integrity and play music they can justify artistically, not because they want to get played on Kerrang!! TV or get a cover story on Metal Hammer so they can sell hoodies or play bigger venues. This just sounds like an album that is chock full of compromises. There's a few shouty, angsty tracks to get the kids' attention, but there's also some radio fodder such as Collapsing and (even worse) Driving Nails that those kids can play to their mum so she'll think it sounds like that lovely Nickelback guy and buy the album for them, or at the very least allow them to wear the band's merchandise.

Albums like these seem to plague The Revolution and are the reason why I struggle with the clan so much. The rebellion they attempt to illustrate is so contrived and compromised that it becomes laughable. True rebellion is playing what you want with no compromises to the money machine or fashion police and if people like it then great or if they don't then that's OK too. I guess that's why guys like Fenriz have to have a day job too (he's a forest ranger if you didn't know).

Shit, I know - it still sounds like a rant doesn't it? Well that's the best you're going to get I'm afraid. Sorry.

1/5