Demon Hunter - Songs of Death and Resurrection (2021)^{Release ID: 41284}

The new Demon Hunter album Exile has just come out recently, and I look forward to talking about whether or not it holds up for me well. But before that, it's time to review take a dive into their acoustic re-recordings album Songs of Death and Resurrection...

It's impressive that this successful band released 12 studio albums in a span of 20 years. Their blazing metalcore career can please metalheads and non-metalheads, and so can the occasional rock ballad that each album has. It's quite disappointing when the band chose an acoustic direction for their 11th album, though not surprising. Songs of Death and Resurrection strips down their popular rockers and ballads, all from their first 7 albums, plus one song from Peace, and another re-recorded for Exile.

"My Throat Is An Open Grave" is a soft opening highlight. A cello and a violin can be heard creating significant waves. The lyrics have most amazing sorrow regardless of the lame emo-ish song title. "Dead Flowers" is a soft ballad that once again offers the lighter sweet side of the band. "The Heart of a Graveyard" has less of a ballad-like pace, being much stronger and more energetic. With a synthesized intro and the vocals being entirely clean, it can almost be considered a poppy song. That song deserves some radio play! "Praise the Void" is the new track that would be re-recorded for Exile, and one of the band's strongest recent ballads. The strings and vocals sound so beautiful. The lyrics can range from sarcastic ("Now we praise the void, for this love, wasted love") to feeling isolation ("Here in the dark, I feel nothing, I see no one").

"Blood In The Tears" returns to the re-recordings section with a soft moving ballad like 3 of the earlier tracks. The band's talent is in broad range there! In "Loneliness", it makes sense that the band chose another song without screaming vocals nor a breakdown, since it never happens! With that said, it's nice when the song focuses on Ryan Clark's clean vocals. "I Am a Stone" sounds smoother than the other track from True Defiance, "Dead Flowers", this time being just a string-accompanied movement with some of the best written Demon Hunter lyrics. A little boring but still uplifting! Demon Hunter's love for ballads continues its display in "I Will Fail You". However, the later ballads from the band aren't usually as good as in their earlier albums. Not only that, the bridge is written better than the chorus that are usually what the band focuses more on. And by better, I mean so much better that it might be one of the more notable parts of the album, with that pattern repeating in later albums. While all those tracks in the second third of the album sound nice, it's just doesn't peak my interest as much as the originals, hence the rating staying at 2.5 stars.

"Deteriorate" is another ballad, beginning with slow acoustic guitar. Then the song picks up with Ryan's amazing clean singing. The lyrics are some of the best in the Christian realm of music. One of the best songs here! "Carry Me Down" is a stunning ballad that's absolutely gorgeous. It can make a good funeral song for Ryan Clark, with lyrics speaking of faith and heaven. The chorus is so comforting without much tension. "The Tide Began To Rise" has beautiful piano and violins, followed by Ryan's atmospheric voice that start the song, which is the second-to-last ballad and track here. Aside from the weird ambient background break, this is a good song that could use a little more work to fix the flow. Still it would be a good happy ending, but there's one more track left... Finally we reach the peaceful ballad "My Heartstrings Come Undone" which fits perfectly well as the finale. However, the lyrical subject is more cryptic.

See, that's a similar issue to what was up with their previous album Peace; the band got much softer in sound to the point where it's mostly ballads, and Songs of Death and Resurrection ended pushing the idea further. I'm a metalhead. I'm not one of those softer fans or radio stations in which the only songs from rock/metal bands they choose are ballads. While I do enjoy half the amount of ballads in their original forms, it's their loud metal sound they're supposed to be known for. There is beauty in those tracks, but just not something worth long-time interest. If the die-hard fans want to listen an entire one-hour acoustic album, they can go ahead. I prefer the heavier metalcore....

Favorites (mostly in their original recorded forms): "My Throat Is An Open Grave", "The Heart of a Graveyard", "Loneliness", "Deteriorate", "Carry Me Down", "My Heartstrings Come Undone"