Demon Hunter - Extremist (2014)^{Release ID: 5482}

Some bands have the fear of becoming a failure when they first start, but they conquer their fear and enter a long career where they're never capable of failing. Their sound gets worked out and within a few years, released several strongly received albums that motivate them to continue their refined craft. One of those bands is Demon Hunter! Active for 20 years as of this review, they've gained international presence and have a versatile metalcore sound with thrash songs and introspective ballads.

When the band released their seventh album Extremist, Demon Hunter fans knew that this album would some extreme diversity going. And they've been right! Every song has a different identity from one another and are never too similar.

"Death" opens the album with strange foreign chanting over a rumbling dissonant buildup that sounds almost like a metal remix of something from Audiomachine or Two Steps From Hell. After that, the song becomes a slow death-doom-like head-banger with snarled lyrics of vicious hatred ("Just who do you think I am?! I AM DEATH!!") that would traumatize the young and weak into hiding in their blanket for many weeks. The second track "Artificial Light" is the first song Demon Hunter fans would hear from this album when it was the album's lead single. Another heavy song! "What I’m Not" continues the heavy vein of the previous two tracks before greater interest comes in the next track. "The Last One Alive" demonstrates the ability Demon Hunter has to sound rock-ish while still being as heavy as the previous tracks. It's a brilliant composition shows you what the band does the best. There's never any descent into harsh vocal chaos, but the atmosphere massively overpowers anything chaotic. A definite example of brilliant composition and overpowering atmosphere all in a single song!

Demon Hunter's love for ballads continues its display in "I Will Fail You". However, the band's later ballads 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. Returning to the heavy side, "One Last Song" is an energetic hardcore song with a sing-along chorus. It has similar composition and structure to "The Last One Alive" but with higher thrash emphasis. "Cross to Bear" is much heavier, the heaviest song here, sounding as heavy as some of the heavy songs from the previous two albums with the most full-on savage lyrics you would ever hear from this band. "Hell Don’t Need Me" is slower and sludgier that's interesting but doesn't do anything new.

"In Time" is another somewhat interesting heavy song and the longest in this album's standard edition at just almost exactly 5 minutes. "Beyond Me" really packs some punches into your mouth. It's just filled with screams and cleans over the typical Demon Hunter composition and structure. "Gasoline" is a glorious ballad with a climatic breakdown that perfectly fits. "The Heart of a Graveyard" is probably the second non-ballad song to close an album after "The Wrath of God" from Storm the Gates of Hell, this song being much stronger and ending the album in energetic pace. With a synthesized intro and the vocals being entirely clean, it can almost be considered a pop/rock-ish song. That song deserves some radio play!

In a way, Extremist has Demon Hunter's usual diverse mix of extreme and melody. You can still hear some similarities to their older material and a couple songs lose the plot of the concept and the sound. However, this album shows a definite variety of stylistic choices committed to the band. Pretty much every track from beginning to end has been constructed from multiple influences and styles flowing much smoother than a waterfall down a tall mountain. You would need to listen to every song if you want a complete diverse experience. You want anything from this band? They got it right here....

Favorites: "Death", "The Last One Alive", "Beyond Me", "Gasoline", "Heart of a Graveyard"