Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Demon Hunter - The World Is a Thorn (2010)
What better way to start the 2010s decade than with a couple Christian groove metalcore albums? Living Sacrifice's The Infinite Order came first, then Demon Hunter would blow your minds away with The World Is A Thorn! While about 10 years younger than Living Sacrifice, 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 two 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.
"Descending Upon Us" begins with an epic guitar intro that would almost fit well in an Unearth album, then the fast heavy metalcore action commences. "Lifewar" continues the fast heaviness but it's too short at just 2 minutes and filled with uninteresting Mudvayne-ish nu metal. Doesn't bring down the perfect score though. After that extreme opening duo, we have "Collapsing" 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. "This Is The Line" is another awesome heavy song. That song's chorus is a little cheesy with more clean singing and not as much shouting as the rest of the song that the shouting plagues.
"Driving Nails" is a beautiful song continuing the ballad tradition the band has in every album. Then the thrash metal title track would pummel you and sever you apart with strong lyrics about the secular world. "Tie This Around Your Neck" continues hitting you hard with deep lyrics about the idea of complete dependence of man that is a weight (NOT a noose) tied around our necks.
Another standout is "Just Breathe" leveling up the heaviness especially with the guest vocals by Christian Älvestam, vocalist of formerly Scar Symmetry and now Solution .45 (two of my favorite melodeath bands during my younger melodic side). It sounds like a tough challenge for you to breathe through all this speed and intensity. Those guys really succeed at different speeds! The high guitar screeches in the verse of "Shallow Water" sound obnoxious, but what's enjoyable is, they don't last long so they're still far away from the point of making your ears bleed. Third guest Dave Peters of Throwdown adds some killer growling in "Feel As Though You Could" increasing the aggression in the verses in contrast with the melodic chorus. A perfectly fit structure! The finale "Blood In The Tears" returns to the tradition of wrapping up the album with a soft moving ballad that the band had in their first 3 albums. The band's talent is in broad range there!
The World Is A Thorn is tied with 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. God bless this band!
Favorites: Descending Upon Us, Collapsing, This Is The Line, Just Breathe, Feel As Though You Could