Release Date: September 08th 2023. Record Label: Gravitoyd Heavy Music. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Demons Seem To Gather: Tracklisting
The Tower Falls
Bring The Night
Inner Slay
Ghosts Of You
Make Them Pay
Fire Mountain
Your Bones
We Are The Resistance
Review:
Demons Seem To Gather is the debut album from Doom/Stoner Metallers Demons My Friends and it's quite an accomplished debut from a band who have only been going since 2022. Taking the Sludge/Stoner Metal melodies of bands such as High On Fire, Mastodon and Torche but with the Psychedelic textures of King Buffalo and All Them Witches. There's also a bombastic style of Grunge that allows the album to have a more cautionary and classic sound which you can fully experience early on the outstanding opening song The Tower Falls.
The Tower Falls has a vibrant and highly melodic style of Sludge/Stoner Rock/Metal with a heavy down-tuned Doom based approach. The vocals remind me of Baroness and Mastodon with an Alternative edge appearing within the lyrics. The sound is always bang on point with a FUZZ and AMPLIFIER based attitude appearing within the production values throughout the album.
Second song Bring The Night is more restrained in places for the early stages of the song with the sludgy grooves before moving into heavier areas of the Sludge/Stoner Metal creative template Demons My Friends employ here. The track fuses Post-Metallic energy with deft touches of Hardcore aggression to add extra bite within the heavier parts of the track. The second half sees Demon My Friends play a more Progressive style of music with the drone-ish vocals working surprisingly well with the first rate guitars.
Third song Inner Slay has a heavier and darker presence compared to the other tracks on the album within both the music and lyrics that offers some of the heaviest grooves on the album. Demons My Friends play a slower style of music but it adds a more eerie and chilling atmosphere especially when the mood becomes more THRASH based which will delight fans of High On Fire. The Psychedelic and Fuzzier sounds wisely adapts to a more LOW & SLOW approach on the later stages of the track.
Fourth song Ghosts Of You sees the band change their vocal styles for a more melancholic and indie rock delivery but the music always remains Sludgy with Psychedelic gloomy textures which build upto a killer style of Post-Stoner based instrumental jams. The album does become more volatile on this track alone with the AMPLIFIER DISTORTION and Guitar Reverb allowing Demons My Friends to become aggressively LOUD and quite punishing at times. This is one of the standout tracks on the album.
The second half of the album sees Demon My Friends continue with their highly creative style of Sludge/Stoner Metal with areas of Classic Hard Rock and Grunge taking centre stage more on tracks such as: Make Them Pay, Fire Mountain and We Are The Resistance. Demons My Friends do try different things with their music on this part of the album with screeching vocals and experimental sounds being played just for the hell of it. However, there's always a fine amount of intense grooves and sublime vocals to leave you wanting to hear more great music such as this.
Demons Seem To Gather is a highly captivating and first rate release from Demons My Friends that offers genuine thrills and spills within the LOUD VOLUME department. The Doom/Stoner Metal scene has another wonderful band to fully get behind and get truly excited about. As this album delivers on all fronts.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to US/THEM PR for the promo.
Demons Seem To Gather will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Gravitoyd Heavy Music from September 08th 2023.
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