Demonic Slaughter - Dark Essence

DEMONIC SLAUGHTER - Dark Essence (HELLTHRASHER - MCD 2012)

I haven’t even expected to hear another Demonic Slaughter recording so soon, only just few months after the release of their third album, “Revelations of Death”. But when looking at the band’s biography, one may discover that the band was always very productive, and since their formation in 2006 the (demonic) slaughterers have managed to release three full length CDs and two EPs. “Dark Essence” is yet another EP in their career, one which is about to announce the upcoming fourth album (to be out later in 2012), released, just as the last CD, by the very active Hellthrasher Production.

Well, when listening to “Revelations of Death” I didn’t really know what to expect from this band, so now, when I got the chance to review “Dark Essence” my knowledge about Demonic Slaughter was much bigger. And I also had quite high expectations from this MCD, as the previous recording promised some really killer black metal tunes and definitely those seven tracks (including an intro) didn’t disappoint me at all. Well, to be honest I’ve got even more than I hoped, as “Dark Essence” shows a band, which knows their craft well and which knows exactly, which path to choose for themselves and what ways are the most appropriate to achieve their goals. Well, the music on those tracks is very well varied, in example “Inner-Self Transfiguration” being pretty classic, fast and brutal black metal devastation, which would bring you such bands as Mayhem, 1349 or Urgehal to mind, while “Into the Unknown” is something completely different, with unusual rhythms and guitar playing, to the point that… well, it even brings bands like Mortuary Drape to my mind. The band more easily creates the sinister and gloomy atmosphere, “Black Storm Invocation” being another fine example, as it basically is possessed, sick and disturbing kind of intro, with guitars making just some sort of noise rather than playing riffs (with no drums parts in it at all) and vocals yelling, screaming and howling like a tortured soul was experiencing the most horrendous pains. “Vampyr” is also such kind of a song, very similar to “Black Storm Invocation”, even in the similar way to the likes of Abruptum or more sickened fragments from Mayhem’s “Ordo at Chao” and 1349's "Revelations of the Black Flame".

As “Descending Towards Oblivion” and „Blades of Decay” are again more traditional black metal songs, in both sound and their structures, it results in “Dark Essence” being divided into two very different kinds of hellish and hateful styles. I actually like both quite a lot and I think that it’s cool that Demonic Slaughter has incorporated something like that into this EP, as it results in perfectly dark, but varied music. Besides, I must also underline how great are the vocals of Xaos Oblivion, sometimes they’re very similar to Attila’s inhuman yells, but Xaos delivers really well performed and arranged parts, using plenty of different styles of shrieking. Fantastic job, really! Probably my only complaint on the whole “Dark Essence” would go for the production, which could have been slightly better, maybe more powerful, but from the other hand such raw sound fits this sort of playing well, so it’s nothing serious. In the end I can tell that I’ve enjoyed this MCD quite a lot and can’t wait to hear the new album from those Polish devastators.

Final rate: 78/100