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May 17, 2012 |
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By Tony Antunovich
September 17, 2004
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01. Wargods
02. Firestorms
03. Witchburners
04. 14.th Century Plague
05. Hunger My Consort
06. The Evocation
07. Arrival Of The Horsemen
08. End Of Our Times
09. Death
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DEMONOID is the brand new side project consisting of THERION members Christofer Johnsson (vocals), Kristian Niemann (guitars) and brother Johan Niemann (bass), and former SOILWORK drummer Rickard Evensand (currently in CHIMAIRA). Kristian Niemann first came up with the idea to put the project together quite some time ago, but it just did not become a finished product until recently. The actual recording of the album took place back in December of 2002 followed by the mixing and mastering over the next two months. Right from the start, the concept behind DEMONOID was to focus on creating brutal music - a pure blend of violent old school death and thrash, mixed together with scattered seeds of modern day black metal. The result is so frighteningly good it will shock you. If you are expecting to hear some heavier version of THERION here, that's not going to happen. What you WILL hear is some of the most savage metal you have ever heard, and then some.
The concept behind "Riders Of The Apocalypse" is actually quite brilliant! It's a story that combines elements of real world history as well as fantasy with emphasis placed upon the biblical figures, the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse, and the corruptions of organized religions. It tells the tale of the crimes committed by humanity throughout the centuries and how the gods have punished mankind repeatedly - but mankind does not learn from its mistakes and hopes for permanent change are fading away. A small "sect" are the only ones on earth that have determined that mankind can never be cured and thus, see no other way out but to bring forth the total annihilation of man.
So they use all the force of the crimes committed through the centuries to summon all four Riders (at the same time) to ascend unto the earth to unleash the final destruction of mankind. After it is all said and done, the death Riders spare the life of only one man, whom they leave to live among the remains - to live in repentance and to bear witness to the destruction of what once was. Not to sound like I am overanalyzing, but the whole "Riders" concept reminds me a lot of the Ringwraiths in "The Lord Of The Rings". The similarity between the two is very cool!
The songs themselves are split up into three separate parts, or chapters if you will, which each tell its own portion of the story. Tracks 1-3 tell about some of man's most horrible crimes, tracks 4-6 explain the gods' punishments on humanity and how the "sect" summoned the horsemen, and tracks 7-9 describe the arrival of the death Riders and the beginning of the end of mankind. Kicking off the journey to destruction with full-force, "Wargods" is a very violent, thrashy track full of slamming drums, demonic gnarling by Christofer Johnsson and killer guitar work from Kristian Niemann. Its title appropriately describes its meaning - a full-on tale about the gods of war and the global destruction they inflicted upon the planet. "Firestorms" is equally as fast and devastating. The last song describing the crimes of man, "Witchburners", carries a nice constant riff throughout, and Niemann executes the solo with absolute perfection.
This guy is more talented than I thought! "Hunger My Consort" is my favorite track on the CD. It starts off with a wicked guitar intro then slides right into a pummeling attack of deathly growls, sweeping solos and earth-shattering drumming. "The Evocation" describes the dialogue between the "sect" and the Riders. Lyrics like "You've awaken us finally fools and offered us eternal reign, night and day we will turn into red and as we are here we will stay" really show the band's imagination and their command of the spoken word. Niemann's guitar work in this one is just unbelievable. Another one of the standouts on the disc is "The End Of Our Times". Here we see some more of Evensand's skin-bashing ability, not to mention Johnsson's vocals. I really like the epic-style guitar riff during each part of the chorus as well.
Most of the music on the disc was written by the Niemann brothers, along with Christofer Johnsson chipping in a bit here and there. It was recorded at THERION's own Modern Art studios with Kristian Niemann taking on most of the arrangement and recording duties. Although I have tried my best to describe most of the songs contained herein, my words really cannot possibly do the album much justice. It's that damn good! My only complaint is that the album is not long enough. A concept such as this could have easily warranted another 4 or 5 songs at least (in my humble opinion). I think the band have done a very good job of covering all bases here though. If the players decide to do another DEMONOID album, creating a storyline which continues on the same path - maybe a tale about the aftermath of the obliteration of man or something along those lines - that would be very interesting to see.
For now, I am going to nominate "Riders Of The Apocalypse" as one of the best releases of 2004. The quality of the metal is nothing short of amazing. I would strongly recommend this album to any metal fan, especially if you like old school style death and thrash with a modern feel. Trust me, it's worth your time and money. Buy the CD today!
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