Demon Preacher

Deathwish's Demon Preacher is one criminally underrated album, though judging by the reviews on here, whoever knows it loves it with great reason. Little is known about the background and origin of the British thrash quartet, and why they decided to call it quits after this absolute masterpiece of an album. Let's just hope it was something that would have been extremely detrimental to delivering this type of chiseled, cutting-edge speed thrash with a large dose of melody that we can hear on this magnificent sophomore record. This album is truly one of a kind, and it doesn't matter how much time you'll spend looking for stuff like this, I guarantee you that you will have a very hard time finding any. I've yet to hear anything that would have made me go "Wow, this sounds like Deathwish", and I heard a couple of underground thrash albums before.

Why is that? Just check out the album. The foundation of the album is traditional, tried 'n true speed thrash, much like early Razor and in addition, Whiplash's Power and Pain comes to mind regarding the style of this release. But that's just the foundation. Deathwish decided that instead of relying on more mainstream, common methods such as sheer brutality, they will make this record melodic. And I don't mean merely clever and effective, catchy, hooky riffs that you'd hear from the aforementioned Whiplash, because that's pretty common in this genre. I mean legitimately sophisticated and intellectually thought-out melodies that make this record melodic, in similar ways to how a power metal record or a speed metal record would be melodic. They serve as the main element the band builds on. Extremely few bands can mix melodies (in the conventional, traditional sense) with thrash metal, because there is such great polarity and contradiction between those two elements. But Deathwish pulled it off better than nearly anyone I can think of with the exception of Hexen, who are just as good.

The songs on here, as aforementioned are pretty speed-oriented, with very high paces on several of the songs. For example, "Carrion" hauls ass so fast that you'll have a pretty difficult time headbanging along to it, but it does not cross the line of chaotic massacre. Everything feels very much under control and well-controlled due to the soothing melodies during the chorus and the extreme precision with every note and beat. Same thing with my favorite song off the record "Wall of Lies" which easily has the most gripping and brilliantly written chorus. How they wrote something that smoothly flowing yet complex and sophisticated remains a secret of history. Not only that, but the solo of that song is another beast of its own. The solo is highly coherent and communicative, and you'll find your body completely taken over by the thrash metal brilliancy, and a wicked, rotten smile will spread across your face as you hear the main rhythm riff behind the shredding turn into the chorus riff after a blistering drum fill some time in the middle of the solo. All of that while holding the pedal to the metal. Jaw-dropping, utter brilliance in songwriting.

But Deathwish understood that they have to make this record complete, so they included a couple of more experimental pieces on here. Come on, dude, if that simple yet effective main riff over the ultra-tight, crushing, pounding drumming doesn't get you headbanging from 1:14 as the song picks up, you have serious issues you have to deal with. But the song is more experimental, because of the fact that it includes a minute-and-a-half long solo during which the song slows down entirely. Absolutely no problem, because Dave Brunt can handle it without showing any sign of exhaustion. His blues-scale shredding is way more intelligent and brainy than most lead guitar work in thrash metal. "Prey to the Lord" is the longest song on the album with its 7+ minute length. It doesn't feel that long though, due to the very clever switches in the drum patterns and the numerous sections the song goes through that are linked together by absolutely seamless transitions. Deathwish failed to make a mistake on the entire album.

While there is an unholy number of outstanding, amazing thrash metal albums from Europe, this is well beyond outstanding. Deathwish managed to write something that's not only perfect and complete in the style it was written, but they did something that essentially no band ever did except for one or two. They made melodic thrash metal. And you might doubt why I like this album so much, because you saw me talking about how br00tal and aggressive thrash albums are the best. True, but the fact that this is melodic and isn't necessarily ALL about aggression and malice, doesn't mean that this album isn't heavy enough. Make no mistake about it, this is a fucking heavy album. The drums and the neck-breaking speed create a backbone for this album that's more than strong enough to take this record up there with the very best. Sorry Onslaught, sorry Acid Reign, Hydra Vein and Xentrix... This is my favorite British thrash album of all time.