Demonic Battle Metal

For many years, I'd seen the name "Demonic Christ" pop up here and there, now and again, hither and yither from various extreme metal folks, more often than not spoken with incendiary tongues. Whether it's due to their music or their antics or the frontwoman being a serious seaward (from people who've actually dealt with her) it was, at times, too much to ignore no matter how much I tried my best. For my part, I had no real interest in them in the least no matter how much they were brought up; their name sounded tacky, half-thought out and uninteresting, so I could only wonder if the music would be just as undercooked. But shame on me, curiosity reared its delirious head to just give something of theirs a listen, anything at all, just to remove the blindfold that little bit to see if the condemnations held water. And so I did, with this, I figured, being the best place to start.

Well...

This is...bad. Embarrassingly bad. Achingly awful with almost nothing good about it whatsoever. If anyone ever needed a face, sound, or image to convey the ever-so prevalent negative traits of "USBM", then laddies and gentlewomen, I give you your straw man. "Demonic Battle Metal" is unbelievable in its trite ridiculousness. Simplistic thrash riffs, staticy distortion with very little (if ANY) amount of mixing, not-so convincing vocals and poorly written blasphemous litanies you could see coming a mile away. Yet to the group's benefit, things aren't always a single shade of vanilla, and depending on the era in which the songs were originally composed and recorded you'll either be lulled into doldrums or annoyed to the point of wall punching. Cases in point: the demo-era Cradle of Filth rumblings (complete with Filth-like growls) of "We Have Risen" toys with a good idea here and there but ultimately stays put all throughout, while the blisteringly brutal nonsense of "Blut und Ehre" rakes down your spine like a rusted railroad spike of irritation. Truly, it didn't matter what sound they were shooting for, death metal, black metal, crusty thrash, whatever else, it's all underdone and nauseating.

At best, the band is doing its damnedest to be extreme, fast and other unpleasant things, so I guess in that regard I can offer a tiny amount of good will their way. It's clear they have/had some kind of an idea on where to go with the tracks at hand (and the drummer's quite the beast behind the kit, so the beats are at least rather well done), but overall it's, for the most part, so horrid and out of control, or done a thousand times by a thousand other black metal acts, that it's almost unlistenable. It makes me wonder what kind of marketing DC could shoot for to have them appear grander than the rest of the American extreme metal horde out there outside of founding member Ms Duffey being their central figure, for clearly they ain't gettin' by on their sound alone, as this has been done before only better. It's not like they haven't tried (she's on the front cover, for Chrissake...), so on this I must ponder most profusely. ...or better yet, I can get back to forgetting this group ever existed. Good riddance.

In the end this sucked and isn't anything I've not been exposed to for the past 15 years or so, only more insubstantial. I'm starting to think the hissing in their direction is quite justified, and those who are, after all these years, still unsure of what they have to offer musically, I urge you to look elsewhere. Y'ain't findin' much with this.