Arisen

It's fucking confounding to me that this demo hasn't gotten more attention. For some reason literally every single demo band shitting out death metal anywhere in the world in the late 80's/early 90's is considered an "underground gem" and people spent who knows how many man-hours scouring the planet/internet for those things so that the long lost goods could finally be loved by everyone rather than like fourteen tape traders in 1993. Though there are certainly people making the effort, the same complete and total mining of heavy/speed/power metal gems hasn't yet reached total a total saturation point. Not that I'm claiming I'm the first young guy to unearth this band (their name was passed along to me by a more knowledgeable friend, anyway) but that they haven't been eaten up by the retro heavy metal crowd is baffling. I mean, their name is cool as hell, they've got a badass logo with evil crosses/inverted crosses, they've got a raw, necro but clear production that does the music tons of favors, they've got a lo-fi black and white promo photo taken in a nighttime graveyard - basically they check all the Hell's Headbangers/Stormspell/Shadow Kingdom Records boxes that a young heavy/power/speed band that worships the 80's and Satan in equal measure could hope for, except this band actually *is* from the 80's.

There's some Priest in this, some Cirith Ungol and maybe some Omen, but the whole thing is just evil as shit and has a demonic Mercyful Fate vibe going on that simply cannot be denied. Before I even get into the riffs, special attention needs to be given to the drums. They're not remotely tech or anything, but they just thunder like crazy. There's no way to listen to the drum performance and not imagine that the dude is sitting there bashing the ever-loving fuck out of his drum kit. The toms especially have this really satisfying rumble to them and are played in a way that reminds me of equal parts John Bonham and Ginger Baker. While the riffing is pure metal, the savagery of the drum performance and production adds some real rock swagger to the material. Bassist Brian "The Prince of Darkness" Joseph deftly ducks in, under and through the drums, thumping along with the pulse of the music yet adding playful little licks to the riffs here and there that are dripping with garage charm. You know, the kind of garage with a sacrificial altar in it.

But the riffs! O Dark Lord, the riffs! With only a single guitar player on board, the band opts for a riff-centric approach with two guitars panned way out to the sides. Sometimes both hammering on the same evil incarnate riff, sometimes playing minor variations on the same to add some harmonic richness to the stereo effect, the riffs themselves favor a midpaced head-nodding groove, sometimes Sabbathian doom-tinged and sometimes pushing into speedier territory, but always playing in scales that invoke images of candle-lit skulls and rusted dungeon gates. My favorites might be the groove monsters that inhabit album centerpiece "Dark Rebel," the sheer doom of the beginning of epic closer "Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned" or the ripping fast speed metal bits of "The Field of Blood." Guitar solos are dubbed over right down the center of the mix, but are mixed with a deft and organic hand that makes this approach work extremely well rather than sounding awkward as one might fear in gritty metal such as this.

Tying the whole thing together is the impassioned performance of frontman Terrence Kysar. Sometimes moaning on in a ritualistic mid-ranged deadpan, sometimes hitting wailing histrionics, the guy is always, always on point, his crooning and yelping sounding like it's coming from about twelve feet back in some open crypt over in the corner, yet projected with gusto for maximum terror. The way he shifts his voice from hypnotizing mid-range to wailing banshee highs in "The Field of Blood"'s wordless bridge section is as good an intro to Kysar's stylistically perfect singing on this album as any.

The songs here are just so well put-together and perfectly sequenced. Shit, there are even two brief interlude tracks that tie their surrounding songs together wonderfully. The result is something that really feels like a complete release, a true album, rather than just some demo tracks slapped together onto a tape. People who live for stuff like Natur, Harbinger, Swedish stuff like early In Solitude or Portrait would be well served by giving this a shot. Just a shitload of fun, with riffs out the ass, cool solos, a rollicking good rhythm section and flawless vocals, all wrapped up in enough darkness and evil to get any satanic retro/trad metal fan salivating. Give it a listen and, like me, lament the fact that the band only stuck around long enough to give us this solitary demo.