Album Review: Demonstealer - And This Too Shall Pass
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
And This Too Shall Pass is the new E.P. from Mumbai based multi instrumentalist Demonstealer who is best known to most as the mastermind behind blackened death metallers Demonic Resurrection. With India in lockdown due to the global pandemic, Demonstealer found himself with a new perspective and the inspiration to write new music and the results are And This Too Shall Pass. It follows on from three previous albums and sees Demonstealer going back to his roots and performing all instruments and vocals himself having had a plethora of guest musicians on previous album The Last Reptilian Warrior in 2018.
The music on And This Too Shall Pass is very much in a death metal vein though there are touches of black metal here and there. This is far more in the school of melodic death metal than straight up death metal as each of the four songs has a distinct use of melody throughout whilst still retaining that death metal grit. This Crumbling Earth has the nice inclusion of clean vocals in places whilst A Festering Wound is more discordant sounding with a distinct tech-death influence. Systematic Failure is a bit more frantic with some tasty blast beats whilst From Flesh To Ashes is the most melodic and emotionally charged song with an exclusive use of clean vocals and some luscious melodies.
This is a very solid E.P. from Demonstealer. The four songs all have a slightly different sound which keeps things interesting and there are some clear influences throughout. I heard definite nods to bands such as Kataklysm, Cattle Decapitation, The Black Dahlia Murder and Soilwork. Definitely a recommended listen if you want some solid, no-nonsense melodic death metal. It is great to hear artists putting their time in the lockdown to good use and I’m sure the amount of bands who have been stuck in and writing is going to result in a tremendous amount of new music for us in 2021. Although thanks to the pandemic we have been deprived of live shows in 2020 it will definitely bring us plenty of new music to enjoy.
