Release Date: 10 April 2012
Genre: Christian, Metalcore, Heavy
Metal
Length: 48:37
Label: Solid State Records
Similar artists: Becoming The
Archetype, War of Ages, Disciple, Haste the Day
Rating: 4/5
Crucifix is an excellent pacesetter to start
off True Defiance (Demon Hunter's sixth full-length album).
Annihilating drum fills and Ryan Clark pouring out some of his best vocal
performance in years. Clark’s vocals are magnificent once again as his crisp
voice has perfect tone and his screams add just the right amount of “in-your-face”
aggression.
People that are new to Demon Hunter will find "God
Forsaken" and "Dead
Flowers" especially pleasing, and more 'core listeners will enjoy
"We Don't Care" and
"This I Know". True
Defiance seems to juggle a combination of metalcore, groove metal, thrash, and
emo, offering up a truly great addition to Demon Hunter’s repertoire. While still
holding on to Demon Hunter's signature and incredibly unique take on the metalcore
scene, True Defiance truly
stands out as one of their best albums thus far and when I found out that the
album was mixed by Jason Suecof (Trivium, All That Remains, August Burns Red), I knew that it was going to sound amazing!
Several of
the tracks on this album are “bold” if I can put it that way, but they do not
make you stop and think, “Wow, that’s load”… instead they are rather pleasing
in their brashness. The track "Wake" really hits you out of the blue
after its crippling introduction. The choruses on tracks like "God
Forsaken", which the first time around gave me goosebumps, and "My
Destiny" are passionate and even beautiful in a distinctly metal way. The
album's two ballads are also intensely melodic. The highlight of the two is unquestionably
the haunting tune of "Dead Flowers," although "Tomorrow Never
Comes" is excellent as well.
"This
record is without a doubt our most aggressive. Every Demon Hunter record must
be a step up from the last. I know that's a goal for every band, but it seldom
works that way - especially today, especially in metal. It seems like most
band's prime years are long behind them. I refuse to let that be the case for
us. We've been extremely underwhelmed with metal for the last five years or so,
and that's been the fuel to create this record. With an extreme over-saturation
of false, fleeting, trend-hopping noise in today's metal scene, we had to make
something we've been longing to hear. Something truly meaningful and artistic.
Something our fans would love and something that will turn the heads of those
who have ignored us for the past decade." - Ryan Clark, on the band's
direction with True Defiance.
I believe this is the heaviest album
we have reviewed to date, and for many of you True Defiance will not be you particular cup of tea. It saddens me
to think that many, many music lovers across the world are convinced that all
metal bands are evil in some way, they are scared by the loud, heavy and
aggressive nature of the songs, I’ve had many conversations with people about this
subject and I’m sad to say that more often than not people ask me “Is there
really such a thing as Christian Metal?? I thought all metal was from the
devil”. Demon Hunter is one of
many bands that break that particular way of thinking.
True
Defiance is in many ways just the kind of album that you would
expect to get from a band as old as Demon Hunter. It's not highly experimental nor
is it particularly cutting-edge; instead it is a very well-polished tribute to
the genre of music that Demon Hunter has taken by storm for all these years.
You can say that instead of changing their formula, they have simply fine-tuned
their sound to a point of near faultlessness.
This week’s Song Of
The Week is “God Forsaken”
D
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