Rating: 9.5 / 10 Stars
DEMON HUNTER is: Ryan Clark (vocals), Patrick Judge (guitar), Jeremiah Scott (guitar), Jonathon “Jon” Dunn (bass), Timothy “Yogi” Watts (drums/percussion).
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REVIEW – DEMON HUNTER come out swinging on War, an album built from crushing riffs, dark atmosphere, pounding rhythms, and that constant battle between gruff aggression and soaring clean vocals. There is very little here that feels restrained. Even when the band slows things down or lets eerie sounds crawl through the mix, there is always a sense that something heavier is waiting just around the corner.
“Cut To Fit” opens with strange sounds slowly enveloping you before a heavy beat comes crashing through. Crunchy guitars start tearing into the atmosphere while gruff and clean vocals push against each other, immediately establishing the tension that drives so much of the record. It is heavy without simply relying on speed, and the way the song moves from unsettling atmosphere into sheer weight pulls you straight into War.
“On My Side” feels like being lost inside a black abyss before the drums and bass come pounding through the darkness. The rhythm is solid and forceful, but it is the emotion in the vocals that really takes over. There is something almost disorienting about the way the song pulls at your imagination, carrying you down a strange musical path while the band keeps hammering away underneath it. Heavy music does not have to sacrifice emotion, and this song proves it.
“Close Enough” keeps that darkness alive with eerie melodies before moving into a fist-pumping rhythm. The guitars scream over the top while the vocals move between gruff aggression and cleaner melodic passages. It is the kind of track that makes you want to throw a fist in the air while still getting lost in everything happening underneath the surface.
Then “Unbound” just hits.
This is a fast, heavy, punch-you-in-the-face metallic assault that does not waste time trying to ease you into anything. The song comes charging forward with the kind of energy that makes you want to turn the volume up and let the music slam into you. After the atmosphere of the opening tracks, “Unbound” feels like DEMON HUNTER ripping the brakes off completely.
“Grey Matter” pulls you somewhere entirely different. Eerie melodies slowly creep in before a sound grabs hold of you and refuses to let go. Close your eyes and the track begins carrying you along this weird musical path where atmosphere and heaviness seem to blend together. There is a hypnotic quality underneath the darkness, making the song feel less like something you simply listen to and more like something you get pulled inside.
“The Negative” does not bother with subtlety. It grabs you by the throat and slams you straight into the wall. Everything feels immediate and confrontational, with the band delivering the kind of crushing momentum that makes the song hit hard from the first moments and never really loosen its grip.
“Ash” takes that aggression and turns it into pure destruction. Shredding. Ripping. Tearing. Thundering. Pounding. Dark metal. The guitars feel like they are cutting through everything in their path while the rhythm section keeps beating the song forward. There is a raw physical force to it that makes the track feel almost violent in the way it attacks the senses.
“No Place For You Here” is driven by a riff that cuts right through you. It is one of those guitar lines that immediately grabs your attention and stays there, pushing its way through your senses while the rest of the band builds around it. The song does not need anything overly complicated to make its point. Sometimes all it takes is the right riff, the right rhythm, and enough weight behind both to knock you backward.
“Leave Me Alone” is pure fist-in-the-air, foot-stomping, head-banging music. The song moves back and forth between faster and slower sections, constantly changing the way your body reacts to it. One moment you are being driven forward, the next you are locked into a heavier groove, and then everything takes off again. That push and pull gives the track a restless energy that keeps it moving without ever becoming predictable.
“Lesser Gods” closes things with strange sounds once again enveloping the senses before the music reaches out, grabs you, and pulls you downward. Heavy and melodic elements move together instead of fighting against one another, creating a closing track that feels like the different sides of War finally coming together. The darkness is still there. The weight is still there. But melody keeps cutting through, giving the song an emotional edge that makes the ending feel bigger than one last crushing riff.
War is exactly what its title suggests.
This is DEMON HUNTER pushing hard into the darker, heavier side of their sound. The guitars crunch, scream, shred, and rip. The drums pound. The bass drives everything forward. The vocals move between gruff aggression and clean emotion, giving the record both brutality and depth. Yet underneath all that force are strange sounds, eerie melodies, shifting rhythms, and atmospheric moments that keep the album from becoming nothing more than one long attack.
That balance is what makes War work.
Songs like “Unbound,” “The Negative,” and “Ash” hit with pure metallic aggression, while “On My Side,” “Grey Matter,” and “Lesser Gods” pull the listener into darker and stranger territory. “Close Enough” and “Leave Me Alone” bring that fist-pumping, head-banging energy, while “No Place For You Here” proves that sometimes one killer riff is enough to cut through everything else.
From the strange opening sounds of “Cut To Fit” to the heavy and melodic pull of “Lesser Gods,” DEMON HUNTER never let the listener get comfortable. The album keeps changing direction, shifting from atmosphere to aggression, from melody to crushing heaviness, and from emotional vocals to pure metallic force.
War grabs you, shakes you, beats you down, and keeps coming.
And when the final notes disappear, you feel like you just survived exactly what the title promised.
For more information on DEMON HUNTER, visit:
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