Originally written by Erik Thomas.
I must be a real glutton for punishment, signing up for the new album of arguably the most prominent and popular of the Christian metal bands. And initially after the stout thrash of the opening title track, I’m thinking “Hah — this review will make those Christian metal haters eat their words.”
And then it all goes to commercial, predictable, nu metal, pop rock shit.
So basically Demon Hunter have been a band that Christian metalheads could point to as their flagship, respectable band, except now, rather than the sort of As I Lay Dying-lite they once were, they come across as Nickelback meets Stompbox meets Mudvayne meets gospel.
Replete with endless soaring clean, sugary choruses, ballads, and the odd orchestral backdrop laced with the usual worship-filled lyrics with a metal ‘edge’, Demon Hunter are as drab a sham of a metal act as there is, even for the heavily Christian but usually respectable Solid State. The ‘metal’ aspect of Demon Hunter has lessened even more since the acceptable The Triptych, with and even more commercial radio gloss smothering the once competent metal side to Demon Hunter’s faith based tones.
And that’s a bitter pill to swallow after the opener, because as the album descends into radio metal mediocrity with tracks like balladic clunkers (“Fading Away”, “Carry Me Down”), the orchestral “Sixteen”, the nu metal chunk of “A Thread of Light”, cringe inducing “Incision” and pure pop tripe of “Thorns” and “Follow the Wolves”, a few moments of thrash promise peek through as heard on “I Am You” and “Fiction Kingdom”. But in totality, this isn’t metal enough to be considered metalcore anymore. It’s not helped by the fact singer Ryan Clark, while having a decent radio pop rock voice has one of the most forced and false ‘growls’ (an element that’s gradually been faded out) I’ve ever heard, cementing the albums overall ‘faux’ sound.
At least The Triptych had a cover of Prong’s “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck,” but Storm the Gates of Hell is 12 (or 14, depending which of the three versions you get) tracks of drivel. I’ll take As I Lay Dying, Becoming the Archetype or even The Devil Wears Prada and As Cities Burn over this, as at least they have some respectable metal to back their beliefs.
Just sign to Sony, Warner Bros or Universal, already.
