Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Demonica Demonstrous Company: Massacre Release: 2010 Genre: Thrash Reviewer: EC

Ripping...

Good to see Hank Sherman out in the plant working. It is fairly obvious that King Diamond has no interest in another Fate album, leaving Sherman and the Danes with nothing much to do. The famed Fate guitarist joins up with a cross-the-globe supergroup in the form of Demonica, a hard hitting Bay Area thrash outfit that merges three decades and styles perfectly. The debut, "Demonstrous", comes by way of Massacre Records and hits the European and Japan market in 2010. The band consists of Sherman and Locicero (Forbidden) on guitar, drummer Mark Hernandez (Forbidden), Grabowski on bass (Corruption) and singer Klaus "Hyr" Hansen (Battalion). The album was produced by Dave Otero (Cephalic Carnage) and sounds polished and downright bombastic with it's clarity and engineering. The values remind me of the big sounds coming out of Tue Madsen's Ant Farm Studios.

Demonica doesn't hide their intentions at all, ripping through an assortment of Bay Area thrash that melts the last Slayer output, honestly this band is adding more to the genre than even the South-Of-Heaven-Kings. What I like about this album is the group's ability to capitalize on the speed of thrash, enhancing it by adding in a modern power metal element that would only sound fresh and new with Otero's production standards backing it. Without that you are left with....well something like Imagika or Temple Of Brutality...which isn't a good thing. "Demonstrous" combines that Beyond Fear ripper style with the all out assault and aggression of Slayer (or today's hip kids in Austrian Death Machine). The band isn't afraid to throw in huge stomp riffs, speedy texts and of course the licks-array of Sherman's mad skills.

Highlights are the near-inhuman double bass backed "Demon Class" (Youtube single), the Venom like "Ghost Hunt" (vocals like Araya and Cronos) and the power metal "Alien Six" (like new Agent Steel). Fans of modern Kreator, mid-era Slayer, and Beyond Fear should eat this up. The band also boast the best album cover thus far courtesy of Gustavo Sazes.