True Defiance

I'm glad I already did my post on "Christian" music and culture, as it gives me a perfect segue into a review of an album I've really been enjoying lately. You may rememer Demon Hunter as one of the metal bands I recommended as successfully combining truth-filled lyrics with satisfying aesthetic merit. This is their recently released album, True Defiance.

This album gets me thinking more every time I listen to it. Like most metalcore bands, Demon Hunter is quite heavy and intense in their music; unlike most metalcore bands, Demon Hunter never seems to obsess over or revel in its heaviness, as if it's not all they are, just the means to a deeper end. The result is metal that sounds polished, but not pretentious., satisfying for its brutality as well as its truth and intellectual depth.

The opening song "Crucifix" gives you a good idea or what to expect from the album; melodeath-style guitar harmonies, rapid and super-precise drumming, and half-shouted, half-screamed vocals. It's one of the heavier songs on the album, especially on the chorus which focuses more on the rhythm than the melody. Their vocalist, Ryan Clark, is somewhat more intelligible than those of commonly cited "Christian" metalcore bands like As I Lay Dying and Underoath, which is great when you're singing cool lyrics like "We will follow vacant voices into a shallow grave/Reiterate the verses of some self-consuming slave/Now pay for the hell that you praise". Very dark song that wouldn't be considered "family-friendly" by any stretch, but it's ultimately about how amazingly good and powerful Christ's death on the cross was. There is also a spoken section which is quite well done; Clark has a surprisingly deep voice when not screaming and he uses it to great effect throughout this album.

"God Forsaken" is somewhat less fast and furious, with a plodding double-bass tempo underscoring much of it. The chorus is sung cleanly, which with Clark's aforementioned deep voice sounds really cool. The solo is mostly slow and even mournful, but after the final chorus the speed ramps up for an extended outro that seems to exist for no purpose other than to extend the usual formula and sound cool. Ultimately it's one of my favorite songs of the album. "My Destiny" similarly contrasts screamed verses (with blast beats!) with sung choruses (closer to the top of Ryan Clark's register). Lyrically, it's a somewhat abridged story of salvation ("We were blinded by the sacred light/That carried us away/Like a razor through the dark-filled night/My destiny") and one of the cooler songs of the album.

Later on the album, we get another strong track, "Someone to Hate", a metallic juggernaut built around a really bleak and dissonant-sounding riff that complements the lyrics about violent war against sin. The chorus trades off a super-heavy single guitar chord with rapid double-bass drumming for a really cool, almost whiplash-inducing effect. The next song "This I Know" is more anthemic than dissonant, with lyrics on my pastor Steve's third objective of the Christian life: doing as much damage to the kingdom of darkness as possible. These songs show how violent Demon Hunter's lyrical imagery can get while remaining rooted in the truth, a great message for anyone who thinks Christians should just be quiet and peaceful all the time. The sinful nature of man and our call to be in the world, but not of the world means that Christians will need to deal with tension and take stands every day, and this is the truth that Demon Hunter's music perfectly represents.

The main criticism I can raise to most of the album is that while excellent both musically and lyrically, it's a bit homogenous. There are, however, a few softer songs mixed in to shake things up. "Tomorrow Never Comes" is a straight-up power ballad that manages to work surprisingly well due to Clark's voice and its earnestness. It's a sign of a band mature enough to take a step back from making heavy stuff and not sound whiny in the process. "Means to an End" is a quiet instrumental track, a touch that metalcore bands seem to be fond of these days. "Dead Flowers" is even more saccharine, to the point of being best enjoyed with more than a touch of irony. The last bonus track "I Am A Stone" has mournful strings as its only instrumentation, which is kind of cool; I like the thoughtful lyrics, which seem more than a bit inspired by Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock".

Overall, this is a great album for metal lovers looking for something with music and lyrics they can really sink their teeth into.  The lyrics convey truth and inspire thought without ever subordinating the instrumentation to get a point across. Now I'm really interested in going through Demon Hunter's back catalog again.