Demonstealer is the stage name of Sahil Makhija, frontman of well known Indian metal band Demonic Resurrection. He began his musical career at the age of 17 when he formed Demonic Resurrection in the year 2000. Over his 20 year career, he’s been a part of many projects and guested with various bands. In 2008 he released his first solo album ‘…And Chaos Will Reign’ which was recorded, mixed and mastered all by himself in just 19 days. In 2016 he released his 2nd solo album ‘This Burden Is Mine’ featuring the legendary George Kollias on drums.
Demonstealer began work in 2017 on the follow up release and this time he collaborated with 9 incredible musicians. The 8 track album featured 5 drummers, Krimh, Romain Goulon, Kevin Paradis, David Diepold and Dan Presland. It also featured 2 bass players Arran McSporan and Stefano Fraancescini along with guitar solos by Shoi Sen, Mendel bij de Leij, Yatin Srivastava and Rami H. Mustafa. For his latest track “Sic Semper Tyrannis”, he has joined forces with prolific bassist Mohini Dey and legendary drummer Gino Banks, and that’s what we are reviewing here.
“Sic Semper Tyrannis” is a Latin phrase meaning “thus always to tyrants”. It suggests that bad, but just outcomes should or eventually will befall tyrants. On the track, Demonstealer plays some pummeling riffs that have a nice level of grit and rawness to them. A lot of modern metal tends to be plagued by overproduction which ends up sounding sterile. Fortunately, “Sic Semper Tyrannis” steers clear of that and brings a rich and organic sound to the table. The riffs have enough catchiness, groove and technicality to be memorable and savagely headbang-worthy.
Mohini Dey does a stellar job on the bass and goes way beyond just filling up the low end. The production makes it clearly audible and there are times when it takes the centre stage and every single slap takes the groove level of the song up to 11.
Gino Banks’ has done a spectacular job with the drums. The drumming is heavy, groovy and relentless at times. Doesn’t get tiresome or monotonous as Banks plays some awesome fills throughout, pounding on the skins with sheer metallic force, probably the highlight of the track.
The vocal performance is adequate and does the job of driving the song’s message very well. Most of the vocal lines are sung in low pitched gurgles but Demonstealer does change the pitch at times to add more variety and melody to the song.
“Sic Semper Tyrannis” is a tour de force of heavy, technical and musical metal with some deliciously groovy rhythms.
Verdict: Hic magnus mortem metallum.
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