AN NCS PREMIERE: DEMIURGON — “TSANTSAS”

 

The song you’re about to hear should probably be delivered with a supplemental oxygen supply — just a mask, a tube, and a small canister capable of feeding your lungs long enough to make it through this 2 1/2 minute hurricane of sound without gasping for air. To avoid utter evisceration, it might also be a good idea to borrow some Kevlar body armor.

“Tsantsas” is the name of this breathtaking assault, and it comes blazing at us from the sophomore album of the Italian death metal band Demiurgon. Entitled The Oblivious Lure, it will be released on July 12th by Everlasting Spew Records. It arrives four years after the band’s 2015 full-length debut, Above the Unworthy, whose music we praised repeatedly at this site in the lead-up to its release, and attempted to sum up in this flurry of words:

 

photo by Roberta Tucci

 

“It’s loaded with riffs that swarm like wasps and writhe like a viper nest, propelled by off-the-hook drumming and a grinding bass line, and voiced by a lycanthropic madman. The music is mercilessly brutal, eye-wateringly technical, and packed with grooves that hit like a heavyweight. On top of that, the songs include searing melodic guitar solos that come in like an extra jolt of adrenaline just when you think you’ve already gotten an overdose. Speaking of melodies, the songs are laced with musical motifs that are malevolent and stinking of plague.”

Little wonder that we’ve been eager to hear what these barbarians might do next, and it’s already clear that they have triumphantly avoided the dreaded sophomore slump. Perhaps that was to be expected, because most of Demiurgon‘s line-up were making music together even before forming Demiurgon, through their participation in the death metal band Hatred, whose first release was in 2005. The members of the band also have many other credits on their resumes, having also enriched the line-ups of such groups as Unbirth, Darkend, and Valgrind.

But let’s get back to “Tsantsas“, which is emblematic of Demiurgon‘s melding of enraged old-school brutality and jaw-dropping technicality. It is indeed breathtakingly fast and electrifyingly vicious, launched by a blood-lusting howl, a blizzard of light-speed drumming, and a guitar assault that sounds utterly berserk. The pace of the song is unrelenting, and so is the eye-popping nature of the instrumental and vocal melee, with the band discharging imperious vocal roars over a shifting kaleidoscopic pattern of skittering, shrieking, squealing, fret-leaping guitar work.

Although there is a chaotic feel to the music, it’s tightly executed, and there are through-lines of groove and pulsating melody that hold the song together. Still, it’s a hell of a savage thrill-ride, so fill your lungs before you get into it.

 

photo by Roberta Tucci

 

Everlasting Spew astutely recommends The Oblivious Lure for fans of Beheaded, Cattle Decapitation, Origin, and Monstrosity — though names like Immolation, Hate Eternal, and Krisiun are also good reference points. Lyrically, the songs explore themes of human decadence and the devastation of the world, framed by the different emotional angles of anger, anguish, and contempt.

The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Art Distillery Studio (Modena) by Demiurgon and Claudio “Corvo” Mulas. The cover art was created by the fantastic Chris Cold. The album is available for pre-order now, and you can check out streams of two other previously released tracks — “Kapalikas” and “Il Culto Cannibale” — just below our own premiere stream of “Tsantsas”.

PRE-ORDER:
https://everlastingspew.com/
https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-oblivious-lure

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/Demiurgon