Today we’re fiendishly pleased to premiere Under the Blacklight of Divine, the debut EP from the Indonesian band Demon Sacrifice, which will officially be released tomorrow by the Indonesian label Ironbound Records.
We are “fiendishly pleased” because Demon Sacrifice‘s music is indeed fiendish, and fiendishly clever. They bring to the table a mixture of visceral punk beats, howling vocal terrors, and the kind of black metal that gets its hooks in the head but also sounds thoroughly supernatural.
They claim “indirect” influence from the likes of Bathory, Darkthrone, Devil Master, Spectral Wound, and Tribulation, and you’ll understand the use of the word “indirect” when you hear the music, because it’s not a blatant copy any of those bands.
Demon Sacrifice waste no time showing us who they are on this EP, providing four concise songs and a surprising instrumental interlude that collectively shroud the senses with sounds of feral energy and near-gothic horror.
The opener “Summoning From the Abyss” quickly creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere with shrill wavering tones that seem like dismal and demented sirens from an unearthly dimension, as if indeed summoning something dark and dreadful from an abyss. Down below, a blood-pumping rhythm arrives, like the throbbing pulse of that thing awakened, and a vicious voice howls.
The music writhes and pierces the senses; the bass vividly pulsates; the drums shift into a punk gallop; and the beastly vocals echo from a dank pit.
Demon Sacrifice continue spreading an aura of macabre moonlight madness with the follower “Haunting Night“, again creating electrifying guitar swarms with a menacing sound and relying on primal punk rhythms to activate the listener’s reptile brains.
Eventually, freakish fretwork spasms and sinister scything riffage make the music sound dangerously searing and blood-lusting, as well as imperiously diabolical, and those lycanthropic howls continue coming for the throat with teeth bared.
The title track arrives next, and it sounds like the spinning revels of wraiths, cruel and crazed, backed by pounding and skipping grooves and pierced by screeching string tortures, brazen blaring chords, and another dose of those monstrously malignant vocals. The quivering and wailing reverberations of the guitars resemble haunted-house organ tones, making this song (like the others) seem perfect for a Samhain night.
At just a minute and a half long, “Thy Praise of Death and Never Ending Darkness” is the EP’s shortest track, and marks a sharp change, as the rhythm section and the vocals sit this one out. The lead guitar takes the spotlight, slowly and seductively ringing out a beguiling and beckoning melody. It glitters and gleams and moves beyond the territory of black metal, more jazzy and bluesy, and quite enthralling, yet mysterious in a way that doesn’t make it seem completely out of place.
To close, Demon Sacrifice give us “All Shall Perish“, hammering the heart-rate again and spinning like toothsome circle saws exuberantly cutting through innocent flesh, urged on by haughty howls. The reverberating guitar tones and bursts of swirling fretwork-delirium preserve the music’s overarching eeriness, but the drums mightily rumble and the lead guitar screams, as if manifesting the grim and heartless glories of demons in their domain.
DEMON SACRFICE is:
Moonlight Cult in Darkness : Guitars (Rhythm)
Bloody Massacre of Death : Bass
Black Funeral Terror : Drums
Praise from the Abyss : Vocals
Infernal Cursed of Night : Guitars (Lead)
The EP features logo and artwork by Wrathvoid and layout by Beges. It was recorded at Black Dungeon, and was mixed and mastered by Nekrolabs.
Ironbound Records is releasing the EP in a limited edition of 50 hand-numbered cassette tapes, and there’s a shirt on offer as well. Both the tape and the shirt will include a digital download code for the music. Get more details via the links below.
Demon Sacrifice plan to support the release of the EP with a tour beginning in August of West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Bali.
ORDER:
https://ironboundrecords.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-blacklight-of-divine
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