Demonic – The Empire of Agony – Review

Demonic

The Empire of Agony (Necropolis)
by Scott Hefflon

While Demonic has all the proper ingredients of great black metal, to me, there’s something lacking in the recipe. Sure, it’s fast as hell (especially the drumming); sure, the guitarists pick so quickly, you wonder if they actually have bones in their wrists; and sure, the singer growls and snarls like any good black metal vocalist should; but it sounds incomplete. Organs, scary keyboards, and fist-banging rhythms offset the hyperspeed paces – but in the end, it seems so random. And the, shall we say, “inconsistent” production doesn’t help. There are drop-outs, flare-ups, and the rest is sandwiched like the cream filling of an Oreo cookie. There are good moments, of course, but I think the compositions need work, the production needs many subtle tweakings, and then, perhaps, I would like them as much as their bio does.