Ελληνικά
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Poland
Label: Pagan Records
Year: 2014
“Haunted” is the fifth full length album by Polish Demonic Slaughter, a band mainly driven by Xaos Oblivion, a busy figure in the underground black metal scene of his country (also fronting projects like Xaosis, Xaos Oblivion, Sytris and others). Demonic Slaughter is one of his longest living acts and I met them with 2013’s Downfall, which was at least a middleweight. Moving on to the latest record, it turns out it’s not much of a treat for the fans and it doesn’t shake the world enough to cause the need for a relisten at all.
Xaos Oblivion has always been the composer for the band, handling vocals, guitars, bass and lyrics, leaving the drums to different drummers he hired for the albums. A person named Opium is behind the kit, first time with Demonic Slaughter, while the album’s length again around the regular levels of the band, clocking fourty one minutes.
While it looks good at first glance, a problem that torments the whole album is the middle-paced tempo that goes on in it’s entirety. I’m all for slower passages in black metal records but as many others out there who come back to this style, what I crave is intensity and barbarity in the bands I’m listening to, something that is completely amiss in “Haunted”. Going through the first two tracks, one starts waiting for something to happen in order to make the audition more interesting. Even the self-titled track, which actually has fast drumming, sounds strangely calm. Why is that?
Judging from Xaos Oblivion’s other projects, he mixes black metal with various genres like rock, doom metal and ambient, therefore it’s likely this is his personal composing style. I don’t doubt it might work for some people, but to me it sounds like dull slow music with harsh vocals and it doesn’t help keeping my attention on the music at all.
The album has it’s moments, which are primarily a couple of good guitar riffs, like in the first track after the introduction “Mystic Rites” and in the second half of “Madness and Astral Emanations”. However, they are played in average speed so their beauty is ruined by the sense of boredom grown from the start. If only the whole record was like “Monks of Cold Mountains”, which shows a chunk of strength and spirit, contains interesting riffs and changes, resulting in being a great track. Coincidentally, the only fast track of the album.
The vocal work is average but not disappointing, sticking to legit harsh vocals and sometimes, clean chants, like in the tracks “Żałobna Procesja (Mournful Procession)”, and “Wyklęty (The Wretched)”. New drummer Opium doesn’t have a hard work to do because of the album’s monotonous tempo, for the most part. The album closes with a nine minute instrumental piece “Death’s Creek”, mostly towards dark ambient, features piano keys and orchestral synths. It is unesseccarily long but acceptable nonetheless. The aftermath has me thanking it all ended and that’s certainly a bad feeling for an album.
“Haunted” has a bleak sound and it’s production is quite good, while it aches at originality and can’t draw the listener’s attention, inappropriate even as background music. I don’t believe this record is annoying or needs to be stoned to death, yet there are hardly any valuable moments, apart from one single track. There’s better black metal out there and better black metal for you.
2,5/6
