Chris says:

This sounds like Demon Hunter performing a yet-to-be-released album or collection of b-sides and unreleased songs by Project 86. Other music this album reminded me of was Living Sacrifice’s “Conceived in Fire” and Dead Poetic’s “Vices”.

Both Living Sacrifice and Demon Hunter made the wrong choices for their first singles. I think “Rules of Engagement” is one of the best songs ever but I think it needs a lot of spins to realize its greatness and I think it suffers when heard in lower-quality streams and videos. Better choice: “They Were One”. For Demon Hunter, an album so masculine will sometimes have a few less heavy songs and I think “Collapsing” feels a little My Chemical Romance and kind of whiny. It’s my least favorite song on the album though the synths bring me back to the mainstream rock scene of 1999 like Bush. Better choice: “Just Breathe”.

There’s a good amount of orchestration on the album, the guitars feel very droning and ominous which creates a thick atmosphere. The dark, pervasive intensity is best exemplified in the unbridled anger of “Shallow Water” (the vocals are very strong on this song) and “Just Breathe”. There is a cohesion of the theme of counter-culture martyrdom and the increase in aggression, and that synthesis is consistent throughout the album. If you were wondering if this was a different Demon Hunter album, you would only have to hear “Breathe”, “Shallow Water” and “Feel As Though You Could” back-to-back-to-back. On a typical Demon Hunter album, there would be at least one song that was more melodic than heavy but on this album the last song “Blood In The Tears” is the only song that doesn’t have a side of heaviness. I heard the explanation of “Blood In The Tears” and didn’t understand it theologically. Get out your lighters for this one and, yes, there is auto-tune.

When you rate an album that is streaming on myspace, you have to remember that you will likely add about 2 points because of how much better it will sound on CD or MP3.