DEMON HEAD "Hellfire Ocean Void"

DEMON HEAD

“Hellfire Ocean Void”

Band PR writers kill me sometimes. Nobody in the world can beat them when it comes to overblown hyperbole and exaggerated hype. Even Stan “The Man” Lee would have to stand back and say “whoa, True Believer” after reading the work up for Demon Head’s “Hellfire Ocean Void”. Apparently this is “a masterpiece in contemporary rock music”! It is without peer and cannot be compared to any other work in the 60 year history of rock and roll!

Reality is somewhat different. First, anybody expecting to be roasted alive by ferocious metal better step back and think again. Much of the album is piano based and it comes across as a mix between Ghost and mopey post-punk. I knew going in that Demon Head was not going to be a flesh ripper. Well, that’s OK, I can take occult rock if it’s done well enough. And the first few tracks have their  interest. “The Night Is Yours” and “The Flaming Sea” have some traces of Blue Oyster Cult and downbeat Gothic downer rock. Could be worse...the lead guitar playing is good enough. “Hour of the Wolf” is a longer, odder tune with an ambient break in the middle and kind of a driving edge to it.

Then the wheels come off in a hurry. The second part of the album dissolves into boring, gloomy post punk type stuff. There seems to be a trend in this direction lately and I wish it would stop, because I was bored by it years ago and it’s even more interminable now. Every thing from “Labyrinth” to “Mercury and Sulphur” is lightweight, depressing and sounding much the same. So much for the “masterpiece” tag. I find Ghost much more interesting and that’s not saying too much.

You can talk something up as much as you want, talk doesn’t make it so. Take a pass on this.

SVART RECORDS

DEMON HEAD