Review by Michael on December 22, 2020.

The Chilean Demoniac will release their now second album but I must say that I have not heard anything from them before. Also I must state that this is quite a flaw on my part, which is now fortunately fixed.

The cover shows a tarot card, on which the reaper can be seen in a swamp illuminated by the moon. A quite successful and also quite original artwork, I think. Musically Demoniac beats the inclined listener directly with a merciless pinch of old-school thrash in the style of old Merciless or Kreator around the ears. Pretty strong. However, in the course of the first track 'RSV - Fools Coincidence - Testigo' (but also in the other tracks of the CD) you will be quite surprised, because the band often switches from English to their native language Spanish, which sounds pretty cool. In addition, they incorporate passages in the middle of their songs that are already very reminiscent of classical compositions. Not bad, it doesn't always have to be in your face. The band uses not only the usual thrash metal instruments, but also piano or saxophone and what they really manage to do convincingly almost consistently is to mix aggressive parts with quieter, more classical interludes, so that it has become a very independent album. However, and this is my subjective opinion, at least the piece 'Extraviado' as well as the saxophone sounds in 'So it Goes', the 20-minute title track, which comes along compositionally very multifaceted, could have been saved by not using the sax. But this is probably due to my dislike for Lisa Simpson and the associated hatred of saxophones, in my eyes the worst instrument in the world.

The guys succeeded with So it Goes a pretty strong album that I will probably listen to more often, because it is much more varied than a lot of other thrash albums. If only there would not be the saxophone.....

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by JD on October 10, 2010.

Christian Metal/Rock I have a love and extreme hate thing for it. It can be incredible or simply a vehicle to whine and see condescending as well. I am a Christian and proud of it, but hate forcing my beliefs onto others. With that said, may I introduce Norma Jean.

This Atlanta based Christian Metalcore outfit have been making inroads into the world of secular music for awhile now, sharing the stage with many of today’s finer acts. They have been spoken about as some of the best out there in more extreme commercial end of things. My take on what this band is pretty much summed up simply... and I want to be clear. NO!

With the barest of idea for melody, the band relies on the furiousness of this new breed of Metal/Mathcore acts. They seem to never have a good sense of melody to anything they do, varying little in that department throughout the thirteen songs. They are great lyricists, tending not to bowl you over withy the religious side of things. But it is musically that I would rather listen to a blender full of cats and tin cans. They remind me of Alexonfire and others like that. NJ have all fire, yet no real musicality.

If they would scrap the whole Scream/Metalcore thing and get down to focus on writing some strong melodies and get some decently delivered vocals I can see the band garnering a wider and much more effective audience to spread their word. As it is now, this limits them to being pointless at best.

Hate me for this I don’t care! I find Norma Jean truly is a waste of quality studio time. I must have to admit that they are big and getting bigger, but I am only speaking for my views. This album was bad... real frigging’ bad. Its so sad... they seem to have some talent hidden somewhere, but they never seem to use it.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Originality: 5
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.8 out of 10

Review by Jack on May 31, 2002.

Mistweaver originate in Burgos, in the northern part of Spain. They are a relatively unknown band around the metal scene, and probably gained the most attention of their young careers with the ‘Repulsive Revenge Tour 2000’, which saw them playing alongside big name metal acts such as Centinex and Into Darkness.

Mistweaver released a demo CD in 2000 dubbed “Sol Obscurabitur”, and following their demo have gone on to release this debut album. Comprising of 9 songs and running for around 40 minutes, “Dream’s Domain” is chock full of entertaining keyboard melodies laced with competent guitar breaks and run of the mill vocals. When I say run of the mill, I don’t mean to put a damper on Raul’s guttural surge. He is obviously a competent vocalist and his strain of death vox suits the material that's on “Dream’s Domain” suitably.

To pigeonhole “Dream’s Domain” (for the benefit of the genre addicts out there), I would throw the debut album into the melodic death metal category, but this label probably does not do them a huge amount of justice. Yes, it is death metal with some melody, but not in the normal sense that we all have to come to identify melodic death metal as. The keyboard consonance from David really sets the music apart from the normal twin guitars and clean/harsh vocal interchanges that are the stock standard reality on melodic death releases today. The keyboards are heavily stained in the joyous tunes from the dark ages of Europe.

“Dream’s Domain” is, overall, a pretty impressive debut from these youngsters from Spain. However, I do have a few little criticisms. My main beef with Mistweaver is that the first few songs on “Dream’s Domain” are a little too slow to get going. Effectively what I think Mistweaver should have done is maybe axed everything from ‘...And A Child Shall Lead Them’ through to ‘The Call’, and we would instead be presented with a totally nut-crunching epic EP. Aside from that factor and maybe the mix of the keyboards should be toned down a notch or two, allowing the guitars a little room to breath, Mistweaver have come up with the goods.

Bottom Line: It is good to see some new bands breathing life into a boring scene. Mistweaver, while with a few faults, have enough energy and tempo to bring home the bacon with “Dream’s Domain”.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 5.5
Originality: 7
Overall: 6.5

Rating: 6.4 out of 10

Review by Jack on May 31, 2002.

Mistweaver originate in Burgos, in the northern part of Spain. They are a relatively unknown band around the metal scene, and probably gained the most attention of their young careers with the ‘Repulsive Revenge Tour 2000’, which saw them playing alongside big name metal acts such as Centinex and Into Darkness.

Mistweaver released a demo CD in 2000 dubbed “Sol Obscurabitur”, and following their demo have gone on to release this debut album. Comprising of 9 songs and running for around 40 minutes, “Dream’s Domain” is chock full of entertaining keyboard melodies laced with competent guitar breaks and run of the mill vocals. When I say run of the mill, I don’t mean to put a damper on Raul’s guttural surge. He is obviously a competent vocalist and his strain of death vox suits the material that's on “Dream’s Domain” suitably.

To pigeonhole “Dream’s Domain” (for the benefit of the genre addicts out there), I would throw the debut album into the melodic death metal category, but this label probably does not do them a huge amount of justice. Yes, it is death metal with some melody, but not in the normal sense that we all have to come to identify melodic death metal as. The keyboard consonance from David really sets the music apart from the normal twin guitars and clean/harsh vocal interchanges that are the stock standard reality on melodic death releases today. The keyboards are heavily stained in the joyous tunes from the dark ages of Europe.

“Dream’s Domain” is, overall, a pretty impressive debut from these youngsters from Spain. However, I do have a few little criticisms. My main beef with Mistweaver is that the first few songs on “Dream’s Domain” are a little too slow to get going. Effectively what I think Mistweaver should have done is maybe axed everything from ‘...And A Child Shall Lead Them’ through to ‘The Call’, and we would instead be presented with a totally nut-crunching epic EP. Aside from that factor and maybe the mix of the keyboards should be toned down a notch or two, allowing the guitars a little room to breath, Mistweaver have come up with the goods.

Bottom Line: It is good to see some new bands breathing life into a boring scene. Mistweaver, while with a few faults, have enough energy and tempo to bring home the bacon with “Dream’s Domain”.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 5.5
Originality: 7
Overall: 6.5

Rating: 6.4 out of 10