Review by chrisc7249 on May 31, 2022.

Blackened technical death metal has really taken off in the past few years, hasn't it? Bands like Vale Of Pnath, Alterbeast and, to an extent, Inferi have started to dip into this direction in the past few years. Add on top of that bands like Hath, Warforged, Singularity, and now Demon King, and it seems as if this sub sub subgenre (is that the right amount of subs?) is about to take off into the next direction. Demon King is the newest of this branch of tech death and boy are they good, and this is only their debut EP which was released earlier this year. Four songs, four reasons to look forward to what this band has to offer in due time. Let's get into it.

All you really need is a good look at the lineup and you should be able to nod to yourself and say, "yep, this will be good." Jack Blackburn, Matt Brown and the legendary Malcolm Pugh. The trio has been involved in the creation of Inferi and Enfold Darkness, two powerhouses in the realm of blackened tech death, and even just tech death in general. Fans of either band will be pleased with the wizardry on display here, feeling entranced by the blackened riffs and dazzled by the superb technicality mixed in with it. Of course, they sound quite a lot like Inferi and even more so Enfold Darkness, but the bass heavy approach reminds me more of Vale Of Pnath than anyone else. Seriously, the bass is mixed loud on this and Malcolm Pugh does an excellent job of playing it on this album. So many fucking awesome bass lines and techniques and he really helps set the music apart from their contemporaries.

The guitars and drumming are, obviously, insane. Blackburn has some nice fills that are pretty fun to listen to. Matt Brown has obviously already proved his worth as a guitarist in Enfold Darkness, but in case you needed any reaffirmation that he's good at what he does, these 4 songs should do it. The vocals, although good, are pretty dull. I will say the vocal intro for the opening song is fucking awesome and gets stuck in my head all the time. Besides that, they're pretty one dimensional, but they aren't bad either. I'd say having Pugh do his signature low pitched death growls to compliment Brown's highs, somewhat like how Symbolik does their vocal style, would be fucking amazing. I'm not sure if that's something they're willing to experiment with, but I do personally think that would sound cool as fuck.

The songs themselves are so goddamn catchy. People often rag on technical death metal mainly for its inability to create memorable hooks - I disagree strongly, but in this particular case, how could you listen to a song like 'Transmutation Of The Architect' and not want to start moshing right on the spot? Shit goes so hard and it's so fucking catchy, I love it. The rest of the songs are awesome as well, featuring pure black metal riffs along with tech death riffs that remind me of if Spawn Of Possession made a black metal album. This stuff is that tight, man. So, the riff department gets a check from me. How about the leads? They're fucking great too. We all already knew Brown was a master of lead guitar, but he's got some of his best licks on this EP here. Monstrous solos as well, as always. For 17 minutes and 42 seconds, they really do get out of a lot of ideas and good solos and riffs. But that's just the problem…

It's only 17 minutes long!

Agh! What I would do for a 40 minute full length of this shit. Demon King hits all the right notes for their debut EP. I can't wait for more of this stuff, dude. I wasn't even that excited for this EP when it was announced, I liked the single but I didn't completely dig it. Altogether though, this is some really good technical death metal here. I haven't listened to much of anything from 2021 - I think 15 albums total. Small sample size, I know, but as of writing this, Demon King is atop the back. So glad Matt Brown has made his return to music, and I'm even more glad that Blackburn and Pugh agreed to be part of this project. They've added another great set of songs to their resumes. Listen to this. Now.

FFO: Vale Of Pnath, Enfold Darkness, Inferi

Favorite song: 'Transmutation Of The Architect'

Rating: 9 out of 10