DAEMONIAC: Dwellers Of Apocalypse
Release year: 2019
Label: Xtreem Records
As everyone into death metal knows, Sweden was one of the countries to stake a major claim early on, and one of the earliest scenes to create their own trademark sound. Acts such as Entombed, Grave and Dismembered forged a sound that to this day reverberates within the death metal underground.
Italy’s Daemoniac are one of the numerous latter day groups who’ve taken the classic Swedish sound to heart, and carve out their place in the scene with metal of death hewn from the bedrock of Sunlight Studios. Where, incidentally, Dwellers Of Apocalypse was recorded.
It’s one thing to be inspired by. But like a fair share of acts, Daemoniac’s sound isn’t so much inspired by the classic Swedish sound as it’s trying to emulate it. From the dry-to-the-point-of-being-brittle guitar tone to the fast thrash gallop of the drums, everything about Dwellers Of Apocalypse screams swedeath. I wouldn’t mind it so much, if Daemoniac at least stood out from their peers in some meaningful way… but truthfully, they don’t. There’s nothing here you haven’t heard dozens of times on albums by other emulators of Sweden’s glory days.
On the flipside, Daemoniac don’t stand out for a lack of quality, either. The Italians’ Swedish death metal is dime a dozen, originality an alien word, true, but despite being generic, there’s nothing actually bad here. The hoarse guttural vocals are a tad one-dimensional, true, but passable. The same goes for the riffs, the songs and the sound. Generic, but definitely not bad.
I guess that ultimately, what it all boils down to is a very simple question: do you need more Swedish death metal in your life? Do you need it bad enough to sink your teeth into some pretty non-descript, generic stuff? If you answered yes – even hesitantly – you could do far worse than Daemoniac.
And if you answered no, then chances are even Daemoniac themselves would tell you to look elsewhere for your death metal kicks.
2.5/5
Only Death Is Real 