Style: Progressive Blackened Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Skeletonwitch, Rivers of Nihil, Dark Tranquility
Review by: Cooper
Country: US-NJ
Release date: 12 July, 2023
If I had a dollar for every one man metal band I’d discovered through Bandcamp, I would be a wealthy man. If I only had a dollar for every one of those bands I found to be any good, though, I would be destitute. Because there is an inherent issue baked into the concept of one man bands in that, unless extreme diligence is applied, something–be it a specific instrument, the production, or just the plain old songwriting–always seems to be underbaked, it is quite rare to find truly coherent releases from such bands, especially in this era where it seems as though artists are incentivized to release multiple small EP’s and singles of usually varying quality as opposed to larger, cohesive albums that take longer to produce (although that is a different issue entirely). All that is to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of That Which Lies Unseen, the debut EP of New Jersey based one man band, The Demon Haunted World.
When I first began my listening of TWLU, though, I was not so impressed; immediately, I was put off by the production quality and the clean guitar tone, especially of the opening track “Lost.” To my ears, the guitar sounded too raw, to the point of being hesitant and shaky, and the production just felt plain amateurish. Listener’s used to more crystalline production will almost certainly find this album difficult to listen to. However, once I had acclimated myself to the harsher listening climate and was able to focus on the true substance of the music, I found myself quite enjoying what I was hearing. In fact, for the debut EP of a one man band, I was downright shocked by the quality of some of these songs. For instance, the track “Buried”, which picks up right where the slowly building opener of “Lost” leaves off, is chock full of heavy, chugging riffs that get my head moving every time I listen to them, and “Screaming in the Void” is an absolute ripper of a track that manages to change up at the perfect moment every time, keeping the song dynamic and varied, yet still infectiously catchy. The songwriting skills on display here would befit a much bigger band, so much so that I had to consistently remind myself that I was listening to a debut EP, not a release from an already experienced group.
That being said, there are certain aspects of TWLU that keep it at the level of a great debut release from a one man band as opposed to just a great release without any qualifiers. As I have already said there are tone and production choices present here that seem to me to be signs of inexperience. Whether it’s the way that the clean guitars seem shaky or the blast beats feel overly quantized (The drums are programmed, but I have heard much more natural programmed drums before), I am constantly reminded of the fact that this is an imperfect EP no matter how good the songwriting may sometimes be, and even that begins to falter when one views this release on a larger scale. What I mean to say is that TWLU has a severe issue with flow, especially near its middle. Tracks “Descend” and “Wretched” serve the purpose of interlude tracks on this EP, and they do so relatively well. So why, I ask, were they placed next to each other on the track listing? Any throughline or sense of upward movement that this release had going for it after the one-two punch of “Lost” and “Buried” that starts it off is squandered with these back to back interlude tracks, and while “Screaming in the Void” does a good job picking up the pieces, closer “Cognizant” fails to leave a lasting impact. While that may just be a sign of issues present internally within the song, I can’t help but feel I would have enjoyed the song more if it had the EP properly built up to its more emotionally charged riffage.
Still though, I find myself drawn to relisten to this EP, so the highs must outweigh the lows. If The Demon Haunted World is able to further refine their songwriting skills while simultaneously eliminating the chaff that lead to a lack of flow on this release, I see nothing but success in their future.
Recommended tracks: Buried, Screaming in the Void
You may also like: Hath, Krigsgrav, new Warforged, Dvota
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
The Demon Haunted World is:
– Andrew Vidal (everything)
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