Album Review: Demon King – “The Final Tyranny”

Released: Feb. 12, 2021

A short, 4 track EP rarely leaves a mark in the sea of albums I try to consume in a year. Of course many are good, and I try to remember the band that releases it so I can keep tabs on their career and future full-length albums. When blog-mate and fellow beard fanatic Darrrko messaged me and told me of a band that he compared to the likes of Equipoise, who released my favorite album of 2019, I immediately took to the internet to see exactly what his excitement was all about. Demon King quickly became a band I know I will be listening to for many years to come. Their Artisan Era-released debut EP shows tons of promise, blurring lines between tech death and black metal, oozing melodic metal while keeping the chaos of something much darker and more evil. After quite a few spins through the roughly 18 minutes of brutality, I have determined that no supergroup needs to wield this much power.

Hailing from Nashville, Tennesee, a city where it’s rich death metal sounds are silenced by boot stores and cowboy hats, Demon King is a 3 piece supergroup made up of some talented musicians from fantastic bands. Featuring the likes of Malcolm Pugh (Inferi, ex-Enfold Darkness, ex-Entheos) on bass, Jack Blackburn (ex-Vital Remains, ex-Enfold Darkness) hammering drums, and Matt Brown (ex-Inferi, ex-Enfold Darkness) providing the guitar shreds and shrieking vocals, Demon King seem to have a fair amount of chemistry straight out of the gate. Despite the band being very young, their history leaves a ton to unpack due to each member’s long history. Malcolm Pugh served most of his past bands, of which the list is much longer than what I stated before, as a guitar player. His only other experience on bass came early in his career in Inferi, in 2007. While it doesn’t appear he does any vocal performance on this EP, he also provided backing vocals in various situations. His bass work is fantastic, despite it appearing he is filling the trope of a guitarist turned bassist because the band needed it. He provides power and fullness to the tracks in a way that doesn’t sound like he is just playing what another guitar would play. Jack Blackburn is a pure drummer, and like most drummers he has been in tons of bands. His most notable stints however are with Enfold Darkness, where his time overlapped with both band mates, and Inferi, where he likely overlapped again with Matt Brown. His two years between 2012 and 2014 spent with Vital Remains fits very nicely when his prowess and style is heard on the Demon King EP. Finally, we have our frontman, who has surprisingly the shortest past from what I can tell. Matt Brown seems to have done just enough time with Inferi and Enfold Darkness as guitarist and vocalist to meet his fellow bandmates and establish a solid career in this particular form of blackened tech death metal.

Now, as I mentioned, there is only about 18 minutes of music to enjoy here. So there isn’t a lot to unpack, but it is a sign of amazing things to come. The album from front to back rips you apart with machine gun drums and chainsaw guitars. There is plenty of groove throughout, right alongside the riffs that sound built to start something on fire out of sheer speed alone. The band brings together the most aggressive pieces of the member’s former bands and melds it into an all-out assault on the listener. The 4 tracks are very cohesive, the only real difference being the exact style of darkness each is flavored with. Although, even there the menu options are limited: would you like your darkness fast or faster, and would you like a side of demon-summoning vocals with that?

I can only hope for a full-length Demon King album to come this year, but I can’t seem to find any indication that that is the case. So I guess, for now, I am destined to listen to the same 4 tracks over and over. But I can’t complain when the music is this good. I have no idea how many times I have listened to the EP, and the songs still haven’t gotten stale in any way. They stay fresh with no indication of rotting. Now excuse me, I have to hit replay again…