Demon Lung: The Hundredth Name

Oh, I just love listening to a solid doom metal album. I've been waiting for something like this for a while; sure, there are a lot of powerful doom albums out there right now, but this is one of the best of the year so far. I've had it on a heavy personal rotation for a couple of weeks now and I love it more and more with each listen. The heavy riffs, the pounding drums, the gloomy lyrics, the slow musical development—it all adds up to a good listen. Even better, Shanda Fredrick's vocal style is smooth and seductive, bluesy and bold, giving the music an extra touch of soul. The rest of the band puts out a consistently heavy and high quality stream of heavy and bold riffs mixed with the occasional melodic line. These guys know how to write and to play heavy music.

Demon Lung is a relatively new band out of Las Vegas that is making quite a strong impression on the local scene. Earlier this year, the band was listed as a top local band to watch by the Las Vegas Weekly. Now that their strong debut album is available, the folks in Demon Lung are poised to gain even attention outside of Sin City. Let's hope they get the listeners they deserve.

The Hundredth Name is a concept album about a son of Satan searching the earth to find and assemble the three disparate parts of the devil's bible and thereby unleash chaos throughout the earth. As a concept for a doom album, it works perfectly. The connections to horror movies—so important to this style—are everywhere evident and the overall apocalyptic mood is just right. Fortunately, Fredrick's vocals are generally easy to follow, making the story enjoyable without having to refer to the lyric sheet.

Interested listeners should definitely check out tracks like "Devil's Wind," "Hex Mark," and "Incantation (The Hundredth Name)" for good examples of what these guys can do. Some of the tracks are a little on the long side, but they keep things moving without getting bogged down. This is the doom album most of us having been waiting for.

Track Listing:
1. Binding of the Witch
2. Devil's Wind
3. Eyes of Zamiel
4. A Decade Twice Over a Day
5. Heathen Child
6. Hex Mark
7. Hallowed Ground
8. Incantation (The Hundredth Name)

Added: June 5th 2013
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 2002
Language: english

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