Extremist Album Review

Demon Hunter is my favorite band, if you didn't know by now. I had been eagerly anticipating the release of "Extremist", their 7th studio album (man, has it been that many already?) since I first heard news of it sometime last year. I basically had March 18 marked on my calendar. I still listen to "True Defiance", the previous release from 2012, quite reguarly. They have found their niche and their sound, I think all the albums that led up to that they had been kind of experiementing, but also, at 7 albums, they still have a distinct sound, blistering drums, screaming vocals, and yed, harmonious at the same time.

I popped the disc in my cd player not long after purchasing it. The first song, "Death", has some interesting pre-music sayings (maybe Latin???) before the music kicks in. The song is quite aggressive and isn't very long.

The cd has everything you'd expect from Demon Hunter: fast, blistering, pulsating drums, killer and perfetly played guitar solos, electronic loops/sampling on a couple tracks, Ryan's amazing range and how he goes from his normal singing voice to full on throat scream almost effortlessly (and I love the all-time octave low on "I Will Fail You".

There is one track which MAY cause a bit of controversy. The song "Cross To Bear", he actually chose to scream out the word "Bastard", which is a "Christian swear word". That's it, remove it from all the Christian book stores, and drop the "Christian" from the band. That kind of language has NO place in "Christian" music. All sarcasm aside, Ryan Clark explained why he chose to use the word "bastard" in the song: "the story of the cross of Christ is sacred. It's most definitely not percieved that way by everyone, but it is for me. Expressing the hardships in life as your 'cross to bear' has become commonplace, but when I ponder its implication, is an insult to true and meaningful sacrfice. No burden you carry will ever compare to the weight of the world. The use of 'bastard' in this chorus, is in fact, contextual. Making a statement like this shows an obvious division between its conveyer and a Heavenly Father". Very well stated.

The tracks range anywhere from crank it up, tear your face off, thrash/metal, to ballads, to aggressive, radio-friendly rock. The track "In Time" is a combination of all, and fades beautifully to nothing but an acoustic guitar at the end of the song before fading out.

It is an outstanding album. Best release ever? Up for debate. To me, "Storm the Gates of Hell" and "True Defiance" are their best releases, but I would rank "Extremist" right up there with them. Flawless musicianship, outstanding vocals and lyics, and Yogi once again shows why he's the best drummer in "Christian" music, the man is a madman behind the kit, with machine-gun sounding double-bass beats in every song.

Definitely worth the price you pay (which, by the way, is $7.99 at Best Buy) Happy rocking, rockers!