Demoncy - Joined in Darkness
Review: Demoncy layer mirrored modalities in oppositional structure to form tone and rhythm into a distinctive riff shapes, creating an architecture of patterns which sculpts a spatial dynamic in which phrases rush at the listener with a sense of foreboding detachment and sinister purpose. This poetry of interlocking phrases creates a matrix of possibilities converge upon a singular mood of emptiness and suspension of belief through its nihilistic narrative much like that of the first albums from Incantation and Havohej.
Guitar instrumentation is precise, with no solo work, using precisvely carved counterpoint patterns to create a sense of the inexorable. Rising and roaring, limblike riffs engage in combat through this motif-driven and through-composed column of sound. The harsh whisper dry throat vocals that carry these songs in rhythm and timbre reverberate behind a churning tempo of unobtrusively backgrounded digital drums. As a loud recording with plenty of variation in its dynamic output, Joined in Darkness moves like an organic progression of growth in decay and carefully orchestrates its atmosphere for a consistent conceptual descent into dark moods.
As racing tremelo is used an ambience of resonant sound is created but is here purely manipulated in the evolution of riffs as a skeletal outline of structure, eschewing the harmony and melody that might obstruct its singular purpose. Immersive in texture and loudness, the conflict of discovering order in obscurity that drives these songs creates a vast spectre which emerges in order to destroy and vanish in its own ashes, with the lingering reminder of its arbitrary but inevitable return.