I thought I outgrew it my heavy metal phase. I assumed, like action figures and baseball cards, it didn't appeal anymore--a passing interest from an earlier time. But some preset antenna in my brain clicked on this year and started receiving again.
This summer I rediscovered metal.
I
work in my yard a lot, perfect for mindless head banging tunes through earbuds
on a hot day. I’m a Pandora guy so a lot of the suggested stuff that’s shuffled
through is a mystery. Every once in a while a perfectly aggressive sound
punctures the little film covering the ear piece and wakes me up. How many times
has that sound been that of Demon Hunter? I can’t tell, but a pattern emerged
after some time. All the good stuff is Demon Hunter.
Not content to just wait until the next mowing day, I got
online and start searching for DH songs. I like to know what fans like, what
are their best songs? Also, I suddenly wanted news about the group, tour dates
and concert information and new song stuff. Google has lists for everything so
I just start sampling their stuff. The internet is great. Remember borrowing CDs from friends or going to Best Buy for the new releases? No one misses
those days. I discovered I have a bit of an obsessive side. I study things intensely
for a short time and then never again. It’s ideal for research and writing
though. Yesterday’s obsession was Demon Hunter, Tomorrow--maybe history’s great
conspiracies or the best types of wood varnish for deck boards. Who knows?
I found this Demon Hunter live documentary called 45 days. First thing I noticed is the clean
sound. This is a live show and the audio is surprisingly crisp. Video
recordings rarely get full sound from a show; it's usually poor quality. It seems like one microphone was used, with uneven sound and muddy verses. 45 days is a quality film even if the
cameras aren’t always in the perfect spot.
I assume when shooting a band you need to know the music and
the timing of the chorus or when the lead singer is going to hit the low verses,
high notes. If he is going to put his foot on the amplifier and lean menacingly
into the crowd, filmmakers should want the best shot. I could be wrong here. Maybe there is a
standard format for shooting concerts that includes the crowd reaction and a
full stage pyro demonstration.
For me, Demon Hunter songs break into 2 basic categories;
Fast/aggressive and melodic/ballads. These are my terms and I am sure fans
might see it differently. I guess they have a handful of slow, non-metal songs
like “I am a Stone” but they mostly stay within the metalcore genre. I’m not an expert on the albums since I just
listen to the songs as they pop up. I enjoy the fast stuff like on “Storm the
Gates of Hell” and “Someone to Hate”. The drum pacing is very quick, the
guitars sound like machine gun fire and the singing is aggressive. That’s
pretty much a winning formula, fast drums, machine gun riffs and an intense
singer. There is almost no break between
the verse and chorus, they intend to crunch as much thrash into a 5 minute song
by quickening the pace.
Regular ballads are emotional songs about loss (usually) heartbreak,
sadness. “Godforsaken” is a little bit like this. I always think it’s a little
jarring to go from sped up, yelling to slow and melodic but metal bands do it
all the time. It feels weird at shows too. Groups usually come out with a neck
snapping, energy laced throw down and 3 songs later slow it down to a crawl. It
works though. We pull out the lighter and hum along with the band, swaying to
the chorus and ‘feeling’ the lyrics. We clap enthusiastically with their
heartfelt display of sensitivity. The very next song we ramp up and slam into each other, propelled by the crushing drums and beefy amplifiers.
Demon Hunter is a Christian band. A Christian Metal band is an interesting thing. I think most
people don’t know what to make of it. Heavy Metal is known for occult
symbolism, dark themes, death, anger and pain. The artwork covers are pretty
honest, blood, skulls, death, violence. Christian music is the opposite of
those things, light to darkness and truth to lies. Christians face a steep
climb to respectability within metal. They struggle with being perceived as ‘soft’
or ‘talent-less’. When the music is good and group puts on a show, it doesn’t
matter to the fans.
Demon Hunter doesn’t run from the label, they actually
embrace it.
“From the minute we
started saying that [We are a Christian Band] we started getting more respect
even from those other bands” video.
By ‘respect’ he doesn’t mean they embraced his theology. He
means, once they decided to ‘live for Christ’ it cleared up a lot of misconceptions
among fans. They started to explain their faith and share with others. Their
music isn’t preachy so their lives have to be. Staying on message is important to them and I'm glad they understand the significance of what they do.
Summer’s almost over for me so I’ll have to find time to
slam around the house and pretend I’m on stage. Is that something we are
supposed to grow out of too? I assumed I was done with heavy music altogether, but
you can’t be too sure.
Like Michael Corleone from the Godfather III, “Just when I
thought I was out. . . they pull me back in!”
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