DEMON EYEare back with their third offering and another dose of their own blend of Heavy Classic Rock, Proto Metal and Traditional Doom!
The new album "Prophecies and Lies" was recorded by Mike Dean of CORROSION OF CONFORMITYin the band's hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, and displays a strong musical progression with mighty riffs, haunting melodies and fist-raising anthems. DEMON EYE are bringing vintage heavy darkness for modern times and current day evils, giving their listeners dynamic songs to empower them against all adversaries. With the release date of 11 August 2017 just over a week away, today were serving another sonic brew from the album entitled “Dying For It”, a hard charger with a bit of Voivod dissonance meets classic Dio. You can check it out in full below. Preorders are available here
Taking their name from one of the darker tracks of the Deep Purple catalogue, Demon Eye consists of four men, two New Yorkers, two Southerners, and one shared love for old school metal, yes Demon Eye are back folks, indeed news of an impending third offering pleases us very much around there parts, having fallowed the upward trajectory of this stellar act since debut “Leave The Light” (review here) hit are decks back in 2014.Be sure to mark the date in your diary because “Prophecies And Lies”will be released on August 11th and that means another superior dose of their classic rock, proto metal and traditional doom.
Demon Eye’sheavy grooves and thunder rhythms channel the doom and crush of Black Sabbath and Pentagram, and the fist banging shred of early ‘Maiden. You could say that Demon Eye represents the flowering of an American take on the spirit of the Scandanavian Retro Rock bands. Combing the warm vibes of 70's jams by Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Mountain and others with a rough and ready smattering of the early metal roar of Pentagram and Pagan Altar thrown in for good measure.
Their story is an odd one. The band that would come to be known as Demon Eye began life as a seventies tribute / cover band Corvette Summer whose "set generally includes the music of: Thin Lizzy, Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, UFO, Alice Cooper, Free, ZZ Top, and many, many more..." (Source). So the ingredients were all there to begin with. Meanwhile, it turns out frontman Erik Sugg has made quite a name as an incredibly popular children's entertainer in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, teaching toddlers how to read through the power of rock & roll, and if you don't dig the hell out ofthis story, you simply have no soul. None of this however, suggests that the band would blast into the doom rock world with an absolute scorcher of a debut E.P., which was released in early Spring of 2013. The eponymous E.P. generated a decent buzz and those with one ear closer to hell didn't fail to notice.
One of those folks was Jorn, owner of Souseller Records. The label who would go on to issue Demon Eye'sfull-length debut, 'Leave the Light'and 2015’s critically lauded sophomore release “Tempora Inferalia” (review here).So with the release date of “Prophecies and Lies” drawing ever closer, it gives us great please to welcome band the onto the pages of TERR0Rwith a brand new and exclusive track “The Redeemer” which you an stream below. Folks new to the band, we envy you and if that describes you, you have to get your hands on this album if you would answer "yes" to any of the following questions:
Do you like the demonic smirk of evil and forbidden good times?
Do you like heavy guitars with shredding leads?
Do you like uptempo doom boogie music with catchy choruses and clean vocals?
Not only that, if the excitement of that new track wasn’t enough, we recently caught up with front man Erik Sugg to talk us through some of the bands own personal favourite albums.Which you can check out below the track stream.Double the dose double the riffs.Demon Eye welcome back, you are truly knights of the sound table, we love you and you should too.
Iron Maiden - "Live After Death"
This is Larry's pick. What is there to say? It's classic. Amazing heavy metal that has stood the test of time for several generations and will continue to do so. Top notch song writing and incredible playing. It was pretty amazing being a kid in the '80s and being exposed to Maiden as contemporary band. They were larger than life and made their music epic for fans of hard rock and metal everywhere.
Queensryche - "The Warning"
Bill, Demon Eye'sdrummer, is a huge fan of this era of Queensryche. It's great classic metal from an early period of the band before they began the more experimental portion of their career during the latter half of the '80s, (the more heavily produced, thematic albums.) A lot of folks in the metal community seem to share pretty strong feelings about Queensryche, but this album stands up. If you slept on it, you should go back and give it a listen.
Deep Purple - "In Rock"
We seem incapable of not discussing Deep Purple during interviews, ha. A huge influence for the band, obviously, and this record is certainly one of the best things they ever did. It slams, through and through. Everything from the heavy opening riffs to "Speed King" to Ian's valkyrie-shrieking in "Child in Time," to the almost MC5-ish "Flight of the Rat." I own three different vinyl copies of this, (my listening copy, my back-up copy, and a picture disc version.) It's one of my favorite records of all time. I was stoked to see a recent interview with Ritchie Blackmore where he stated it was one of his favorite things the band ever did.
Judas Priest - "Sad Wings of Destiny”
Paul chose this one. If it were the only Priest record in existence, they'd still be metal gods. It's really interesting this album was released in 1976 because that's around the time when punk started kicking off, but it still granted the band a huge audience and opened the doors for the pending NWOBHM scene. Generally Sabbathand Deep Purpleare the bands credited in making the musical transformation from heavy blues towards a more classical moding style. That sort of thing ultimately became the blueprint for the traditional heavy metal sound. Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore may have been the first guitarists to introduce that style to heavy rock, but Priestwere the ones who really set that sort of thing into stone with this record. It will always hold up.
Witchcraft - "Witchcraft"
I can't not express enough how much this band means to me. When I heard Witchcraft'sdebut record back in the mid '2000s it stopped me dead in my tracks. It was everything I loved about vintage heavy rock and it was traditional doom metal like Pentagramand Candlemass, but it wasn't over-driven nor downtuned. It was very clean and crisp, but still sounded heavy and evil. I kept Witchcraft's sound and their techniques in my mind when I first started writing songs for Demon Eye. I didn't want to sound like them, but I wanted to achieve the same "less-is-more" kind of power they were achieving. I don't know much about Magnus Pelander as an individual, (he's a bit of a mystery to American fans,) but I will always admire his imagination and his stunning songcraft. I will buy everything he ever releases, Witchcraftand solo releases, for the rest of my life and for as long as he's releasing them.
'Magick Rites and Spells' is a fresh, authentic display of classic occult rock being performed in the present day. It's a blessing to see a band who are truly absorbed in this genre, leading the way for all modern day occultists to follow. It's a very well-balanced mix of old, new and cover songs and an incredible follow-up to the masterpiece that was 'The Vision'. This band are only getting started and I'm truly excited to see what the future holds for Virginia and the guys.
“Magick Rites and Spells” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Come a little closer (Exclusive to this release) 2. Godzilla (Blue OysterCult cover, Exclusive to this release) 3. Set me free (Re-recording, Exclusive to this release) 4. Wicked dream (Re-recording, Exclusive to this release) 5. The dark Lord (Originally performed by Sam Gopal, with Lemmy) 6. Angela (taken from the “Black Magic Man” EP) 7. Lying on iron (taken from the “Black Magic Man” EP) 8. Black magic man (taken from the “Black Magic Man” EP) 9. Slave of grief (taken from the “Black Magic Man” EP)
The Review:
Psychedelic Witchcrafthave just brought out their latest album 'Magick Rites and Spells'. This band certainly know how to churn out songs as their last album, the critically acclaimed 'The Vision' only came out back in April, 2016.
We dive into the mystical land of the occult with 9 tracks comprising of 3 brand new tracks, 2 covers and 4 tracks from the “Black Magic Man” EP, released back in 2015.
Track 1, 'Come a Little Closer', starts the album off with some elegant, flowing guitar sounds before the main riff begins and Virginia Monti takes control, doing what she does best. Such a powerful voice which can also be toned down for those hypnotic lyrics, entrancing you as the song goes on. There's some great lead guitar work in this track too, providing just enough of a taste without overcompensating. It's a very enticing opening track and a great start to a superb album.
Track 2 is a cover of 'Godzilla' by Blue Oyster Cult. This is the first time I’ve heard a female sing this song and it sounds absolutely fantastic. I saw Blue Oyster Cult a few months back and they played this song but to be perfectly honest, Psychedelic Witchcraft do a better job than B.O.C did live. It's also very refreshing seeing a couple covers. A lot of bands have strayed away from covering songs in recent years but when you can add your own signature touch, like these guys have, then by all means, cover that shit!
Track 3, 'Set Me Free', is a true piece of Sabbathian occult rock. Everything blends incredibly well and there's still a lot of breathing room with the guitar and bass tones so it's not total overkill. Virginia's vocals soar over the top of some very tight riffage before a great breakdown with just drums and bass involved. This leads way to another ripping solo from Jacopo Fallai as the track comes to a close.
'Wicked Dream'is the 4th track on the album and the last of the brand new, original material that is exclusive to this release. These guys create such a dark, gloomy vibe to rock and roll but it works a treat and the visual imagery and lyrical themes all work as a cohesive unit.
'The Dark Lord'is another cover of the famous Sam Gopal song that featured Lemmyon lead vocals. It is in itself a fucking incredible song and it's so great to see recognition of it and Psychedelic Witchcraft do a superb job at doing it justice. As much as I love original material, I'd love to see these guys do a full cover album just to see what they would pick and see how Virginia can lend her voice to pretty much anything and do a fantastic job.
Track 6'Angela' is the first track taken from the “Black Magic Man” EP from 2015. This time round it sounds much more polished and it's great to see their older stuff rearing its head again. Psychedelic Witchcraft defined their style early on and they still stay true to the Coven-esque style of occult rock. There are also more current influences such as Blood Ceremony or Ruby the Hatchet who play very similar styles of music but I think Psychedelic Witchcraft are the most authentic occult-styled band.
Track 7 'Lying on Iron' is another track from the “Black Magic Man” EP. It is a beautiful, yet haunting piece of music and one of the more mellow tracks on the album. The musicianship in this band is of a very high standard and the fusion of guitar, bass and percussion is extremely affective in creating this sound. The guitar solo uses a Jimi Hendrix'Little Wing' sounding tone and works fantastically with the backing music. There are a million ways to describe how good Virginia's vocals are and yet again, she delivers an impeccable performance.
Track 8 'Black Magic Man' is the title track from the EP of the same name. This was one of the first Psychedelic Witchcraft songs I heard and got me into listening to them. It definitely sounds a lot fuller this time round and reminded me why I love this band. Parts of this song remind me of early 90s desert rock but tainted with a hint of darkness.
The final track on the album 'Slave of Grief' is also re-released from their debut EP. It has a very simple chord progression which is perfect for letting Virginiagrab your attention with her lyrics and vocals. It slowly chugs along and opens up around the 3 min mark with another ripping, fuzzed out guitar solo. Some of the tones on this album are very thick and fuzzy and some are clean and appropriate to the style of each song. This one is steeped in that classic vintage fuzz tone. The drums are absolutely on fire towards the end of this track and it all culminates in a witch's cauldron of musical brilliance as the track fades out.
'Magick Rites and Spells'is a fresh, authentic display of classic occult rock being performed in the present day. It's a blessing to see a band who are truly absorbed in this genre, leading the way for all modern day occultists to follow. It's a very well-balanced mix of old, new and cover songs and an incredible follow-up to the masterpiece that was 'The Vision'. This band are only getting started and I'm truly excited to see what the future holds for Virginia and the guys.
Hi, you wanna know about us?
