UMUR
"Servants of the Unlight" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Demonical. The album was released through Cyclone Empire in April 2007. Demonical was formed in 2006 after the demise of Centinex and the lineup on "Servants of the Unlight" features no less than three members of the lineup who performed on the 2005 "World Declension" album by Centinex. The only new member is lead vocalist Ludvig Engellau.
So is "Servants of the Unlight" in effect Centinex´s ninth full-length studio album released under a different name? After listening to the album I would say a big no, and I´m actually a bit surprised that Demonical are able to produce something which sounds this different from Centinex...but of course more power to them for doing exactly that.
Compared to the melodic and sometimes blackened death metal of the last couple of Centinex releases, "Servants of the Unlight" is a much more brutal, meaty, and beastly death metal release and any notion that this should be a continuation of Centinex is blown away by the power, aggression, and brutality of what you´re exposed to during the 9 tracks, 36:17 minutes long "Servants of the Unlight". This is dark and grim take on old school Swedish death metal and if I have to make a comparison to anything which came before, it would be the early releases by Grave. There´s a similar uncompromsing brutality and relentless aggression to the material on "Servants of the Unlight". Demonical aren´t Grave clones by any means though and they have ideas of their own which ensure that. They for example play quite a few blasting deathgrind parts, which are great for the variation of the album.
The sound production and especially the buzzsaw HM-2 guitar tone will also immediately have you think of old school Swedish death metal, although "Servants of the Unlight" is of course presented in a more contemporary sound package. All in all "Servants of the Unlight" is a good quality death metal release from Demonical and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.