DEMONAZ — March of the Norse (review)

DEMONAZ — March of the Norse album cover

Album · 2011 · Melodic Black Metal

4/5 · 2011-04-18
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March of the Norse is the debut album from former Immortal guitarist Demonaz Doom Occulta. Demonaz had to step down from his position in Immortal due to being diagnosed with acute tendinopathy, which prevented him from playing guitar at the speeds required for a band such as Immortal. With his new self-titled project however Demonaz returns to being a performing part of a band, but as a vocalist. The resulting style is what is best considered a hybrid of black metal and heavy metal (I wouldn’t call it blackened heavy metal though, the black elements are too prominent for that), almost in the vein of Demonaz’s Immortal band mate Abbath’s project I, of which Demonaz provided the lyrics as he does for Immortal, but March of the Norse has less of a rocky feel to it, with more a focus the black metal side of things.

As a vocalist Demonaz has a very different approach than the typical black metal vocalist, especially when compared to Abbath. On the album Demonaz delivers some harsh, but not typically in your face vocals, which are in reality often closer in sound to clean vocals than any sort of a growl, mainly because they’re very easy to understand. Throughout the album Demonaz proves that he is very capable in the position of a frontman.

The album has an intro track called Northern Hymn. Unlike other intro tracks this one actually works in context of the album. The first proper song though is the excellent All Blackened Sky. There are some great riffs in the song and Demonaz’s style of vocals really works with the style and there is also plenty of room left for some melodic lead guitar. The style continues into the album’s title track, with the quality remaining consistent.

By the time of the fourth song, A Son of the Sword, however I was beginning to frown a little. While the music being delivered was retaining the same level of quality, there wasn’t much variation to the way it was being delivered. It’s formulated with the same key elements present in all three actual tracks to until that point.

Where Gods Once Rode changed things a lot, with some chanted vocals and a light and atmospheric interlude within the song not exactly breaking the established formula, but at least they added to it. Under The Great Fires features more variation as well, with much more melody brought to the fore from the guitars, and different ideas for carrying the song. This is a good thing because if the album had continued with that formulated approach early on I think I would have been bored by this point.

One of my absolute favourites from the album though has to be Legends Of Fire And Ice, which features a lot of fast melodic lead which really screams heavy and power metal influences, proving again that despite some earlier concerns, March of the Norse is actually a very varied record.

All this said overall I found that March of the Norse was definitely an album that required one listen to know what it sounded like and then another to really appreciate the album’s strengths. After a first listen I was not really impressed by March of the Norse, but after going back I found myself liking Demonaz’s brand of black metal more and more.

March of the Norse doesn’t really touch on Immortal’s best works in terms of overall quality for me, but it is a very good album in its own right and I think that Demonaz has much potential to turn out some true gems if he decides that he is going to stick with this project. It has more of a unique sound to it that your typical black metal act and there are many tracks which I would number among some of the best Demonaz has written for any project that he has been involved in to date. Highly recommended listening.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)