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DEMON BITCH "Master Of The Games"
DEMON BITCH "Master Of The Games"
By Dr. Abner Mality
I thought Detroit's DEMON BITCH would be right up my alley but "Master of the Games" instead leaves the foul taste of disappointment in my mouth. The press build up had me primed for a band out of the classic American power metal tradition ala SAVAGE GRACE, OMEN, OBSESSION and the like.
Instead this is cartoony neoclassical metal trashed by some of the most absurd and overblown falsetto vocals I've heard since Leo Sayer. There is a certain art to doing ultra high pitched theatrical vocals in metal...John Cyriis of AGENT STEEL comes to mind. Logon Saton pushes things way past tolerance here. By the middle of the title track (#2 in the running order), I was already sick of his fruity, yelps, squeals and exaggerated phrasing. On "Tower of Dreams", I thought he ALMOST showed enough restraint to be tolerable, but he ends even that tune with limp-wristed squeals. To be brutally honest, he kills this album deader than Abe Lincoln.
There are more problems with DEMON BITCH than Saton's singing, although that is the guided missile that torpedos the record. The songwriting here sounds much more geared to the more fruit-stuffed end of the modern European power metal scene than the classic 80's American style. The songs all play at the same speed, sounding like just minor variations of the same master tune. There are good riffs popping up occasionally and the neoclassical shredding ability of Lord Mars and Solon Saton cannot be denied, but it can't withstand the lack of depth in the songwriting and Logon's almost mockingly bad vocals.
For DEMON BITCH, the result is bluntly clear: GAME OVER!
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