DAEMON

Despite this being their third album, Denmark's DAEMON are perhaps best known for having featured the services of then-ENTOMBED drummer Nicke Andersson on their 1997 debut Seven Deadly Sins—a widely acclaimed yet largely underground classic that owed more than a small part of its musical inspiration to Andersson's previous outfit's early output. The band's second effort, 1999's The Second Coming, was another exercise in uncompromising death metal, featuring a stellar performance by current THE HAUNTED skinsman Per M. Jensen, who had also spent time in KONKHRA alongside DAEMON mainman Anders Lundemark.

Considering Lundemark's knack for surrounding himself with some of metal's top drummers (KONKHRA's 1997 release Weed Out The Weak was recorded using the help of ex-MACHINE HEAD sticksman Chris Kontos),it is therefore no surprise to learn that DAEMON's third full-length offering features none other than former DARK ANGEL and current STRAPPING YOUNG LAD pounder Gene Hoglan, whose presence is immediately felt as the opening notes of incredibly-intense opener "Gone Forever" kick in. The uncompromisingly brutal approach doesn't let up for the duration of the album, which covers a musical ground best described as somewhere between American-style death metal and old-school thrash metal, with the likes of early PESTILENCE, SLAYER and early DEATH popping up as the most immediate points of reference throughout the proceedings.

Unsurprisingly, the originality factor is low, and there is absolutely nothing on Eye For An Eye could be construed as an attempt to break new ground and take the genre into previously uncharted territories. Having said that, DAEMON deliver this stuff with such unbridled aggression and conviction that one could almost forgive the fact that most of this stuff has been directly derived from artists that have preceded them. Indeed, the aforementioned "Gone Forever", the SLAYER-inspired "Cursed" and the equally-intense closer "Tailgunner" easily stand as some of the most powerful slices of no-frills death/thrash metal that I have ever heard, such is the ferociousness of the group's execution.

When all is said and done, Eye For An Eye is unlikely to be hailed as an innovative effort or one that will change the face of the genre as we know it. This notwitstanding, DAEMON's third CD is an album that pays homage to the pioneers of the death/thrash sound while surpassing them in sheer itensity stakes, and as such, it is more than worth hunting down.