Album Review: "The Burden Is Mine" by Demonstealer

The Burden Is Mine

New things can be uncomfortable.

When melodic singing started taking a back seat to the more guttural variety, Fear Factory charged back with a style of singing that incorporated both the growls and the singing.

Bruce Dickinson has made a fantastic career out of singing very powerful notes and on the flip side, John Tardy hasn't exactly had a terrible career for himself growling in Obituary, and only growling.

Back to Fear Factory, after hearing so much about this band, they left me disappointed at Ozzfest.

Unlike King Diamond, the changing of the vocal styles did not feel like a method of improving the delivery of a message, but a gimmick to be exploited in order to stand apart from the crowded field of angry vocalists.

Demonstealer is an interesting thing, for lack of a better term. Demonstealer, himself, is also known as Sahil Makhija of India.

The big reveal on this album is that the drums are played by George Kollias of Nile, all of the drum tracks are played by Kollias.

Demonstealer plays all the keys, guitars, and handles all of the vocal duties. If my implications were too subtle, this death metal album features more than just the growls that are general issue to the genre.

He also, well sings, but not in that nasal style that's commonly referred to as "clean singing," a term which I loathe. Either you're singing or you're not singing. Kind of like, it's blast beats or beats behind the drums.

Instead of feeling like a parlor trick, as has been heard so many times, the melodic vocals feel like an extension of the song. Emotions that simply cannot be conveyed by the thunderous demonic voices are being carried by the melodies.

Of course, the drums are top notch, modern death metal to the hilt. My personal preference would have been for natural blast beats, but the triggered beats never overly distract. The average listener would probably not even notice it.

Between the dynamic singing and wildly varied guitar solos, this album has a very progressive feel. The style here is a low burn for me.

This wasn't a group where they had me hooked after the first verse. The first song was uncomfortable to me, but it had potential. As the tracks came and went, my enjoyment of this album increased.

It was just one of those times where I didn't understand what they were doing right away, but when I did, hell yes.

Release: 3/25/16
Genre: Death Metal
Label: DIY
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