From the mists of the past comes a scream of defiance. DEATH YELL are among the oldest South American extreme metal bands. They emerged from Chile in the late ’80s, around the same time as PENTAGRAM, and were contemporaries of SEPULTURA, KRISIUN, SARCOFAGO and other beasts of ancient South American metal. They’ve hardly been a prolific band, as this is only their second full length, but their name has lingered in the memories of those times.
Demons Of Lust is an absolute nostalgia trip, but one that’s fully justified because these dudes were there from the beginning. Everything about Demons Of Lust screams late ’80s/early ’90s. The production is very dry and doesn’t have a modern sheen at all so it might be hard for more recent ears to process. For old metal dogs, though, it gives things a warm fuzzy glow. The musical style of DEATH YELL is very much thrash metal turned up to death metal in the style of the great SEPULTURA albums Schizophrenia and Beneath The Remains…a constant barrage of high speed riffs anchored in thrash, mixed with stinging but faintly melodic guitar melodies and raspy sandpaper vocals. Some of the songs sound almost too familiar, but when DEATH YELL hits the proper groove, they really rip.
My favorite songs here are the most complex and epic tracks, ‘Conjuring Asmodeus Seed’ with its eerie organ perfectly enhancing the rabid riffage, the powerful and almost imperious ‘Seal Of Confession’ and excellent closer ‘Altar Server’s Wrath/Finale’, which brings back memories of SEPULTURA and SARCOFAGO in their glory days. Other tracks like ‘The Parish’ and ‘Bastards Of God’ just deliver raw thrash with few frills. As you can no doubt tell, lyrically the band hails back to ancient days of Satanic blasphemy and morbid musings on the afterlife.
Nothing about Demons Of Lust propels it to classic status, but it’s an authentic callback to an era of metal supremacy.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
DEATH YELL
Demons Of Lust
Hell’s Headbangers