ALBUM REVIEW: Hellfire Ocean Void – Demon Head

It’s not often you get to listen to an album recorded in analog, and while the differences between digital and analog are only slightly nuanced when listening back on modern technology, the overall effect is only a touch of poignancy. Rockers DEMON HEAD escaped to the frozen countryside in their home country of Denmark to record their follow-up full-length to 2017’s Thunder On The Fields, taking all the time in the world (well, two years to be precise) to get their latest offering Hellfire Ocean Void down on tape.

Languishing somewhere between heavy rock and doom metal, Hellfire Ocean Void takes its time to fully reach its peak. Opener Rumours immediately introduces the listener to DEMON HEAD’s darker pastures, offering slow building synths to build a gloomy, suspenseful atmosphere, before galloping ahead in second track The Night Is Yours. With a heady mix of instrumentation, the band seem to have no fear in improvising straight onto tape, and the results on Hellfire Ocean Void leave you in two minds — at times a stroke of melodic genius and at others simply repetitive.

Where electric guitars sit comfortably against acoustic guitars and ’70s inspired keys, it’s the vocals that offer an intriguing angle to DEMON HEAD’s sound. Vocalist M.F.L delivers his lyrics by barely cutting above the mix, his style very similar to Gregorian chant – but far more melodic than you’d find in any monastery. But while its supposed to drive the songs forward, the continuous level of his voice, barely changing pitch, makes it hard to latch onto as a force for pace.

In Labyrinth, DEMON HEAD go full medieval. A coupling of acoustic guitars and clever use of tape warping in the studio makes it sound as if it had been pulled straight from the dark ages, a theme that rears its head again in the equally slow Death’s Solitude. Meanwhile, up-tempo rhythms lead by swathes of guitar and bass grooves in A Flaming Sea and In The Hour Of The Wolf proficiently hold their own in the realm of progressive rock — the latter beginning how its predecessor finished. At first it seems formulaic in structure until you hit the three minute mark and DEMON HEAD finally come into their own. Thundering drums keep the pace against whirling guitar solos that change course and pace without a second thought, becoming a dimensional force that overbears any vocals offered here that could stand up against some of the greats from the ’70s. The same feeling appears again in Strange Eggs, where the band seem to take themselves on their own journey through riffs and instrumentation that’s not only dark and brooding, but intensely hedonistic too… in a good way.

Sadly, Hellfire Ocean Void is one of those records where it takes multiple listens to try to understand what DEMON HEAD are trying to do, and even then at times it’s hard to be fully immersed in eight songs that do begin to sound the same. Where DEMON HEAD peak, they match it with their troughs and that is either sonically marvellous or their downfall; the choice of which is totally up the listener.

Rating: 7/10

Hellfire Ocean Void is out now via Svart Records. 

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