Traveling through the air on dark wings, the monumental distorted power from Demonsmoke’s music brings forth an onslaught of unforgiving doom and sludge devastation. Hailing from the wastelands of Antioch, CA the band offers listeners a juggernaut of sheer doom with their debut album, “Morphine Moonshine.”
When I saw Demonsmoke play in a Petaluma diver bar about a couple years back, I remember thinking these guys had the potential to write some really crushing music. Their sound is very tight and the band gives every ounce of energy when playing their songs. The vicious passion from the singer’s delivery to the nasty sounding riffs of sinister reverb, unleashes a sound that stays in your head. Honestly, this debut album surpasses what I originally thought they were capable of recording. I remember them being a solid band, but the musicianship and songwriting on this debut album is utterly amazing. Also, getting Greg Wilkinson to record the album was a good choice since he really captured the raw and unapologetic attitude that Demonsmoke can deliver through their music.
Out of the nine songs on this album you will not find one piece of generic music. I am talking endless skull crushing fuzz guitar riffs and bluesy sludge rhythms that make you want to bang your head into oblivion. The opening song, “Creeping Down Your Neck,” was actually featured on the band’s three song demo which I picked up at the show in Petaluma. Also, featured on that demo were “Morphine Moonshine,” and “Sever.” All three songs sounded great on the demo and have somehow been elevated to even greater heights on the new album. Demonsmoke writes solid verse sections that eventually reach these behemoth climaxes filled with earth shattering drum parts and riffs of glorious doom.
“Morphine Moonshine,” is one of the song’s that stands out the most with its rebellious audio clip from the movie, “The Wild Angels,” in the beginning on the song, followed shortly by their singer’s cry of torment over the bombastic riff attack. I want to live inside that guitar amp because the tone is insanely addicting. Another song that I want to mention is, “Spewing Disgust,” which contains some demonic and vitriolic vocal parts with plenty of low end destruction coming from the drummer and bass player. Once again the riff tears through the speakers spewing distorted sounding hatred without remorse.
Track number five on the album, “Set in Stoned,” is another solid piece of doom and has a killer bass intro that creates a haunting buzz of noise right before the band kicks into a heavy jam section. Songs like, “Through the Sun,” and “Backside of the Spoon,” have this hypnotic vibe going at times, yet they convey an extremely raw and bold attitude. The band also does an impress cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Junkie,” by taking the music and applying their own vicious sludge and doom interpretation. The last song on the album to mention is, “Sawed Off Sociopath.” I thought it was one of the band’s heaviest songs which is saying something, because all the songs on this album are unbelievably heavy. While the guitarist hammers away to the main riff you stand there anticipating each note of sludgy aggression.
Compared to a lot of Sabbath like doom and sludge worship bands, Demonsmoke does not mess around and has their shit together. The production was flawless and the strong recording quality made these musicians sound great from start to finish. For a debut album the band should be extremely proud of what they accomplished. Each song is well written and does not sound like it was hastily thrown together. Demonsmoke is a great example of how the power of the riff can still conjure up some killer sounding tunes. If you enjoy sludge and doom metal and want a cascade of loud distorted aggressive sounding music to come crashing down into your ears, you need to get this album right away!
Demonsmoke Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/demonsmokeband/