Beats and yelling: Medieval Demon

All Powers of Darkness
Out 22^nd August on Hells Headbangers

Medieval Demon, erstwhile outliers of the classic Greek scene, continue their eccentric second life with a run of occultist horror metal pitched plumb on the border between the sublime and the ridiculous. Where 2022’s ‘Black Coven’ was an articulation of shamelessly confident traditional gothic horror tropes mixed with the Homeric epicism of Macabre Omen, ‘All Powers of Darkness’ is a much broader commentary on the activities of their peers. It metabolises many features common to modern Greek black metal, but marshals them into a more coherent, and therefore expressive, statement of histrionic metal.

On paper, Greek black metal looks more confident than ever (Rotting Christ’s flagging career excepted). But in practice I still find much of the material lacking (the various projects of Stefan Necroabyssious for example). For all the pomp and ceremony, confidence, and indeed raw musical activity being thrown around, one cannot escape the impression that these are simply recycled ideas and material given a new lick of paint. The hyper melodic, melodramatic, mythical, exaggerated statements of epic extreme metal amounts to little more than generic gestures toward something that is never quite fully realised. Like an Instagram filter, imperfections are papered over rather than fixed.

Medieval Demon, to date, have avoided these shortcomings by limiting their aesthetic focus to camp gothic horror, bolstered by raw musical talent, a knack for arrangement, and an ear for placing good melody when it counts. Whilst this latest offering plays on the same territory as their previous efforts, there is no denying that they have raised the stakes here. The usual church organ lines, hammy orchestration, and vocal eccentricities are supplemented with a more sober focus on constructive cohesion. This is achieved by borrowing material from their peers, a Rotting Christ riff here, a dirty Necromantia bassline there, Varathron-esque mysticism, all are grounded in a healthy dose of heavy metal riffing that works in contrast to playful prog deviations.  

The result is an album every bit as cacophonous as modern Greek black metal, but one with a pronounced topography, the highs higher and the lows lower. A wealth of musical traditions are drawn upon, resulting in an album that feels as wide as it is deep. But Medieval Demon are still able to draw all these elements together when it counts, allowing them to coalesce into dramatic musical statements born of simple contrasts between tension and release.

Rather than being a self-creating, truly sui generis statement of musical language, ‘All Powers of Darkness’ is a testament to the art of arrangement. Medieval Demon have an unmistakable identity, but one heavily and deliberately rooted in cliché. The majority of the material is begged, stolen, or borrowed from a breadth of completed artistic sequences. But once digested through Medieval Demon’s carefree creative process it results in an immersive, cinematic statement of shamelessly adventurous modern metal.