UMUR Demonstrous is the debut album by Danish/ American thrash metal act Demonica. The album was released in February 2010 by Massacre Records. The band was formed by the two Danes in the group, lead vocalist Klaus Hyr and guitarist Hank Shermann, after the former put pressure on the latter to write and record a thrash metal album. Hank Shermann, who is mostly known for his work with Mercyful Fate, took up the challenge and he is responsible for writing all the music on the album. The lyrics are written by Klaus Hyr. The two Danes are joined by three experienced American metal musicians in bassist Marc Grabowski ( Corruption), guitarist Craig Locicero ( Forbidden) and drummer Mark Hernandez ( Forbidden, Heathen, Vio-Lence, Defiance...etc.), making this a very strong lineup.

The music on Demonstrous is traditional US influenced thrash metal. Bands like Forbidden and especially Exodus come to mind IMO. There´s a good dynamic between the fast-paced sections and the heavy mid-paced sections. The solos are screaming and fast played, the vocals are aggressive yet with a sense for memorability, the riffs are powerful and memorable and the rythm section is also something to feast upon. The only time we´re reminded that Hank Shermann usually plays and composes more traditonal heavy metal is during the excellent instrumental closing track Astronomica. There are solos in that track to die for. Just beautiful. The rest of the tracks are more or less hard hittin´ thrash metal assaults and personally that suits me fine. All 10 tracks on the album are high quality compositions and the consistency of the material is in addition to the great musicianship, one of the greatest assets of the album.

When I first read about this project my curiosity was instantly woken. I´m a Mercyful Fate fan, so I´ve always followed Hank Shermann´s various projects. The man is a great composer and guitarist IMO. I´ve often been disappointed with the output of some of the projects by Hank Shermann though, simply because they didn´t suit my personal tastes, but Demonica is an alltogether different beast. Demonstrous is simply a high class thrash metal album in every respect. Powerful production, great varied ( within the confines of the US thrash metal style) songwriting and excellent musicianship. A big 4 star rating is fully deserved.

Time Signature Fast and furious...

Genre: thrash metal

Yes, the main man of Demonica is Hank Shermann (aka Rene Krølmark) of Brats, Fate, and Mercyful Fate fame... but don't expect this to be a quirky and progressive Mercyful Fate style album or a melodic commercial Fate style album or even a punky Brats style album. This is thrash metal - pure and unadulterated - of the old school.

The tracks are from mid- to uptempo thrashers. All of them are pretty much in your face with speedy riffage and fast drums (they even make use of some blast beats on some of the tracks) and angry vocals. The opener is a very Slayer-inspired thrasher which very much sets the tone for the rest of the album with its fast and simple riffs, groovy choruses and occasional dabbling with melody.

That's very much what characterizes this album: groove, aggression, speed and anger, and, for my money, this is the best release the Kr'lmark/Shermann has been involved in since his Mercyful Fate days.

This album may be of interest to Mercyful Fate fans, but it os really an all out thrash album in the vein of Slayer, Exodus, and Artillery, so I think it should very much appeal to fans of traditional thrash metal (but they tend to also be Mercyful Fate fans, don't they?).