Throughout the history of death metal some bands have been very successful in choosing names for themselves which tell you what they’re up to with a bullhorn. Bands like Autopsy, Death, and Possessed. Of course, we’d still have forgotten about names such as those if their music hadn’t taken deep root in the harrowed and fertilized fields of our minds.
Shrieking Demons is another name that uses a bullhorn to tell you what’s coming. Not coincidentally, we chose those other reference points above not just because they help make the point about evocative band-name choices, but also because they’ve influenced the music of Shrieking Demons.
But if you think about those other, now-legendary names, you’ll also guess that these Italian demons do more than shriek, and a further clue to what else they do can be found in the name of their forthcoming debut album: The Festering Dwellers. Or even more vividly, from the name of the album track we’re about to premiere: “Perennial Dirge.”
Though Shrieking Demons is a pretty new name, with only a 2021 EP (Diabolical Regurgitations) in their discography before the new album, this isn’t the bandmembers’ first hellish rodeo. They also are, or have been, members of such groups as Assumption, Bottomless, Haemophagus, Morbo, Undead Creep, and Gravesite.
What they’re doing together in Shrieking Demons is (to quote their label Transcending Obscurity Records) paying homage to “death metal in the classic style with emphasis on riffs, delivery, and feeling rather than just crazed speed and technicality.” And with that, let’s turn to “Perennial Dirge“.
For damned sure, demons are shrieking and cavorting in this song with vicious ecstasy. The riffing is filthy in tone and nasty in intent. The drumming provides a feral, punkish gallop, and the bass a meaty throb. The vocals both murderously bellow and psychotically scream. And the song will get its meat-hooks in your head damned fast.
But other hooks are coming, in the form of riffs that deliver sizzling chugs and sickening squirms, backed by highly animated drum-fills. You’ll also encounter a feverish and freakish guitar solo that makes the song sound even more infernally ecstatic. And lest you wonder where the song’s name came from, the music also segues into an ugly lurching movement that gruesomely moans and seems to ooze purulent fluids. But even that grisly closing segment brings its own head-moving hook.
And so, Shrieking Demons pay homage to vintage death metal in ways both gruesome and fiendishly exhilarating, through music that’s filthy, vicious, crazed, and monstrous — and the demons do shriek in the midst of their slaughtering ecstasies.
SHRIEKING DEMONS:
Gabri (Cancer Spreading, Gravesite) – Vocals
Giorgio (Assumption, Bottomless) – Lead and acoustic guitar
Valentina – Rhythm guitar
Nino – Bass
David (Assumption, Bottomless) – Drums
The Festering Dwellers features supernaturally ghastly cover art by Roberto Toderico Art (Asphyx, Paganizer). It will be released on January 31st of the coming New Year by Transcending Obscurity Records, which is offering it in every format you can think of, along with lots of other merch related to the album. T.O. recommends if FFO:
Autopsy, Abscess, Cianide, Druid Lord, Pungent Stench, Death, Assumption, Dwelling Below
Check out the offerings via the links below, and also have a listen to two other previously released songs from the album — “Abstract Hallucinating” and “Apostasy, Sodomy and Sacrilege“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://shriekingdemons-label.bandcamp.com/album/the-festering-dwellers
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
SHRIEKING DEMONS:
http://facebook.com/shriekingdemons