American metal group Demon Hunter is set to release “Songs of Death and Resurrection” on March 5th. The album comprises of one new song and 11 reimagined versions of previously released songs from across the entire discography. The band indeed showed how talented and versatile they can be on this album. The group has already seen success with the new songs despite the album not being out yet. Reaching #14 on Billboard’s Rising Livestream Artists chart after their exclusive live stream performance in November.
The album opens with My Throat is an Open Grave originally from the album “Death, A Destination.” Beginning with piano with orchestra quickly entering in, completely opposite of the original track, which features heavier guitars and percussion, they set the tone for the vibe of the rest of the album with this track. The band released three singles ahead of the album release Loneliness, I Will Fail You, and Dead Flowers. Dead Flowers, originally from the album “True Defiance,” is the first single to appear on the album. Starting with a mix of just piano and light percussion, this track is slight more fast-paced than some other songs on the album but still very different from the original. I really enjoyed the newest track, Praise The Void. Featuring haunting vocals and orchestral instrumentation, Having little instrumentation outside of the orchestral instruments in the background, vocalist Ryan Clark’s vocals are at the forefront. It shows only what he is capable of and how powerful a voice he has. Another standout track for me is the second single to appear on the album Loneliness, which can originally be found on their most recent release, “Praise.” Originally a hard fast-paced song, the group took a whole different turn on it now with much slower, haunting instrumentation. It is one of the more melodic and haunting songs on the album. Another really special part of this song, in particular, is that it actually features Clark’s mother on the studio version of the track. Speaking on this song, vocalist Ryan Clark said, “When we played this song live in 2019—during the acoustic portion of the night—we pushed the limits of how slow we could do it. The slower we got, the more bleak it felt, and this only added to the vibe. After all, we were trying to channel a feeling of despair, allowing the song to truly embody its namesake. On the studio version of this ‘Resurrected’ track, you’ll hear my mom sing with me. My mom is my inspiration for singing in the first place, so it was very heartwarming to finally capture our voices together on a Demon Hunter record.” As the song ends, the orchestra slowly fades out into just haunting piano notes to fade out the song.
Following Loneliness, we reach the back half of the album I Will Fail You. I Will Fail You was the first single to be released from the album and features the incredible talents of longtime Demon Hunter collaborator Chris Carmichael. To close out the album, My Heartstrings Come Undone from the album “Summer of Darkness.” Originally a hard fast-paced rock song, the group took a whole different spin on it with an orchestra from the very beginning of the track all the way through. It was a great ending to the album and tied it all together. The new album features founding songwriter Ryan Clark, lead guitarist Patrick Judge, bassist Jonathan Dunn, drummer Yogi Watts, and guitarist Jeremiah Scott. Scott produced and mixed the effort in Atlanta, Georgia, and Nashville. Songs of Death and Ressurection features lush string arrangements, haunting piano, and layered vocal harmonies showing a side of the group we haven’t seen before. Overall I thought this album was incredible. We got to see a totally different side of the band on this record, and I am interested to see what they put out in the future. Songs of Death and Ressurection is available for preorder now here and will be out everywhere on March 5th.
Tracklist
My Throat Is An Open Grave (Resurrected)
Dead Flowers (Resurrected)
The Heart Of A Graveyard (Resurrected)
Praise The Void (Resurrected)
Blood In The Tears (Resurrected)
Loneliness (Resurrected)
I Will Fail You (Resurrected)
I am A Stone (Resurrected)
Deteriorate (Resurrected)
Carry Me Down (Resurrected)
The Tide Began To Rise (Resurrected)
My Heartstrings Come Undone (Resurrected)
