Emnity: Demagoguery

I must admit, it's a lot harder to spell the word Demagoguery off the cuff than I would have expected, but with enough practice and fortitude I bring to you all this review courtesy of the multinational death metal band Enmity. Demagoguery is the act's first album, and features a (not so) merry band of vagabonds featuring the lauded George Kollias (Nile) on drums. It's an angry, loud, and politically charged album that tows the line of the genre without much deviation.

There's chunky riffs a plenty, ludicrously tight drums, and vocals that do the whole Glen Benton thing with the layered high/low screams to project maximum grimness. It's well recorded, but I don't find a ton of memorability to be had amongst the album's 7 track, 37 minute runtime. There's bits of audio samples of war, marching troops, and ambiguous industrial crashing to be had, which I feel is required by law to be in any politically charged extreme metal release, and they add nothing to the songs here aside from the cliche factor. It's all pretty by the numbers. Guitar work is tight and interacts well with the stellar drums, but riffs rarely stick around long enough to get going or wedge themselves into your memory bank. The guitar solo work is fairly good for the genre, however. Not good enough to save the ludicrously repetitive disjointed riff salad that is the title track, mind you.

I know the world is bleak these days (in some respects), and there's always a reason to strive for something better and point out the hypocrisy and devastation caused by the warmongering and corruption of the world's nations. That said, I don't have it in me to devote time to albums like Demagoguery. Just unmitigated anger and despair, coupled with every death metal and angry poli-thrash cliche that delivers nothing other than a few "hey, sweet drums" or "nifty solo there" from time to time. It's a pissed off, despair riddled and one note slog.

Tracklist:
1. My Enemy
2. The Bullet That Kills You
3. The Enemy Below
4. Preventable Genocide
5. Flying Fortress
6. Resistance
7. Demagoguery

Added: January 29th 2023
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 548
Language: english

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