Saint Deamon
League Of The Serpent – AFM Records
With its focus on grandiose lyrical themes and epic and elongated song structure, power metal can seem a tad daunting to the newcomer. With parred back songwriting, Sweden’s Saint Deamon take a more direct route, trimming off any excess fat to make their brand of power metal all the more…powerful. However, the 11 tracks comprising League Of The Serpent contain all the essential ingredients that make the genre so appealing, from operatic vocals to the chest-thumping rhythm section via air guitar inducing solos. It’s a feast for the ears with anthemic songs that are sure to transfer well to the live environment, and they demand that thousands of voices sing-along. Yet, Saint Deamon’s songs are deceptively simple and the unorthodox polyrhythms employed on cuts such as ‘Lord Of The Night’ make them both crushingly heavy and strangely danceable. This album hits all the right bases with the emotive ‘A Lie To Be Undone’, the explosive ‘Gates Of Paradise’, and the carrion cry of closer ‘They Call Us Deamons’. It’s a constantly evolving, multi-faceted listen that makes League Of The Serpent the band’s most satisfying listen, and arguably their best.
Review by Peter Dennis