Review Summary: Although this album shows a good start and strong musicianship, it doesn't do enough to stand out on its own in the metal world today.
Listening to a new album is always fun, because you never know quite what to expect. It could be the worst thing you've ever heard, the best thing you've ever heard, or something you can just listen to and think nothing of.
Upon listening to
Internal Demons for the first time, it felt familiar, but friendly. I knew the sound very well, however even still, the musicianship and the actual writing of the album managed to catch my attention as something very strong but to an extent "generic." The album starts and finishes with a similar sound of keyboard-laden melodic death metal with a more modern vocal style of growls, and excellent guitar writing. The album overall bears a powerful resemblance to Children of Bodom, almost to the point of copying. The keyboards especially show this, with a sound almost exactly that of Children of Bodom's. In a way this is a good thing, but during a time where music becomes known by being new or creative rather than relying on its quality alone makes it difficult to see this influence without a second opinion.
Along their glaring similarities to Children of Bodom, Deals Death has also managed to do a good job keeping their quality on par with them. The guitar is wonderfully melodic, and the keyboard accompanying each note really adds to the overall sound of the album. The drums keep a quick pace but are not necessarily anything standout. The bass is less than audible at times, though this seems to be an unfortunate trend in metal music. When it is audible though, it has a similar melodic style to it much like the guitar. The vocals are the place where the band manages to break away from Children of Bodom, and uses a deeper, yet not necessarily "deep" style of growls that sounds like it would fit very well in a metalcore band.
Even though this album is very good, it is simply too unoriginal to be amazing. The band itself seems very talented, much more than capable of writing their own music, but their sound, and I cannot stress this enough, is borderlining copy-paste Children of Bodom with lower vocals. I feel that the album is really going to open doors for the band (or at least I hope) and encourage them to try to sculpt their own sound and use other bands as an influence rather than a template for their music. Hopefully in the future we see (or hear rather) the same level of musicianship employed into a different sound.
