Review Summary: A collection of songs from Demon Hunter's back catalogue, reworked into acoustic versions purely for fans. It's too long, but ultimately fulfilling.
Certain artists within any industry of creative media will go through an inexplicable period of simply "falling off the map", as it were. Metalcore being an especially fickle subgenre of music, in which today's greats are tomorrow's nobodies, this trend feels somewhat more common when discussing our personal beloved acts attached to this tag, and one such band I could name are the Seattle-based Demon Hunter, whose early output was an effective blend of Christian messages and hard-edged riffing. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the band's sound were the vocals of Ryan Clark, who made great use of a mixture of aggressive screams and a soft croon to great effect on songs such as Fading Away, Collapsing, Thorns, and Descending Upon Us. They achieved a little success on their first four records, and withered into obscurity for a long period, despite releasing (mostly) solid works, culminating eventually in 2021's 'Songs of Death and Resurrection'.
It feels fitting that my own interest was piqued in this record based primarily on its relationship with their earlier work, which had had a huge impact on my early life. Of the twelve songs found on this hour-long record, only one is entirely new, with the other eleven taking the form of acoustic renditions of cuts taken from their extensive back catalogue. The aforementioned juxtaposition of the soft and the brutal are now replaced with gorgeous, textured acoustic guitar work, effective and yet restrained drumming, and the strongest vocal performance from Ryan Clark to date. Reinventing these songs and also their overall sound a full eleven studio albums into their career is a bold move, and yet perhaps their time removed from what could be termed the "B-List" metalcore tier of the later-2000's has given them the courage to make such a marked departure from what attracted their following historically at the risk of utter alienation. As it turned out, this was a fantastic move, for this album truly shines brightly.
Given the positivity of the Christian-themed lyrics here, the more cheerful and relaxed feeling of this version of The Heart Of A Graveyard causes this to stand tall above the original, whilst the already spectacular My Throat Is An Open Grave opens the album in strong fashion, with the muddy production of the original replaced here with a clean and beautiful sound that ensures the subtleties of the rewritten instrumentation seeps through unmolested. For those seeking a little more variety, the strings in the background of the new track Praise The void give its introduction a thought-provoking feel, whilst Ryan's opening line of, "And here I thought we all agree" only adds to that contemplative atmosphere. "Can we still behold the forest for the trees," he asks, and I can not be the only listener who was forced to look at the surrounding world and repeat this same question. Much emphasis on discussions around this band is placed upon the religious aspect of their sound, but the lyrical depth in many of their songs transcends these connections and the stripped-back versions of songs such as fan-favourite Carry Me Down allows this to be shown off.
Not everything on this album is postive, and certainly very little of it even approaches perfection, but the consistent tone taken here is admirable in itself. When discussing negatives, one is purely subjective and that would be the inevitable comparisons between these versions of the songs and their original incarnations. My Heartstrings Come Undone closes off this record, and this is one that my personal preference causes me to label a downgrade. Much of the passion and energy is muddied here, whilst the strings-lead instrumentation fails to evoke the same feelings of grandeur as the original. When seeking for cracks in this albums armour to describe to someone unfamiliar with the earlier recordings here - which I feel is difficult, as this is an album primarily made for fans of the band rather than an attempt to draw in a new audience - there really isn't a whole lot of variety outside of the use of strings and a female vocalist on a couple of tracks. What one hears in the first track is essentially the mirror image of what one will also hear ten tracks later. This truly feels like a marathon at its run time, and would have benefited heavily from being trimmed down. This is a good album, and one I recommend, but is certainly not one I could place among even my top 30 albums of 2021.
