You fall before you understand that you’re falling. There’s no edge, no warning—just the ground gone and the air rushing past in a long, endless drop. Heat rises from below, but it doesn’t light the way. It burns without shape. Sound builds around you, not from one place but from everywhere at once, like the walls of the abyss grind against each other. You brace for impact that never comes. The pressure grows, tight and close, until it fills your chest and drowns out thought. Then you wake—no fire, no void, no fall. Just the first seconds of Death Knell by Demon King pushing through your speakers, and the weight stays exactly the same.
The first seconds of Death Knell might come across as easy, but that’s all a sham. The brutality hits you in the face at about 30 seconds in. Suddenly, the band drops you straight into the wreckage. The sound hits hard and stays there.
And those vocals? Forget about surviving this one. Demon King locks in as a unit, and each member drives that force. Matt Brown handles guitar and vocals with a tight grip, while Colt Halvorson adds a second guitar line that fills out the attack. Cole Daniels holds the low end steady on bass, and Jack Blackburn pushes the pace on drums without letting it slip. Together, they mix black metal mood with sharp, fast death metal, and they keep the pressure on from start to finish. “Requiem for a Dead World” sets the tone with slow, tense lines, then “Incineration Mantra” snaps into motion. The riffs cut fast and clean. The band keeps tight control, but the sound still feels raw.
“The Poisoned Veins of the Willing” pulls the focus inward. The guitars twist around each other and build tension instead of release. The vocals shift between harsh lines and spoken parts that feel like broken signals. They don’t sound clean, and that works in the band’s favor. “By the Portents of Evil” speeds things up again. The band moves through short, sharp sections and never lets the pace drop. They stretch some moments just long enough to build unease, then drive forward again.
“Pharmagickal Dominion” shows how precise the band can be. Each part lands where it should. You can hear the structure, but it never feels safe. The weight stays constant. “Saturnal Abyss, Carbonic Prison” slows things down and opens space. The guitars ring out more, and the rhythm pulls you deeper instead of pushing forward. The track feels cold and distant, like it has moved past anything human.
The title track, “Death Knell,” lands with purpose. It doesn’t try to shock. It marks the point of no return. The main idea repeats and sticks in your head. Then “To Trample and Destroy the Nations” ends the album with force. The band pushes speed and density as far as they can. They don’t give you a break. They hold that intensity until the final second.
Death Knell works because it never lets go. The band does not chase flash or easy hooks. They build pressure and keep it there. The songs connect and move as one piece, not as singles meant to stand alone. Each track feeds the next, so the album feels like a single push rather than a set of stops and starts. Even the rough edges help the mood. The spoken parts feel off in a way that adds tension, not polish. The guitars stay sharp but never drift into empty showmanship. The rhythm section holds a steady weight that keeps everything grounded, even when the riffs turn complex.
There’s no break in tone, no safe pause to reset your ears. It pulls you forward and keeps you there until the end. The record does not ask for your approval. It does not try to win you over with hooks or trends. It hits, it holds, and it leaves you there, with no clean exit.
Death Knell can be purchased at the band's bandcamp site or wherever the very best of Metal is sold. As always, remember: Celluloid fades. Dissonance remains.
