Peacemaker – Demo 2012

Peacemaker – Demo 2012Now here’s an interesting demo for your delectation! It’s most definitively doom metal, but let me tell you that this is SPECIAL. There have been some cracking demos this year, but bugger me if this isn’t the absolute best! Ladies, gentlemen and assorted down-and-outs, I give you (via London and Leeds) Peacemaker. I’d like to think they took their name from the (sublime) Unorthodox song or the (in)famous handgun, but it’s probably neither! From the very first notes, not only is it clear that this band know their way around a studio, but they also have very finely tuned songwriting chops. A total old-school ‘eavy metal vibe coupled with the gloomy, mournful pacing that makes early Trouble so essential, and you have a band that cannot fail to floor you.  Methinks Chile’s Procession have finally been given some competition in their field, and it’s about bloody time!

“Dead Man’s Keys” introduces us to the band’s thick riffing and precise structures, with the drums coming through the guitars nice and clear, as Al Osta (he of the criminally underrated Raven’s Creed, no less!) growls over a piano (!) like Tom Waits on downers, before tearing into a tortured howl of sheer power. The solo that follows is equally spine-tingling, as precise as Victor Griffin in his prime – what an opener!

The demo continues with “Sorrow Trip”, where the band are more in the realm of the epic, Solitude Aeternus/Solstice territory, which leads seamlessly to them heading full throttle into “The Siberian Problem”, an up-tempo skullcrusher that is sheer headbanging bliss, especially with its chorus of “BLOOD AND SOIL”! The Gates Of Slumber have pretty much made their own little niche in the doom metal community with this sort of thing, it’s great to hear a new band taking that formula and coming out with something so damn good.

Part of what makes this demo stand out is the fact the band clearly worship their “true” metal, and the spirit of Manilla Road in their prime, Cirith Ungol and Witchfinder General is as apparent in these three standout tracks as the more obvious likes of Vitus, Candlemass and the like. Perfectly (but not over) produced, this astounding demo promises great things, and apparently is intended as an album sampler, and I for one am REALLY looking forward to it.

Grab your crossbow and prepare for WAR, Peacemaker are here!

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Label: Self Released
Website: http://peacemakerdoom.bandcamp.com

Scribed by: Saúl Do Caixão