Review of Haiduk - Demonicon

Spellbook, the 2012 debut from this Canadian/Balkan one man project was a pretty solid slab of thrash/death/black metal. Not much has changed in 3 years. The sound is a tight, almost robotic (due to programmed drums), death/thrash release with gruff almost Chris Barnes is growls.

There’s no wasted sound, no intros, no interludes, and while the drums sound more obviously programmed than Spellbook, it’s not distracting from the no nonsense 32 minutes.  The 9 tracks, each named after a demon, blaze by with mechanical precision, that come close to The Berzerker type assault, that might not be intended.The guitars shred and dart with no wasted tones and even some clever layering and melodies lurk behind the krieg.

A few slower moments break things up very briefly such as moments of “Azyr” or most varied and longest closing number “Xhadex”, , but for the most part its the likes of opener “Syth”,  “Narzon”, “Sarxas”, “Corloch” and “Nergion”, which are all as pretty interchangeable as their demonic monikers. There’s nothing more to be said here. There’s 32 minutes of tight, blistering full on death thrash, take it or leave it.