Welcome to nekrotronic nightmare and terror of your pathetic artificial illusion of life!
Demonic Slaughter is a long-running project (formed in 2006 or so) by Kamil aka X.O. aka Xaos Oblivion, whom you might know as well from bands and projects like Xaosis, Aryman, Necrosadist or, indeed, Xaos Oblivion. With several of his projects, he’s closely related to the Lower Silesian Stronghold family, and it’s quite logic that this newest Demonic Slaughter album gets released via that Polish label as well; a label run by Raborym, the frontman for the great act Dark Fury (and FYI: expect reviews on material from e.g. Dark Fury, Xaos Oblivion and Xaosis too soon!).
World is rotten to the core. Humanity is stupid shit minded mass going straight to the slaughter. I’m far away…
The Night Of Mesmeric Whispers was written and recorded during Black Sun Emanations 2018/2022’ by Kamil (‘all vocals, guitars, bass, pulses of madness, keyboards, lyrics’) with some assistance by guest vocalists, including former member and long-time friend Michał ‘Perversor’ Kaczkowski; the latter took care once again of the artwork (‘possessed graphics, visions’) (Cursed Art). The material represents ‘hate, disgust and pure evil energy [] at the time of creation full of madness and psychotic anger’.
The album consists of nine lullabies that are pressed on compact-disc, besides a digital edition. The physical one is a jewel-case CD with a twelve-page booklet, coming with that aforementioned cursed visual artistry, and with inclusion of the sunshiny lyrics (which are in English).
It might be clear that the basics go on in the vein of the former releases, yet with The Night Of Mesmeric Whispers, Demonic Slaughter did strongly and fiercely evolve into proportions even more grim, militant and forceful than before. What strikes me in the first place, is the increased intensity behind the rhythms and harmonies. As from the opening title track, a combative strength seems to overpower the atmosphere, bathed in purest rawness and intolerance. With a little mechanical rhythm as core (cf. the industrial-like beats and percussions, and the scorching guitar-sound), this stuff narrates about misanthropy, disgust, odium and the total absence of light and life.
This material overwhelms in intensity of sound. All tracks are an immense symbiosis of instruments and voices, like a thick, suffocating fog that surrounds and asphyxiates. Yet striking is the finesse of the melodic structures, for all hymns on this album do come with an harmonic texture in the first place. These melodies are quite hypnotic (‘mesmerically whispering’, if you want to), and it is such pleasure and joy (haha) to experience that well-thought equilibrium of both a melodious song-writing and a harsh, mechanoid execution.
Another remarkable (and why not: inventive) evolution is the ‘replacement’ from the initial Pagan-oriented nucleus of old, into that industro-machinal alike performance and production. The injection of huge Martial Industrial / Dark Ambient / Neo-Classical oriented excerpts (cf. Dark Paths To Catharsis, for instance) has been taken over by harsher, permanently pushing and pounding anti-ballads (a new progression that started with 2019’s split Unholy Transgression with fellow-countrymen Aryman). Besides, Demonic Slaughter’s material is mainly mid-paced when it comes to the tempo, with both slowed-down as well as eruptive excerpts, and somehow it helps to have the intensity increased towards a level of outbursting severity.
https://www.hellishereprod.pl/demonic-slaughter-the-night-of-mesmeric-whispers-cd-p-5.html
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/demonic-slaughter
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/demonic-slaughter-aryman
https://www.deviantart.com/perversor