Demona – 2015 EP

There’s a lot of crossover in speed and thrash metal, and really it’s always been that way.  Sometimes there’s a blurring of lines, but thankfully it’s permissible, and never has been confusing.  This is because both genres feed into and off of each other quite well.  Now, we’ve received a lot of thrash over the past year, including Blessed Curse, one of the most underrated metal bands out there today, but speed metal we sadly haven’t seen that much.  In fact, I’ll be damned if we haven’t had a one since the new site design kicked in last year, so that sucks.  Today that’s changed.  But before we get into this EP, let’s just make something clear.  Thrash or speed, it doesn’t matter, both genres have a tendency to overkill the imagery to the point of absolute redundancy to the point of making a point about how redundant it is.  The spikes, the cut-up jeans, the hair, the headbanging, there probably aren’t two genres more capable of ruining their own image than thrash and speed.  Part of the reason is an assumed aesthetic that is by its very nature archaic.  That can go one of three ways.  One, it sounds so old the band members age 40 years before your very eyes.  Two, it sounds so full of cheese you’d swear you were in a deli and you’re a vegan.  Or three, it lives it, it breathes it, it is nothing but metal and it was born to be the metal that it has become.  Demona would be number three.

  

This girl, yeah, she was actually born covered in spikes and studs, and if her hair isn’t naturally black it was dyed upon birth from the amniotic fluids that spewed her into the world. The first part is true, the second we’ll pretend is true.  Constanza Godoy, otherwise known as Tanza, was brought into being by two thrashers from out of the 80s.  She was surrounded by “the metal”, she was raised on it, she was fed it from a spoon, drank it with her Nesquik, curled up in front of a record player on Saturday morning while eating Count Chocula with a studded spoon, and cuddled it as she went to sleep every night.  If there is anyone who can clearly prove that listening to metal from an early age has absolutely no negative effects on a child’s development, Demona would be the poster child, or rather woman.  To play thrash or speed right, and she’s a little of both, it has to be something you don’t simply wear with pride, but which you were clearly destined to wear.  Everything about her says “yes, I am here to play metal, that is what I was meant to do.”  Hell, don’t we all wish we could figure out our life at such an early age?

 

Looking back at her early discography on her Bandcamp page, Demona has come a long way since she moved from her homeland of Chile to Canada, going from a one-woman shred factory to a full band.  Regardless, even from her 2008 demo, Demona was clear about who she was, and she brought all the riffs along with her in the move.  This EP, titled simply 2015, is about all you need from speed metal these days, which is amazing considering it’s only a 7″ with two tracks.  2015 will make anyone a Demona fan, and thusly thrash/speed metal at the same time, even if you were raised listening primarily to choir music.  This tears down walls, it ruins preconceptions, simply because Demona can rock the image so Goddamn well.  Her riffing, her voice with just the right amount of echo, her attitude, this woman knows her metal, and she’s here to play it into the grave.  She’ll probably keep playing it from there, in fact.  In many ways she’s kind of what we wish The Great Kat was, and if you’re looking for that void to be filled with someone who you not only can take seriously, but can also respect as a musician, this is it.  Hands down best speed we’ve heard in a long time.  These two tracks cover so much ground you can listen to them on an endless loop and never tire of them, and it appears Demona never will either, just check some of that shredding.  It’s thrash/speed as it’s meant to be, in its most pure form, the cream of the cocaine crop, the PCP without the formaldehyde, the 100% alcohol without the hangover.  This is it. 100% support this until you lose your hearing.

 

Demona Official Facebook

Written by Stanley Stepanic

Demona: 2015 EP
Hells Headbanders
5 / 5