Black clouds hang over Valparaíso dark and pouring enough to obscure a cyborg-intellectual menace searing through the atmosphere as if powered by the surrealistic gloom that fogs all minds below. Their menace has arrived, darkness in descent as the cutting-deep thought patterns of Limache, Chile-based blackened/progressive thrash metal band Demoniac are weaponized against the populace for this, their third and most accomplished full-length album. ‘Nube Negra‘ may very well read as elegant in its shredding indulgences and standout use of non-traditional instrumentation to craft this truly memorable, blackened and big-brained thrash record but they’ve thankfully not given up on the riff and the rapid dissolution available to feral speed metallic extremes. Arrogance, destructive attitudes and righteous superiority course through the disdain-pumping veins of this work, a bleak-minded and oft intoxicating pressure upon the wheel to turn and roll over the backs of everything in its way.

Demoniac formed circa 2011 and were seen as as a part of the new wave of Chilean thrash metal bands that’d begin to assault the global population in the early to mid-2010’s. They’d soon get to work releasing a few preliminary works before landing their debut LP (‘Intemperance‘, 2017) not long after Ripper‘s second album had placed more eyes and ears on the Kreator-esque bent of the region at the time. That record remains a bit underrated and should serve as an effective preamble to the style the band would soon come to be known for: Aggressive yet progressive blackened thrash metal with an accomplished sense of musicianship in hand and an organic, authentic approach to classicist yet evolved songcraft. You will recognize the hand of guitarist/vocalist Javier Ortiz even on those earliest releases and especially the lyricist’s philosophical aptitudes, knack for scarifying themes, a sort of candor that is acerbic but charming as thrash metal messaging should functionally be.

This was felt most heartily within the trenches of their second full-length album (‘So It Goes‘, 2020) which should be considered a grand highlight in underground thrash metal for the new post-millennium hellscape, an avant-garde yet traditional thrash metal braced vision of existential dread. That second record eventually caught ears per its brilliant intermezzo by way of clarinet per “Extraviado”, setting their insight up toward the studied forms of Mekong Delta (by way of Sadus) while the record stunk of late 80’s South American black/death-thrashing aggression. After reviewing that album with high favor it’d eventually landed at #23 on my Top 100 Albums of 2020 and this is the main reason I was both hyped and hesitant about their quick delivery of another album so soon. I’ll assure you up front that is is not only more clarinet infusion on ‘Nube Negra‘ but suggest the band’ve integrated its use in a more natural way throughout this album without overindulging, creating deeper surrealism within some unexpected veering-about in the second half of the record.

For the impatient thrash metal fandom already yanking their chin-pubes out in anticipation, yes, ‘Nube Negra‘ has riffs in the sense that they craft rhythms in acrobatic shows of skill and the rapid punch of those throngs are still masterfully woven together. That isn’t to say that this is a colder, cleaner machine-gunned linear threat altogether but that the progressive/avant-garde approach per a bit of neo-classical edged shred of ‘So It Goes‘ applies here in that the songs breathe a bit when needed, pull back into atmospheric drift or lush yet actively plucked high-tension rhythms outside of the usual thrash vernacular. This is perhaps easier to determine here on album number three for the sake of much improved production values, losing the tinny hiss of previous releases while still remembering to relate with incensed rebellion of late 80’s/early 90’s thrash metal aggression; Production values place the guitars first and up front with the vocals high in the rafters diagonally set down upon the listener while the drums echo this angle from the closer-up mid-chest point. The sound of this record looms over the listener before it surrounds them, a vampyric adeptness which can be felt within the regal knife-flashing hundred stabs of title track/opener, “Nube Negra”, which shreds into its allegrissimo attack with all of the mad-frantic movement and sophisticate attendance one’d expect from a return to their world.

In the last few years the ante has been upped per the expectations from this type of music and we’ve found a few bands faltering in terms of continuing the thread with the same urgency of substance, basically a few of the best Chilean bands’ve rushed their follow-ups for whatever reason. In the case of Demoniac a blazing-fast and sleekly recorded assault should be expected, of course these skilled fellowes have the riffs and the finesse to make even simpler work sound outsized and riveting, their flair for the dramatic is inspiring, yet it doesn’t feel like they are cheesing it in easy mode this third time around. Beyond the opener Side A develops quickly but unevenly as stepping into “Marchageddon” feels like a body blow built entirely for the sake of that initial momentum upheld even if “Ácaro” would’ve followed the opener beautifully with its ripping ‘Schizophrenia‘ cut urgency and dizzying shows of lead guitar wizardry. One can only hope that when the LP arrives the lyrics will include solo credits to complete the effect. This is arguably the point on the album where the band begin to prove their gig isn’t a gimmick.

The thrilling burst and hard-kicked first minute of “La Caída” may very well just whip into a simple guitar progression for a second but that’d been the point where chills crawled across my skin, a point of beauteous yearning, the aching sort of movement that only late 80’s thrash metal sophistication ever provided for heavy metal and hasn’t find its way into clangorous yet high-minded thrash metal too often since. As this turns to more of a descending progression, a backing drain which lends motion to the lead guitar trade-off which boosts up to the forefront of the piece here we’re in thrash nerd territory and a real sweet spot for Demoniac‘s ambitious guitar work. At that point , around ~3:00 minutes in the dual-harmonized leads kick in and the clarity of the bass guitar tone is revealed with a clean yet percussive presence as it trails off on its own tangent amidst the blasting and chanting march-up of the piece within its middle third. There is a folken haunt and a symphony-sized reach achieved in this piece which is at once operatic and even threatens to turn a bit early 90’s black metal slapped as the pieces intensifies. Of course Side A was enough to win me over, perhaps comparable to the effect of what recent Hellish and Trastorned records had accomplished but that’d only been the first half and it is about time to get weirding.

Standout single and attention-grabbing opus “Granada” has the goods in terms of the clarinet mania you’ll son be experiencing once again but the buzz of a throaty Moog synthesizer crawl in tandem with an accordion on “Synthèse d’accords” helps to set the mood for this piece, sounding like a vignette from a Pensées Nocturnes record in the midst of its most actively worming tarantella. They’d played with these odd-timed rhythms, Dionysian stumbling melodies and dramatic shapes on ‘So It Goes‘ but this is something more overt, boldly set as an introduction to Side B. I’ll be honest I’d lowered my expectations for a substantive second half as the piece played but “Granada” itself offers the payoff in its incorporation of the noir-jazz edge of the clarinet next to the later 90’s Sadus-esque snarl of the piece, a beautiful match as an introduction which breaks around halfway through the song which comes in violent waves given shape by what I’d consider post-2010’s extreme thrash directionality which has always been a part of Demoniac‘s sophisticated by clawed-at presence under scrutiny of the rhythm guitar obsessed ear. The keen eared StarGazer fan should approve of the sway of the second half of this piece (as well as closer “El Final”) just as well; Perhaps just as interesting as the eclectic expanse of “Granada” are its lyrics, prose which boasts in a very overt way, and to the point that I am not sure they’re parodying heavy metal elitism and arrogance or contributing to it in a traditionalist sense, either choice is acceptable.

The blackened freneticism and late 80’s death/thrashing attack in the wind-up for the longest piece on the album, “Veneno”, does eventually give way to this album’s obsessively detailed leads all of which exist not for the sake of pure flair but much in the way that an album like ‘Seven Churches‘ built action around speed metal riffs with runs that were relevant to the shape of those rhythms. This is also where I’d tend to pay the most attention to the vocalist’s work as he pushes it a bit further in terms of expression on this song as we approach the refrain around ~4:05 minutes in and from there the song slowly dies… for effect, traipsing through a slowly dissolving rhythm until it falls off the turntable and finally lets go of the single note the dead hand’d been holding down on the keyboard. Of course I prefer the more straightforward cut of “El Final” for the finale but I’d appreciated the conceptual exodus of the song and how it began winding down the full listen.

As an even more complete and still fairly unique venture this third LP from Demoniac bristles with the raised eyebrow of a mad genius, an engaging personae which only seems to become more precision-cut as their work leans into both speed, shred and aggression. While I’d never complain about a band that can and does shred all o’er the place it does take precedence over their otherwise interesting vocal performances on this record, a casualty which most folks will be fine with if it means a less verbose guitar-driven extreme thrash metal spin. Otherwise I’d have liked the tone of the bass guitar with a bit more of a wooden snap to its read and the keyboards used on the album are all-too subtle at certain points (“La Caída” opening) but that’d have likely changed the presence of the record, taking away from its raw and shred-ready ruggedness and I’m not sure they’re aiming for prog-thrash in any real sense. The only real criticism I could advocate here is that ‘Nube Negra‘ is quite similar to their previous record, building upon its successes directly, yet the foundation of my recommendation is that this is a good thing, that they’ve crafted a different record in a similar style which brims with even more violent energy and improved production values. I am equally thrilled with consideration for what what they’ve done here to polish their approach as I am to stoked by what potential is left on the table for this ambitious and vigorously stated thrash metal group. A very high recommendation.

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