March 18th, 2014 
Troy Sennett 
Artist: Demon Hunter
Album: Extremist
Genre: Rock / Metal
From the looks of it, Demon Hunter don’t have a lot to complain about at the moment. Nearly fifteen years into their career, the Seattle, Washington-based metal band have long since established themselves as a consistent and powerful force in their genre, and they have a legion of devoted, diehard fans to prove it. None of that is going to change after the release of the group’s seventh album. On Extremist, they play up all of their strengths but do little to address their weaknesses, and the result is, for better or worse, another Demon Hunter record.
One of Demon Hunter’s distinguishing features has always been their softer side. Their slower, more melodic songs tend to stand head and shoulders above the rest of their work, and that trend continues on Extremist. Tracks like “I Will Fail You” and “Gasoline” highlight frontman Ryan Clark’s versatility as a vocalist, and the closing song, “The Heart of a Graveyard,” with its subtle synthesizers and surprisingly catchy chorus, is the closest thing to a pop song that Demon Hunter are likely to write.
Of course, it’s not all about the ballads. Demon Hunter are first and foremost a metal band, and they aren’t afraid to get heavy on Extremist. “Cross To Bear” and “Beyond Me,” for example, are unrelenting blasts of distorted guitar riffs and double bass parts that should have no trouble inciting mosh pits at shows, and “What I’m Not” features a blistering guitar solo. However, the songs on Extremist often feel too unrelenting. Many surpass the four-minute mark without offering enough variation to stay interesting, making the album a chore to get through in one sitting.
Unfortunately, the lyrical content of Extremist does little to help it along. Clark’s convictions and themes are strong, but the execution falls flat more often than not. Clichéd imagery (“There is a fire in me. I feel its burn inside my flesh,” from “One Last Song”) and recycled phrases (“I can’t tell if I’m asleep or if I’m blind. We’re going nowhere. No one seems to care,” from “Hell Don’t Need Me”) occur all too often, so it rarely feels like there is much to dig into or dissect.
All of the problems with Extremist can be wrapped up in one criticism: There is nothing here that Demon Hunter haven’t done before. While that might not matter to a brand new fan or to someone who loves what Demon Hunter have been doing for the past decade and a half, it doesn’t give everyone else much to be excited about.
SCORE: 6/10
Review written by Troy Sennett (follow him on Twitter)
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I give it a 7.5/10 after my first listen-through.
Of course, that’s almost meaningless for a DH album. They finally start to click after the third time you listen to them. ‘What I’m Not’, ‘Gasoline’, ‘I Will Fail You’, and ‘The Heart of a Graveyard’ already stick with me. While some may ignorantly scream “SOFT”, that’s less than a third of the full album.
One thing I can say, is that the themes of the lyrics are something that needed to be said, and I do hope that Ryan Clark is planning these albums ahead of time with a topic that he wants to tackle. I could say that this isn’t my favorite Demon Hunter album, but that’s like saying “this isn’t my favorite slice of bacon”. At it’s worst, bacon is still bacon — and DH is still DH.