These four hellraisers are, if not his new favorite band than, at least highly revered and recommended by Slayer's Kerry King, a bruiser who knows a few things about quality heavy music. Demiricous were accused of sounding a bit too much like Slayer on their debut, but since I unfortunately haven't heard it yet I can't say whether that's a fair assessment or not.
What I can say is that on Two (Poverty) , Demiricous sound very impressive indeed. They may have been influenced a bit by the above mentioned thrash legends, but they also have enough originality and diversity in their sound to stand out above a lot of the other bands in the scene. Hard work and some good songs due seem to pay off.
The instrumental closer "Blackish Silver" may be the only piece that is at least remotely slow burning as the album is devoid of acoustic songs and power ballads. However, this is definitely not a one-dimensional album. It is instead full of the kind of metal ingredients that should make anyone that likes this kind of music at least check it out.
On Two (Poverty) Demiricous serve up some pure thrash, throw in a few blast beats for good measure, and are not afraid of letting some punk influences shine through.
This is good because as we all know, all good music has at least a tiny ember of punk waiting to spark up. Another aspect that makes you nod in agreement is the fact that the album has a great Pantera-like pounding groove running through it. Check out "Knuckle Eye" for proof that metal doesn't always have to be played at grindcore speed to be cutting edge.
The press release that accompanied the album points out that after the relentless touring that followed the debut, the band members had to go back to the daily drudgery of soul-numbing jobs to pay the rent. I'm not sure if that is the main cause for it but the songs on Two (Poverty) seem borne out of genuine frustration. This really is a ferocious and angry sounding album right from the start and the d-beat accompanying opener "Never Enough Road" is a true testament to that. The anger in bassist/vocalist Nate Olp's voice is extremely palpable and no matter what the reason is for that it can't be denied that he has a good set of pipes for a thrash/hardcore metal album. Check out Demiricous and let the intensity take over.
