:: Demians - Mute

Demians

It may not have boasted huge sales, and certainly didn’t get anywhere the attention of a lot of albums, but those who came across French act Demians’ debut album ‘Building An Empire’ were acutely aware that the album was something truly special and that Demians was a name to watch out for in the future. After assembling a live band and touring in support of the album, Nicolas Chapel (the multi-instrumentalist who is essentially Demians’ sole member) retreated from the spotlight, and commenced work on his long awaited follow-up album. Two years on and Demians is back with ‘Mute’. And once again, Chapel has managed to craft another impressive and stunning release. The opening track ‘Swing Of The Airwaves’ gets the album off to a heavy start, with huge crushing riffs, tribalistic drums and throbbing bass all working towards pushing out a big sound. But it’s with the eventual introduction of Chapel’s vocals that the song takes on a completely form, with the unusual melody lines and the emotive element of his vocals giving the song a real direction and feel beyond an interesting musical backdrop, with the overall direction of the song sounding like a cross of latter day Anathema mixed with Oceansize. Maintaining the heavy feel of the opener is ‘Feel Alive’, which boasts some great vocals from Chapel and some genuinely catchy riffing on the guitar front to match the thundering drums, while the piano heavy ‘Porcelain’ and ‘Black Over Gold’ are beautifully crafted slower numbers that showcases Chapel’s ability to create a sound that is quite simple on the surface, but is more textured and complex upon further investigation. The acoustic/middle eastern strings influenced ‘Overhead’ is something new sound wise from Demians, and earns a place as one of my definite favourites on the album (Especially when it breaks into its stunning heavier tail end), while the more straightforward and rocking ‘Tidal’ and the Filter-like ‘Rainbow Ruse’ return to the crushing density of the earlier part of the album, without losing any of its melodic impart for a single moment.
The epic ‘Hesitation Waltz’ is another stand out track with its heavy drumming, quieter vocal passages and ever present wall of feedback in the background, while the reflective and serene ‘Falling From The Sun’ closes out the album. If the likes of Porcupine Tree, Anathema and Oceansize are more to your liking than the endless Dream Theatre clones that dominate the scene, then Demians should definitely top your ‘must check out’ list’. ‘Mute’ is by far one of my favourite progressive rock releases for this year, and if you’ve heard that album, then you’ll have some idea just how impressive Demians’ sophomore release sounds.