The last few years haven't exactly been all rosy for Mumbai extreme metal band Demonic Resurrection, but their founder and frontman Sahil Makhija aka The Demonstealer has been resilient and powered on regardless, especially channelling emotion and energy into his solo project.
While his last solo album This Burden is Mine was heavy in subject matter more than riffs, his latest album, The Last Reptilian Warrior turns up the melodic content, causes a few seismic ripples on the brutal metal front and remains somewhat emotive in its use of metaphors and a concept storyline that's more or less related to his erstwhile death metal band, Reptilian Death. Although a perfectly able drummer behind the kit, Demonstealer prefers to let his riffs and growls do the talking as he enlists many a guest instrumentalist on his eight-track album, one that originally started out as an EP.
‘The Grand Collapse of Humanity’ features flawlessly hellish drum work from Kevin Paradis (who's played for French death metal unit Benighted), while ‘Sculpting the Archetype’ already raises the tempo levels courtesy of Krimh (formerly of Decapitated), a ripping solo by Rami Mustafa (from Dubai metal band Nervecell) and Stefano from Aborted. ‘The Perspective of Evil’ nearly numbs you with the hammering double-bass madness of Romain Goulon (who's played for the likes of technical death metallers Necrophagist) and there's a hint of return to the Reptilian Death style straight up on ‘The Human Pestilence’, which features drummer David Diepold.
Paradis returns to scale beat per minute levels all over again on ‘No Victory in War’, unsparing in its intensity while offering just a glimpse of freshness, aided by a solo from UK based guitarist Shoi Sen. In its cacophony, Demonstealer just about manages to offer something different. For the most part, however, The Last Reptilian Warrior is through and through meant for the fan of no-holds-barred death metal with plenty of technicality. De Profundis’ bassist Arran McSporran joins the heavy-hitters on the gnarling ‘The Weak Shall Perish’, while there's a sharply old school-ish lead to the title track, which is when there are no featured players and just the Demonstealer paying homage to the earliest, more traditional roots of metal with a total slowing down of the tempo.
As a bonus to the end, you can hear Demonstealer at his modern metal best, featuring Delhi guitarist Yatin Srivastava and drummer Dan Presland. It's testimony to the fact that Makhija is still a free thinker when it comes to metal, even if he does love his death metal.
