If you ever get hold of Demontage The Principal Extinction I can promise you one thing with certainty. The Canadian power trio will remain an enigma to you throughout the listen and long thereafter. It isn’t because there are no public pictures of band members or because their faces are obscured beyond recognition by corpse paint. No, Demontage look like three normal underground blokes, a beverage in hand, sporting other band’s shirts. It is because you can never figure these guys out, they simply don’t fit a set of rules or a formula. Just when you think they are very much tongue-in-cheek and don’t take themselves seriously, one look at the lyrics sheet shows that Spatilomantis, guitars, vocals and lyrics writer, is a minor philosopher. And I am not even mentioning the music, since you need to be prepared to be attacked from all angles.

Demontage manage to combine, in one uncompromising cauldron, some classical heavy metal, thrash and an undeniable blackened perspective. However, unlike many of the raw sewage blackened thrash of today, Demontage are a lot closer to the old vintage, they actually write songs and absolutely know how to wield their instruments. It is just The Principal Extinction picture changes faster than your regular kaleidoscope. Breakneck thrash from the start of Entourage of Demons Dances weaves in some soaring melodies and even provides a progressive viewpoint before veering into the black abyss. The title track itself opens soft and acoustic, to become blasting mad midway and playful thrashy towards the end. Sure, with so many styles all thrown into one, the songwriting can meander a bit, but the band manages to maintain catchy grip on the proceedings with the air raid rousing siren on Accursed Saboteur, death metal riffs in The Malignant Paradigm and trademark Mercyful Fate introspective funeral pyres and galloping riffs in Satan of Self (The Warrior) … & Seer of Truths (The Conjurer). You will never know what hit you all the way towards the end when A Thousand Dooms first clamors along with archaic black metal of Venom before falling off the deep end in a psychedelic crash.

The band’s guitars impress constantly and bass guitar often goes on meaningful audible runs (Satan of Self …). The production is kept properly dirty, yet there is room for some atmosphere and synthesizer effects. Demontage vocals, never settling either, don’t go for the middle of the road blackened rasp, instead gurgling along in a quite audible manner, shifting periodically either towards cleaner singing or, fittingly, demented screams.

Truly unusual, Demontage has its own vision of things, which, although difficult to comprehend fully after only a few listens, is definitely not stale or repetitive. True poster boys of underground, the Canadians are probably going to continue dwelling there, satisfying themselves to the core and causing curiosity in others, yet remaining too non-conformist and weird to attract widespread following.