Man, looking at some of the show flyers in Demontage’s press kit reminds me how long I’ve been hanging around the Toronto scene—and these guys have been around even longer. Fire of Iniquity marks the third album from the 15-year vets, coming a full six years after their last record, The Principal Extinction, which I once described as black metal “in its traditional sense, the way it was once used to describe Venom and Mercyful Fate.” I’ve seen ‘em live enough times throughout the years to expect some shades of doom and thrash as well.
This record kicks off with “Ritual of Flames,” a six-minute, slow ‘n heavy number that delivers a decent doomy dosage right off the bat before picking up the pace to an occasionally thrashy trad-metal chug, complete with bilious, High on Fire vocals and a few NWOBHM-style riffs. “Satan’s Metal” wears its Venom influences on its cut-off sleeve, though once again, they chuck a couple Diamond Head riffs into the mix for good measure. “Possessed Graveyard Lizards” is also in a similar blackened, thrashy vein, scoring bonus points for that awesome song title!
“Mad Thrasher” comes across like Destruction circa ’86, while “Sacreligion” takes the No Gods, No Masters attitude of Amebix and distills it into a more traditional British metal tune, complete with the occasional falsetto. I was half-hoping that “Into the Fire” was a Dokken cover—cuz I think that would sound awesome Venom-style—but alas, ’tis but an instrumental outro, ending the album as it began on a doomier note, with a guitar solo that might even make George Lynch jealous.
