Storm the Gates of Hell — Demon Hunter

Storm the Gates of Hell is Demon Hunter's fourth album in five years, released on Solid State Records on November 6, 2007. It runs twelve songs and just over fifty-one minutes, and Aaron Sprinkle produced it again. We give it an 8/10.

How it came together

After The Triptych in 2005, the band had already shifted toward bigger clean choruses without dropping the groove. Justin Mabee at Jesus Freak Hideout heard this record pick up where that one left off, and called it maybe the hardest Demon Hunter album so far, yet the most melodic at times. Storm the Gates of Hell pushes both ways: more range from song to song, and a harder edge on the openers.

The band put it out in three versions: a regular edition, a fan edition and an ultimate collector's deluxe edition. The art kept the skull that sits on the cover of every Demon Hunter album. Russ Breimeier at Christianity Today liked how the booklet opens, and noted the back cover shows the band in clerical collars. His answer to anyone worried about the skull was to ask whose devilish skull is being shown in defeat.

Nielsen SoundScan figures reported by Blabbermouth put first-week U.S. sales at about 8,700, enough for No. 85 on the Billboard 200. Cross Rhythms later rounded the same debut to more than 10,000 copies in the first week.

What you're hearing

The short title track opens the album as pure force. Lead Us Home follows with a big, anthemic chorus. Sixteen is the wild card, with classical strings set next to jagged guitars. Ben Hurrell at Cross Rhythms said that gave the track a somewhat schizophrenic feel, and he heard the title track as sheer unrelenting brutality.

Fading Away is the lead single and the song most people found first. Breimeier said it could be mistaken for a melodic rock single, and it's about waiting on the Lord and acting in faith. Carry Me Down slows the pace into a meditation on death, the same lane as the band's earlier My Heartstrings Come Undone. A Thread of Light snaps the record back into hardcore drive, with a drum sound Mabee said felt like bullets in your ears. I Am You keeps up the pressure. Incision leans progressive. Thorns opens on a pop piano hook before the weight lands, and Mabee noted it's the only song with no screaming at all. Follow the Wolves, Fiction Kingdom and The Wrath of God close the album.

What stands out is how easily the band moves from dissonance to melody. Ryan Clark switches between screams and clean rock vocals without burying either one. Breimeier heard throat-shredding screams and powerhouse rock vocals from the same singer, and said the album makes hardcore credible and accessible at the same time.

What it's about

The album doesn't pretend to be a concept record, but a line runs through it. Mabee heard a record about facing adversity as a Christian, refusing to compromise the faith or let sin creep in. The title track is a straight call to arms. Sixteen goes after hypocrisy, the minute after the first fifteen of fame. Thorns is a song against self-harm and suicide that points to Christ's wounds instead. Follow the Wolves tells believers not to settle for the safe herd. Fiction Kingdom warns against false gods and demonic aesthetics in other bands' music. Incision deals with role models and the pressure to measure up. Carry Me Down sits with death without flinching.

Breimeier wrote that Demon Hunter takes its calling seriously, with scriptural inspiration and thoughtful ideas behind every song. He also said you can usually understand Clark without a lyric sheet, which is rare in this style. Mabee thought a few of the softer moments felt thrown in just for good measure, but said they still set the band apart from other heavy metal acts.

What the critics said

Cross Rhythms gave it nine out of ten. Hurrell said the band seemed to have perfected mixing different styles of hard music while still sounding accessible to rock radio, and that the album surpassed the high standards of their earlier records. He called it top notch.

Jesus Freak Hideout's Mabee gave it four and a half out of five. He wrote that Demon Hunter had done it again, with haunting lyrics and almost an hour of intensity, and that the album could almost be called the band's best yet. Soft spots and all, he said metal fans shouldn't pass it up, and that non-metal fans should at least give it a listen.

Christianity Today's Breimeier summed it up as finally a hardcore metal album that's not hard to understand, grounded in God's Word, thoughtfully worded and musically varied. He closed on a word he said isn't usually tied to hardcore: beauty.

Taken together, the Christian hard-music press mostly heard a band hitting its stride, with the main split being how much melody you want in your metal.

Watch

Start with the official music video for Fading Away, the lead single from this album, posted on Demon Hunter's own channel. Then watch the Carry Me Down (Resurrected) lyric video from Solid State Records. It's a lyric video, not a music video, and it's a later reworking of the song rather than the 2007 album version.

The verdict

Why an eight? The range is real. Fading Away and Carry Me Down still work as the melodic anchors, Sixteen and the title track still hit hard, and Sprinkle gives the whole thing weight without sanding off the edges. A No. 85 debut on the Billboard 200 shows the band was reaching past the usual Christian-metal circuit. Why not a nine? A few mid-album tracks blur together on a first pass, and Mabee was right that some of the soft turns feel placed rather than earned. Why not a seven? Because the best songs here belong with Summer of Darkness and The Triptych as the core of what Demon Hunter sounded like at full strength in the mid-2000s.

8/10

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