Demon Hunter

I am actually new to this band. I had heard of them for years, but I didn't think I'd be a fan for whatever reason.

However thanks to Hardcore for turning me onto this band!

I went out and bought "Storm the Gates of Hell" at my local CD store a few weeks back. I really like it! I'm not a huge fan of Metalcore, but these guys are exceptionally good! They have lots of hooks and that is why I am liking them so much!

So my question is ... what are your favorite Demon Hunter albums? How do you rank em? I'm thinking of picking some more up.

All of them!!!

Yeah it's hard to say. True Defiance is very high on the list for me. Triptych and Extremist are amazing.... just get them all dude. :-P

Ive heard of them and from what ive heard of them Id just have to say No Thank You

I prefer the first 3 mostly.  They are all pretty good though.

I think their albums are pretty consistent.  If I had to say I'd pick The World Is a Thorn and Summer of Darkness.  I haven't heard the newest.

I'm actually a bigger fan of Ryan Clark's vocals, so my favorite tracks are when he sings (as in "The Last One Alive" or "Collapsing") rather than screams. Since the screaming is about 95% of the Demon Hunter catalog, I guess I'm not the right one to ask, but I will agree that all of their albums are good quality and very consistent.

If you like Clark's vocals like I do, make sure you check out his side projects NYVES (with former Project 86'er Randy Torres) and Lo & Behold (with Jason Martin of Starflyer 59). Musically these are very, very different than Demon Hunter...but to each his own, right?

"Summer of Darkness" is my favorite - always will be.  It holds a special place for me, during a great time in my life.  Not to mention, some great songwriting on that disc.

nuclearwoods wrote:I prefer the first 3 mostly.

So do I!

They dont have a "bad" album in their whole catalog, but I do prefer the first 3 the most.

I think the order I would rank those 3 would be:

1. The Tryptich
2. Summer Of Darkness
3. Self Titled

I agree that all are good the differences in ranking are very narrow.  Here's my list:

True Defiance
Storm the Gates of Hell
Extremist
The World is a Thorn
Summer of Darkness
Tryptych
*don't have Self-titled or the live one yet*

I rank the more recent four higher mostly for production reasons.

Not a big metalcore fan either. But The Tryptich is an amazing album. Big fan f the first two as well. Feel after Tryptich they took more if a radio rock vibe on that made them a bit cookie cutter and boring. Extremist was a step back to their older sound and had my attention for a short bit, but never really grabbed me like the first 3.

MadMap wrote:I'm actually a bigger fan of Ryan Clark's vocals, so my favorite tracks are when he sings (as in "The Last One Alive" or "Collapsing") rather than screams. Since the screaming is about 95% of the Demon Hunter catalog, I guess I'm not the right one to ask, but I will agree that all of their albums are good quality and very consistent.

If you like Clark's vocals like I do, make sure you check out his side projects NYVES (with former Project 86'er Randy Torres) and Lo & Behold (with Jason Martin of Starflyer 59). Musically these are very, very different than Demon Hunter...but to each his own, right?

To follow up on these side projects, I think they are right up your alley RW.  NYVES is darkwave and Lo & Behold is more new wave.

Demon Hunter is the one band that I make a point to buy the physical Deluxe-ist copy of the album for.  I'd probably say The Triptych is my favorite overall album, but I like some songs from others much better.  "Not Ready to Die" is my #1 hype song when I need an adrenaline push.

I love the first two albums, especially "Summer of Darkness". I got that when my wife was near death, and it helped me get through that period. My favorite off of that is "Beauty Through the Eyes of a Predator"

Silly name, silly band.

Every album is great, if I had to pick 3 albums mine would be...

1) The Tryptych
2) Summer Of Darkness
3) True Defiance

P.S.
Imo they are nu metal rather than metalcore. Maybe semantics. *shrug*

They were the band that got me into metal, and still one of my absolute favorites now that I have all their albums and have seen them live. 

They've had a remarkably consistent career thus far, and I'd highly recommend any of their albums. If it helps you decide, the only slight change in their sound was that they started incorporating a few more melodic guitar parts and solos once Patrick Judge came onboard as the lead guitarist starting with The World Is A Thorn.

messiaen77 wrote:Demon Hunter is the one band that I make a point to buy the physical Deluxe-ist copy of the album for.  I'd probably say The Triptych is my favorite overall album, but I like some songs from others much better.  "Not Ready to Die" is my #1 hype song when I need an adrenaline push.

Me also, they are the one of a few bands I always try to get a deluxe edition for their releases, and Not Ready To Die is one of the best songs ever  

Deepfriar wrote:P.S.
Imo they are nu metal rather than metalcore. Maybe semantics. *shrug*

Dont be a genre Nazi!!!

Wildcat wrote:They were the band that got me into metal, and still one of my absolute favorites now that I have all their albums and have seen them live.

One of my first bands ever as well

The Tryptich for me. It's how I got introduced to the band and it's the one that sticks out to me of the albums I have. I too am a fan of Ryan Clark's vocals moreso than the growling.

I also like more clear vocals than other yelling/growling vocal styles. The nice thing with DH is they have a good balance of both. I have yet to find someone that likes hard music say they don't like what I play for them from the DH catalog of tunes when I play the songs with clear vocals. Tunes like carry me down - last one alive - I am a stone - blood in the tears - heart of a graveyard - collapsing - dead flowers - I will fail you - the wind - one thousand apologies - my heart strings come undone - (I could go on and on) - while they may be some of their slower songs, they are flat out awesome. For those that don't like the "core" style vocals 50% of DH material crosses over to the more traditional metal vocal style - try out some of the tunes I listed you won't be disappointed. Who knows you may find some of their core style stuff grow on you - it did on me.

Demon Hunter is a tough one to choose a fav. album for me... they are one of my favorite bands! I got into them when The Triptych came out, those first two songs were enough to get me hooked! It's because of D.H. that I listen to other Christian heavy metals bands; as a Christian I'm a minority within a minority, lol, I'm a King James Baptist who listens to metal. The only stuff I had that was Christian was bands like Third Day and Casting Crowns; when it came to heavier stuff it was Final Axe, Haven, Barren Cross and bands like that. It was while listening to D.H. on youtube that I found For Today, (right when Immortal came out), and the door to the realm of Christian metal was torn off the hinges and a flood of HEAVY metal bands from metalcore to black metal came pouring through! It was such a relief to find bands like Pantokrator, Impending Doom and Mortification. I really missed the heavier side of metal, I still listen to Opeth and Amon Amarth, but I'm just not into the lyrical content of most secular bands.

If you like Opeth, check out Hope For The Dying especially the album Aletheia.

And for Amon Amarth, you want Slechtvalk's album A Forlorn Throne.

Deepfriar wrote:If you like Opeth, check out Hope For The Dying especially the album Aletheia.

I pre-ordered HFTD's new album

Its supposed to be here this next week!

Cant wait!!!