Detonation - Promo 2001

*=Staff's pick	Forever Buried Pain* Starve* Voices Beyond Reason*

Genre	Death Metal	Koen Romeijn	Vocals
Tracks	3	Koen Romeijn	Guitar
Runningtime	14 Min.	Mike Ferguson	Guitar
Label	-	Otto Schimmelpenninck	Bass
Release	April 2001	Thomas Kalksma	Drums
Country	Holland	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, early In Flames

It takes more and more from demos of unsigned bands to make me feel that is something special nowadays, but Detonation that originates from Holland have succeeded with that.

Detonation from Holland is a band that has been around since late summer 1997,and was formed by guitarist/vocalist Romeijn, Ferguson on guitar and Kalksma on drums.
It started out more or less as a side-project, as the members were all occupied elsewhere in other bands, but soon turned into a highpriority occupation.

Hearing this band on their second official demorelease is a very nice experiance to do - it not only shows that the dutch metalscene is more alive than you might hear about, but also that they know how to handle their instruments and compose music of high quality.

The metal they play are nowadays a bit more to the death metal area, with a tiny bit of trashy elements here and there, but those are not that significant.
Silimarities can be found in In Flames earliest work, as well as some very early Death and At The Gates - and I think it's in order to throw in the name Dark Tranquillity here, also from their early years, but don't pay much attention to the many bands I am naming here - it's more about the mood than actual similarities in composing.
For shorter moments I can even spot some Iron Maiden-esque passages, and such things always help to spice up a good tune.
I don't want to put too much emphasis on bands they are similar to, cause I believe they have a style of their own enough to be spared from that.

The riffs are strong and good, both in the fast driven songs which are mainly occuring here, and in the slower, more groovier parts like the ones occuring in Starve.
Singer Romeijn's voice are a good example of a growling that makes the balance of not too weak/not too growling. They are clear, but yet powerful enough to suit this type of fast-driven riffbased melodic death metal just perfect.

The opener Forever Buried Pain is a fastpaced song that is based on a catchy, semi trashy riff, and contains both slower riffs and acoustic parts.
Starve, which is my favourite on this demo, is a energetic piece that has grindparts, power metal parts, thrashy guitars in between, choirs and slower bits, but without beeing too technical or complicated, but instead focsing on delivering straight, good metal.
Overall Detonation creates a feeling of smoothness in the music, and it all flows on very good between the passages, licks an leads, and makes it enjoyable listening to this.
The closer Voices Beyond Reason is also a speedball in the same vein as the others, and it varies between catchy and thrashy, and pure death metal riffs.

The technical aspects is of no source for complaints, as all members do their work very good - and the riffs are varied, fresh and made with class and all is tied together with style by the rhythmsection containing of bassist Otto S. and drummer Kalksma.

The band is currently looking for a suitable label to relese their debutalbum as widely as possible, which they will start recording in the summer of 2002 - signed or not.
The album will contain 10 or 11 new songs, including those from the Promo 2001.

Worth mentioning is also that the whole package with the promo, the big amount of information and everything around it has a very professional touch over it - they even included nice postcards and personal written notes with the whole deal.

A fullength album is to be released late summer/early autumn this year, so be sure to keep an eye open and check that out as I am positive we are in for a real treat than.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7,5	9	8

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy