Band:	Demon Dagger
Album:	Cain Complex
Style:	Metalcore
Release date:	2009

01. Heal My Pain
02. Dust (Moving Figures)
03. The Long Walk (Cutting Deep)
04. Force Fed On Mayhem
05. Mentally Cannibalized
06. Sodoma Eclipse
07. Dwell Deep Inside
08. The Dagger Days
09. Fire From The Sky (Iron Bird)
10. Self Neglecting

It's often said that a band's third album is an important step. Well, sorry to already crash the party, but I won't be able to compare this Cain Complex with Demon Dagger's previous efforts, as I just discovered the band. So let's judge this album on his own merits, right?

What do they play? Well, at the heart of it all, there's thrash. A lot of it. And varied, too, quick-paced or mid-tempo, with a lot of very good riffing, whether syncopated, melodic or just agressive. But that's not all, as other styles and influences round up the mix, making each song unique and the album, as a whole, nicely varied and not boring. So, you'll find pure hardcore hints, death metal with guest vocalist Julien of Benighted fame on "Force Fed On Mayhem", Gothenburg-inspired riffs and songs, metalcore choruses, and so on?
But?
There's The Pitfall.
Clean vocals. Duh, it seems I always rant against these in my reviews. Mark my words, I'm no enemy of metalcore-like cleanly-sung choruses, if they're well executed (the fact that I may find them boring is not relevant now). But here, they are bad. Seriously. No power to them, quite often out of tune, they ruin the great riffs around them ("The Dagger Days" comes to mind, but "Dwell Deep Inside" too), and this happens on, well, nearly half of the songs. Some of those clean vocals are not bad, however, like in the opener "Heal My Pain", but Litos (the band's vocalist) should really concentrate on harsh vocals only, especially as he's really talented and powerful in this department!

To conclude, I have to say that I mostly enjoyed this varied and catchy release, especially the good riffs and songwriting. Demon Dagger have quite a few endearing qualities, and sadly this really irritating flaw I ranted about. But if you like thrash, you'd better check out this release, it's really worth quite a few spins! And from now on, I'll keep an eye on this band in the future. Thrash on!

Highlights: the first half of Cain Complex rocks, especially "Dust (Moving Figures)", "The Long Walk (Cutting Deep)", "Force Fed On Mayhem" and "Mentally Cannibalized"