Demon Hunter (album)

Demon Hunter is the debut studio album by American Christian metal band Demon Hunter. It was released on Solid State Records on October 22, 2002.

Recording
The album was recorded in Drop C tuning. All of Demon Hunter's subsequent releases would be dropped even lower to Drop B. Industrial vocal elements are also featured in various songs.

Touring and promotion
Demon Hunter joined Extol on tour in the summer of 2003.

Demon Hunter's material first appeared on This Is Solid State Vol. 3 in February 2002, which included a demo recording of the band's song "Through the Black". "Through the Black" was later re-recorded for Demon Hunter's self-titled album. The band's first single, "Infected," had a music video which debuted on MTV2's Extreme Rock and found considerable airplay on Fuse TV's Uranium. The intense video revolves around two subjects; one, vocalist Ryan Clark, is shown using an extravagant dagger to carve the word "HELP" into a tree in the pouring rain. The second subject is a white collared man at a desk who, for ambiguous reasons, is overcome with extreme panic. The man finally falls to the floor after typing "help" repeatedly on his keyboard, with the word being shown on a monitor. Given Demon Hunter's overt Christianity, the video could be seen as people reaching out for a savior in a time of desperation. "Infected" would be featured on the compilation album MTV2 Headbangers Ball in 2003. Demon Hunter was later included on Death, a Destination1, the band's second compilation album, in 2011.

Album art and booklet
The band members are not credited in the album's liner notes. Clark explained this by citing the fact that Demon Hunter's members have been in previous groups and that they wanted the band to initially rely solely on its music. The Demon Hunter booklet has four chapters: "Letters from the Seventh War", "The Red Wasp/The Everlasting Death", "Love and Grace for Fallen Souls", and "The Awakening". The first three chapters comprise three tracks each, with the last one consisting only of the last track on the album. When asked about this, Clark responded:
 * "It was more an artwork based concept as opposed to a concept pertaining to the music. We wanted to give it an old world feel, with the book and everything. Just a way to make the artwork really come alive."

Reception
Demon Hunter received overall positive reviews. Allmusic's Alex Henderson described it as "an album in which moments of intense brutality are followed by hauntingly melodic passages." He commended the band for its "complementary" use of intensity and melody and noted the album as "imperfect" yet "interesting." Such comments have been echoed in other small-form media reviews. Demon Hunter has stylistically been compared to Slipknot, particularly in the vocals department, as well as more intense nu metal groups.

Track listing

 * Live recording appears on both 45 Days (2008) and Live in Nashville (2009)
 * Re-recorded for Songs of Death and Resurrection (2021)

Personnel
Band members
 * Ryan Clark – lead vocals, guitars
 * Don Clark – bass guitar
 * Jesse Sprinkle – drums, percussion

Production
 * Brandon Ebel – executive producer
 * Aaron Sprinkle – producer, additional guitars
 * Demon Hunter – producer
 * J.R. McNeely – mixing at The Greenhouse (Vancouver)
 * Latif Tayour – mixing assistant
 * Asterik Studio – art direction, design (Seattle)
 * Kris McCaddon – photography
 * Phil Peterson – strings
 * Tim Harmon – drum engineering at Spectre South (Tacoma)
 * Aaron Mlasko – drum technician
 * Troy Glessner – mastering at Spectre North
 * Tyson Paoletti – A&R
 * Josh Tillman – additional drums

Appearances

 * "Infected" was featured on the Killing Floor 2 soundtrack in 2015.