Saint Deamon
In Shadows Lost From The Brave

I am one of the many graduates looking for a job to start my career with the zeal typical of a forcibly romantic young soul. Romantic because I am foolishly innocent and still believe in a utopia called meritocracy. Forcibly because I am not stupid and know that without connections it will be very tough, and most likely with that framed piece of paper with "with honors" I can warm myself in the winter when it's cold, and I can't afford to keep the heating on. For this reason, I must cling to something called hope.

Today was also about temp agencies. Afterwards, a quick visit to various companies to personally hand over my curriculum vitae. Now, I am waiting to see if anyone is at least interested in a short interview. I'm studying a bit of English and some subjects I think could benefit my future. However, I can also wander around the city and spend some of what I earned during the Christmas holidays working. So, I happened to find myself near a tiny little shop that among its 66 shelves sells rows of 6 CDs filled with demonic and seductive metallic sound. It doesn’t really matter if metal isn’t all satanic: we are all sheep who believe in stereotypes and speak, perhaps even passionately, based on goddamn and irritating hearsay. So, I greet the manager Marco, alias the Charon of the shop: the one who, with his merchandise, ferries me and the remaining damned into the fiery and perilous arms of what is whispered with fear, suspicion, and a staggering English accent like: "evi(l) metal"! I scan the displayed products with an interested look.

The cover is beautiful with those dark colors, but it is not original. It reminds me of Running Wild (Death Or Glory), Symphony X (Odyssey), Sonata Arctica (Reckoning Night), and who knows how many other bands that have used the image of a ship at sea. The band's name displays the banal antithesis Saint Deamon. Good versus evil and bla bla bla: a game so overused that merely calling it overdone would be sprinkling a couple of tons of pure understatement onto a two-day-old toast. In short, the conditions to move on were all there, but at a certain point, Charon, with a friendly look, approaches and invites me to listen to the record. Not stupid, this obese Devil, I tell myself. In fact, he knows his clients well because after a few days of digestion, or assimilation if you prefer, now you are reading what follows.

Thank him because you might enjoy it if I can capture your attention towards the wake of Captain S. Deamon's ship (it's a concept album). Jan-Thore Grefsatd is a top-notch singer who manages to follow in the footsteps of Lande, singing with the right aggression, power, and passion every track according to the melodic situation. The second pillar of the band is drummer Ronny Milianowicz, who had the merit of writing varied tracks, deviating from neoclassical power and aiming for a melancholic-orchestral line. The CD itself is divided into a first aggressive part permeated by gray and hopeless sounds which can be encapsulated in the grandiose and sinister melodies of "My Judas" and especially in the symphonic title track. After a more conventional interlude with an excellent passionate single represented by the heartbreaking scream ("In My Heart") and a halfordian track, there's a shift. Not in the sense of a significant increase in tempo, but rather greater diversification in the tracks. Occasionally, there are theatrical parts ("No Man's Land"), but immediately after one is faced with the artificiality of "Ride Forever" from the eighties. There's time for exciting gallops like "Black Symphony" and the swinging "Deamons" endowed with a chorus capable of making us jump to our feet to sing at the top of our lungs. But damn it, I'm reducing this to a track by track review and will thus finish here by saying that at the end there's also a ballad and more meat on the fire worthy of being savored by our ears eager for good music.

Power is changing. There are nods to the past (and I won't be the one to spoil them for you by ruining the "sounds like" hunting), but something different is also visible compared to merely chasing the right chorus and the solo of a lifetime.

In "Shadows Lost From The Brave" it is a debut album of great level not only for the dark atmosphere that permeates it, but especially for the extremely well-crafted songwriting that brings to mind Masterplan’s debut, also considering the star performer behind the microphone.