Demons My Friends filmed the video premiering below earlier this Spring as they played two support gigs for Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson in Guadalajara. There’s some joke there to be made about stoner rock and Dickinson famously yelling at people in the crowd for smoking weed, but that’s a good spot to play regardless of whether or not you’re a Maiden fan, and why poke fun anyhow. To mark the occasion, the song “Inner Slay” becomes the backdrop for a clip that captures the TX/MX-based three-piece onstage and off, and while it’s not the most party-ready cut from their 2023 debut long-player, Demons Seem to Gather (review here), with some edge of Pallbearer-style emotionalism resonating in its echoing melody, but that adds rather than takes away from the experience, and clearly it was a special moment for the band. At five minutes, “Inner Slay” is one of the longer songs on the record. Maybe they had more they wanted to remember than the 3:13 “Make Them Pay” could hold. I ain’t arguing.

The band were on tour in May and will be out again in September in Austin — where at least some percentage of the trio is based, I think, split between there and Mexico City — as part of the sprawling gathering that will be this year’s Ripplefest Texas, and in October they’re set to appear at Monterrey Metal Fest, where the likes of Satyricon and Enslaved will also play. Demons My Friends aren’t that aggro, but their tones are likewise fuzzed and expansive, and as alluded above, there are darker tinges of doom beneath the exterior of some of their material, whether it’s the Monolordy roll of album opener “The Tower Falls” or the thickened shuffle in the verses of “Fire Mountain” later on. Either way, the spirit in which the the “Inner Slay” clip arrives is pretty straightforward — commemoration — and indeed it looks like a couple nights worth remembering.

If you didn’t catch the album, no sweat, it’s not like they’ve put out three more since (yet). The full Bandcamp stream is at the bottom of this post, and you might find that after you see them celebrating what will surely be a highlight of the time around their first album, it’s cool to see clips spliced into the “Inner Slay” video of them laughing and having a good time backstage and soundchecking and whatnot. Cool band does cool thing — again, pretty straightforward. But if they’re new to you and you find yourself thinking of forward potential in their sound, the various avenues that Demons Seem to Gather sets up for them to explore while offering solid structures underneath their more soaring elements for a strong foundation in craft, that’s pretty much where I’m at too. Very interested to see where the next few years take them, and that they’re thus far playing into being the outsider act on more metal lineups — not that Bruce Dickinson and Satyricon play the same kind of stuff, but you know what I mean — is fascinating and bold. I expect to hear good things after Ripplefest.

For now, here’s the video. Please enjoy:

Demons My Friends, “Inner Slay” video premiere

Recorded on April 18 2024 at Teatro Diana in Guadalajara, Mexico during the first of the two shows that DMF opened for Bruce Dickinson on his Mandrake Project World Tour.

“Inner Slay” appears on Demons My Friends’ full-length album, “Demons Seem To Gather”, available everywhere via Gravitoyd Heavy Music (in partnership with Wiseband France).

Video shot, edited and directed by Alexander Bizzarro.
“Inner Slay” produced and mixed by Jeff Henson at Red Nova Ranch (Austin, TX) and mastered by Alberto De Icaza.

Festival Appearances
Sept 21st – Ripplefest Texas – Austin TX
Oct 12th – Mexico Metal Fest – Monterrey, Mexico

Demons My Friends is:
Pablo Anton – guitar/vox
Lu Salinas – Bass/vox
Tarro Martinez – Drums

Demons My Friends, Demons Seem to Gather (2023)

Demons My Friends on Facebook

Demons My Friends on Instagram

Demons My Friends on Bandcamp

Demons My Friends Linktr.ee

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Facebook

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Instagram

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Bandcamp

Based in Austin, Texas, and Mexico City, heavy rocking three-piece Demons My Friends make their full-length debut on Sept. 8 through Gravitoyd Heavy Music with Demons Seem to Gather. The band have been trickling out singles leading up to the release for nearly a year, and as a singe “Inner Slay” (premiering below) follows behind “Ghosts of You,” “Bring the Night,” the closer “We Are the Resistance” and the hooky side B leadoff “Make Them Pay,” so it’s probably safe to say they’re looking to grab attention of an underground listenership, otherwise maybe five singles (so far) from your first record probably isn’t the way you’re going to go.

Taking some cues in atmosphere on “We Are the Resistance,” the crunch of “Fire Mountain” and in the ’90s creep of guitar in verse of “Your Bones” prior from Alice in Chains, the trio bring ideas together from modern emotive doom à la Pallbearer on “Inner Slay,” a broad vocal hook assuring that the vocal stands up to the riffing on display throughout, opener “The Tower Falls” having started out on solid ground rhythm-wise but found room in the mix for an Elephant Tree-style harmony in opener “The Tower Falls” before the start-stop angularity of “Bring the Night” — the chorus delivering the album’s title line — hinting at the metallic underpinning of the project while also sounding more derived from ’00s era punk and post-hardcore. Thus it is that Demons My Friends — guitarist/vocalist Pablo Anton, bassist/vocalist Lu Salinas, drummer Tarro Martinez — stave off the threat of doing just one thing, and instead lay out a creative reach that one expects they’ll continue to refine as they move forward.

While the eight-song/36-minute offering is varied in its approach, the band are consistent in tone and their willingness to veer toward more doomed ends, “Inner Slay” serving as a ready example leading into “Ghosts of You,” which caps side A and pushes further along similar lines, with a central progression to its back half that touches almost on commercial hard rock without losing its foundation in heavy riffing. The production of Duel‘s Jeff Henson assures that fullness of sound and gives the melodic complexity of some of the arrangements — looking at you, chorus-over-solo in “Fire Mountain” — a dimensionality it would otherwise run the risk of lacking, but while Demons My Friends is a new exploration and Demons Seem to Gather is a debut album from a band who as the narrative tells us (blessings and peace upon it) jammed before they were really together, the experience of the players involved assures they’re not flailing in the end product.

Instead, songwriting is at the core of Demons My Friends‘ approach, and whatever original riff-blocks these pieces were carved from, they have been shaped with care and thought, which is something that even the lines topping the apex of “We Are the Resistance” bear out, the band purposefully meeting the largesse of that moment head-on, even as they’re still unfolding it. The proverbial encouraging beginning? Yeah, pretty much. The kind of record you might see five singles released from. It’ll be interesting to hear as Demons My Friends plunge further into the places between rock and doom, the classic and modern and in-between. But one of Demons Seem to Gather‘s strengths is that it knows the field is wide open and it stakes a number of stylistic claims. Maybe they’re settling in for a longer-term evolution, thinking ahead an album, two albums, three. Some bands do that, and if Demons My Friends go that route and build on this backdrop, they’re starting out working from a high standard of craft.

PR wire info follows the player below, on which “Inner Slay” premieres. Please enjoy:

Demons My Friends is an unlikely collaboration between members of Mexican alt-metal band QBO and Washington, DC desert rockers Fellowcraft. The stoner/doom metal trio — Lu Salinas (bass/vocals), Tarro Martinez (drums), Pablo Anton (guitar/vocals)—embarked on their creative endeavor via an impromptu recording session at the SXSW music festival in Austin, TX in 2022 and have consummated the relationship with an upcoming full-length titled Demons Seem to Gather.

Demons Seem to Gather was recorded, mixed and produced by Jeff Henson at Red Nova Ranch, Austin, TX. It was mastered by Alberto de Icaza. It’s set for release on September 8 on vinyl, CD and digitally via Gravitoyd Heavy Music. In the meantime you can stream the band’s singles on all digital platforms

Tracklisting:
01. The Tower Falls
02. Bring The Night
03. Inner Slay
04. Ghosts of You
05. Make Them Pay
06. Fire Mountain
07. Your Bones
08. We Are The Resistance

Shows coming up for Demons My Friends:
October 20th at Valhalla (Austin TX)
October 21st at Black Magic Social Club (Houston TX)

Demons My Friends is:
Pablo Anton – guitar/vox
Lu Salinas – Bass/vox
Tarro – Drums

Demons My Friends on Facebook

Demons My Friends on Instagram

Demons My Friends on Bandcamp

Demons My Friends Linktr.ee

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Facebook

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Instagram

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Bandcamp