MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!!!!

Succeeding the album’s one minute long existentialist intro – a curiously bizarre opening - the song “Fear is My Rage” opens with ham-heavy synthesizers that would compel any side-scrolling video game player to roar the words printed above.

Recorded in Megaton Studios in Novosibirsk, Russia and mastered by Jens Bogren (OPETH, KATATONIA, SOILWORK, AMON AMARTH) at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden, if any one thing is going for DEMON PROJECT’s "Kara Ora", it is the altogether crisp production values; each instrument, from keyboards to acoustic guitars, arrive and depart in absolute clarity.

From there on out, however, "Kara Ora" is a miniature dust devil of electronic Metal that fails in it’s attempt to swirl and smash with the other multi-layered tornados of Metal.

Passionate and actually well-structured, DEMON PROJET has created a 12-song album so hydrated with sound that it remains a labored task to denounce such an effort. But on several looks and listens, "Kara Ora" is a rehashed grassy knoll of synth and early-2000’s Nu-Metal guitar riffs that is only occasionally uplifted in part to it’s enthusiasm, guitar solos, and catchiness.

Although the music is diverse, rarely is "Kara Ora" as interesting as should be. Practically a lesson in international culture, Russian, Indian, and South American influence can be found dispersed throughout, but the problem is not the integration of Siberian melody, it is the band’s musicianship.

The album’s progressive elements fall short; the keyboards, especially many of the opening ditties, sound like they are taken straight from a bad 80’s flick; the vocals, sometimes raspy and guttural, mutate into a pathetic whispering; the weight of the album is feathery – twice did I bang my head in Metal glee.

And then there is the strange genre tag for DEMON PROJECT. Coined Industrial Death Metal, they are anything but. Modern Metal with intermittent growling and keyboard whizzing and laser effects is what I heard.

It’s quite obvious that DEMON PROJECT has a niche, and that many people – I’m guessing young Metalheads - will enjoy what they hear, but the generic breakdowns (did I just hear early KORN?) and cheesy keyboards may repel the intense Metal fan.

"Cradle Of Fear" and "Reach The Sky" are two of the album’s best.

FYI: Apparently DEMON PROJECT has a powerful fan in Dan Swano (EDGE OF SANITY, NIGHTINGALE, PAN.THY.MONIUM, KATATONIA, BLOODBATH), who is slated to do guest vocals on the their next album.

(Online June 14, 2010)