Demon Hunter - Storm the Gates of Hell 20th Anniversary Tour

“While other bands of the early 2000s NWOAHM burned bright and faded quickly, Demon Hunter have remained a seething bed of embers the entire time.” – Revolver Magazine

Demon Hunter is an American metal institution. The band embraces brazenly transcendent melodies without apology while maintaining a defiant heaviness akin to the most timeless metal music.

Demon Hunter weathers the changing tides in rock subculture and the music industry, proving ever resistant to trends and resilient, making music as determined and resolute as the men within the band.

The group’s extended family around the world cherish Demon Hunter songs as personal anthems and instruments of empowerment. Songs like “I Am a Stone,” “On My Side,” “The Last One Alive,” “Collapsing,” and “HEAVEN DON’T CRY” resonate deeply in times of celebration and sorrow.

They’ve toured as main support to In Flames and co-headlined dates with Red. As a headlining act, Demon Hunter helped introduce audiences to bands like August Burns Red.

Demon Hunter forged a musical identity from diverse elements that coalesce into a singular electric charge, merging seemingly disparate sounds with seamless agility. The energy of thrash, the catchiness of European melodeath, the gloomy atmospheric majesty of gothic rock, the song craft of dark romantic pop, and the fist-pumping aggression of Southern
groove all reside in the band.

Ryan Clark leads the band as frontman, primary songwriter, and co-founder. The self-titled first album arrived in 2002. Bassist Jonathan Dunn came aboard for their first tour. Summer of Darkness (2004) saw MTV2 rotation for “Not Ready to Die” and a spot on the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack alongside Slipknot and The Cure. Drummer Tim “Yogi” Watts made his recorded debut on The Triptych (2005). Patrick Judge toured in support of Storm the Gates of Hell (2007), officially joined for Live in Nashville (2009), and made his studio debut on The World is a Thorn (2010).

True Defiance (2012) cemented the band’s current line-up with the introduction of guitarist Jeremiah Scott and broke into Billboard’s Top 40. Extremist (2014) produced the SiriusXM hit “The Last One Alive,” moving close to 20,000 copies in its first week alone. Outlive (2017) debuted to even stronger sales than its predecessors. Demon Hunter performed at Chicago Open Air (with Ozzy Osbourne, KISS) and Heavy Montreal (Gojira, Trivium) to support the
album and headlined several festivals.

In 2019, the band unveiled not one but two new full-length albums on the same day. War was filled with aggression, and Peace doubled down on melody; both are dynamic standalone offerings.

War and Peace debuted at No. 1 and 2 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart, in the Top 5 of the Hard Music chart, and the Top 10 of Billboard’s Current Albums chart.

“On My Side” was No. 1 on Music Choice and played heavily on Sirius XM’s Liquid Metal.

Clark, a GRAMMY-nominated designer, oversees all visual aspects of the band. Scott has produced their albums since Extremist. In 2022, the band launched their own record label,
Weapons MFG. The inaugural release on their label was EXILE, a concept album with an accompanying four-issue comic book series. “HEAVEN DON’T CRY” quickly became one of Demon Hunter’s most popular songs.

Demon Hunter’s discography is born from unwavering commitment, uncompromising determination, and the stark recognition of an often-cold world tempered with defiant hope. Demon Hunter constructs songs with confessional lyrics, heady and catchy melodies, monster riffs, and grooves. They combine meticulous production with urgency and bold imagery with bolder themes.

It’s easy to get stuck in your head. Your thoughts become all-consuming, and you easily retreat into your own world. It happens to everyone, yet this internal place often never sees the light of day. However, Wolves At The Gate explore these spaces on their sixth full-length album, Wasteland [Solid State]. The quintet—Steve Cobucci [clean vocals, guitar], Ben Summers [bass], Nick Detty [lead vocals, keys], Abishai Collingsworth [drums], and Joey Alarcon [lead guitar]—pierce the surface and fearlessly plunge into the psyche. They soundtrack this journey with an unpredictable and undeniable hybrid of technically proficient metal, gut-punching hardcore, and arresting alternative melodies accented by entrancing electronic transmissions.

“I’m constantly in my head,” affirms Steve. “Over the years, I’ve realized we each have a world in our minds that we don’t necessarily share with everybody else. I thought, ‘How could I make a story about these worlds in our heads?’ I captured a lot of it from myself, put everything into the music, and started to connect the pieces. I’m definitely taking these internal dialogues and placing them in the songs.”

Wolves At The Gate have quietly and naturally evolved since their emergence out of the Midwest in 2008. Their vision unfolded across albums such as Captors [2012], VxV [2014], Types & Shadows [2016], Eclipse [2019], and Eulogies [2022]. Blabbermouth rated the latter “9.0-out-of-10.0,” while mxdwn summed it up as “powerfully moving.” Along the way, the group tallied tens of millions of streams fueled by the likes of “Counterfeit,” “Deadman,” “Lowborn,” “Peace That Starts The War,” and more. Not to mention, they’ve performed alongside everyone from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Red to Fit For A King, August Burns Red, and Born Of Osiris. In 2024, a core idea screamed out to Steve, shaping the creative direction of the band’s next evolution. It slowly, but surely seeped into the DNA of the music and his words…

“As I was working on the album and especially the lyrics, I began to realize that the Wasteland was a metaphor for a frame of mind that I don’t want to live in, but a world I feel myself drawn back into over and over again,” he reveals. “I hate it. It’s a world of empty promises. It’s a mirage. A counterfeit.”

The musicians carefully pieced together what would become Wasteland. Steve co-produced the 13-track body of work with Josh Gilbert of Spiritbox, while the guys recorded in New Jersey, San Diego, and Los Angeles. This time around, they added multiple dimensions to their signature sound, layering intriguing interludes and electronic overtures into the framework.

“I spent a lot of time watching producers in different genres,” says Steve. “I learned so much, and I was inspired by the creativity of guys like Andrew Huang. Being a standard drums, bass, guitar, and vocals band, it’s helpful to find inspiration from leftfield. Simultaneously, I tried to go back to the basics for songwriting. At the beginning, everything was just me and an acoustic guitar. We challenged ourselves to incorporate a lot of new elements like the interludes and complex intros.”

The first single “Parasite” harnesses this renewed energy. Synths squeal through a barrage of pummeling drums, chugging guitars, and pit-splitting breakdowns. The vocals echo this feeling of uncontainable turbulence, alternating between guttural growls and hypnotic hooks. The central chorus practically draws blood, “Listen to the devil speak, filling my veins with what I seek. And the venom tastes of your deceit, listen to the doublespeak.”

“For ‘Parasite,’ I wanted to capture this dynamic of looking in the mirror and transcribing what I see,” he goes on. “When we see ourselves, we all have character traits that we wish were different. It’s almost like an unconquerable enemy inside of you. You can’t stand its presence, but you keep falling for it. The song tackles the relentless cycle and the frustration. By the end, you just invite the same problem to come back and cause havoc in your life.”

“Synthetic Sun” tempers a rumbling guitar-driven groove with glitchy beat-craft. It climaxes on the chantable chorus, “Cuz we are the children born in the dead of night. Living in the dark we all just kill the light.”

“As a culture, we’re trying to create our own morality, but can’t do so without a true moral standard,” he observes. “Rather, we do this individually, which ends up creating chaos. We all fall prey to this mindset. Creating your own morality will cause you to block out any semblance of a truth outside of yourself. If you metaphorically block out the actual sun and create a synthetic sun, it will result in a slow and fatal poisoning.” 

“LAW OF THE [Waste]LAND” leans into a bouncy cadence fueled by seesawing riffs, tense keys, and throat-shredding screams. “It’s both a recognition of reality and a bit of a lament for the world we live in,” he sighs. “It goes back to the concept of ‘eye for an eye’. When you get to the end, it asks, ‘Why do we live like this?’”

Then, there’s “SMOKE [False Devils].” A menacingly cinematic soundscape belies the intensity of an incisive and incendiary proclamation, “Your words cut me deeper. They’re sharper than steel. My tongue fills with  fire burning me to the bone. Flames ignite. Tongues ablaze. Smoke devours.”

“When somebody is ‘Blowing smoke,’ it’s a way of being deceitful, lying, or hiding,” he goes on. “Nobody wants to get found out or exposed. At times, it’s pretty clear I screwed up or I didn’t respond well. I hate the defense mechanism that wants to rise up and defend myself—even if I’m indefensible. We’re trying to hide what we already know is true, but we’re not fooling anyone. Instead, accept those weaknesses, faults, flaws, and failures.”

“Death Clock” sets off a ticking time bomb. Breathy verses bottle overwhelming anxiety until it overflows on a hummable chorus amplified by a caustic and catchy call-and-response, “Death clock spinning along in my mind.”

“It describes the world inside of your head,” he continues. “Everyone undoubtedly thinks about death. The song is just being honest when it comes to the fact we all die and how it makes us feel. We wanted it to sound like you’re racing against a clock.”

Through it all, Wolves At The Gate peel back the layers and explore the often-volatile internal interplay of thoughts and emotions. Ultimately, all of this inner work leads to a clearer sense of external understanding.

“It’s incredible what goes on in the mind,” he says. “Most people live what seem to be simple and ordinary lives, but there are countless battles and struggles that descend upon our minds. From the outside, life must seem plain and benign if someone looked at my life, but there is warfare and turmoil going on—thoughts of life, death, pain, and peace as well as depression and joy. It is a wonder that everyone in this world doesn’t collapse under the weight of what this life brings. We all can just tend to live like we just are fending off the dark, with whatever vice or temporary comfort we may choose. If the scales were lifted from our eyes and we stopped desensitizing ourselves for a minute we would find that we live in a world that is unlivable. What gives you hope? What brings you peace? Is there hope in the Wasteland? It appears that there isn’t, but in order to see it we must look outside the Wasteland.” 

In the end, Wolves At The Gate might just incite a conversation with Wasteland.

“I hope the songs inspire you to think about what goes on in your mind,” he leaves off. “These songs give a voice to those internal thoughts and struggles. Maybe the album shakes listeners into thought about deeper truths, belief, and, ultimately, finding hope.”