Demonic death judge-Skygods (2012)

Demonic death judge is a high quality stoner / sludge band from Finland. I discovered them last year with The descent that was really good (read my review HERE). They now are back with a new record called Skygods, and they keep the quality on a high with a good balance of heaviness and melody, of rawness and a touch of psychedelia (it's more about heaviness, but that's the good balance, a lot of heaviness with a bit of melody and psychedelia!).

It's another really good record even if for me it's not better than The descent due to a guitar sound that's going more on the stoner side. Stoner rock addicts will approve, more metal oriented people like me will be a bit disappointed. But it's really cool stuff anyway, the quality of songwriting is still well in place. 

You can try it on their Bandcamp

Their singer Jaakko Heinonen answered to my questions about Demonic death judge. Read it below :

-can you present the band and its music ?

We are Demonic Death Judge from south east Finland, and we have thick, heavy sludgy riffs and lots of them!

-you just released Skygods, a few words about it?

It's our second full length album and  I think it combines the best sides of the stoner/sludge/doom genres.

-seems to me that your guitar sound get a more stoner and less sludge/metal tone on this record, is that something you wanted?

Well we really didn't think about it that much, we just basically plugged the amps in started experimenting with the sound and when we found the one we liked, we just hit the rec button and started doing it. Also, the mixing process was a bit different this time around so that gave the sound a nice touch, we're really happy with it.

-what’s the songwriting process in Demonic Death Judge?

I don't really know how the bass and guitar playing Hakuli twins write these songs, they must have a some sort of secret recipe for doing this as they are producing great stuff all the time. So they do most of the writing and then me and the drummer Lauri might just add or change few bits here and there at the rehearsal room, but the twins deserve most of the credit.

-is there a Finnish touch in your music?

I don't really know, you tell me? I think we have our own thing going, it's quite universal sound.

-how are your live shows?

They're deep and sludgy. I think we have a great live sound, it helps that there's only one guitarist so  it's well-balanced and though it's raw and heavy it's still easy to take in. We just love playing live and i think it shows.

-which bands from your area would you recommend?

From our home town there aren't too many bands of our kind, but in Finland there are the likes of Fleshpress, Temples and Hebosagil to name a few that you might enjoy if you're into this type of stuff.

-how did you get into heavy music?

My dad was a huge ZZ Top fan, that was the first stuff I listened to as a kid so it's not surprising that I went on to grow a beard and started listening to all sorts of rock and heavy stuff. And I still love ZZ Top, they're the best!

-what’s the next step for Demonic death judge?

We're releasing Skygods on vinyl near Christmas and from there on we just keep playing gigs and try to get our asses outside of Finland and play some shows abroad.

-a joke to share with us?

I've only got dirty filthy jokes, I'd get in trouble telling them in here. Come and have drink with us, and we'll tell you all about it.

-what’s your  favourite record for 2012 so far?

Has to be Witchcrafts ”Legend” album, it's a seriously great record!

-a final “full of wisdom” sentence as a conclusion?

Fuck everything and rumble!