Demonic Death Judge - Absolutely Launched (2025)

Absolutely Launched is the seventh album from Demonic Death Judge, and even if my favourite one is still The Trail (released in 2020), this is another good album from DDJ. They keep on producing heavy and groovy stoner/Doom metal, hardened with some aggressive sludge vocals, but softened by a southern rock melodic touch. A nice combination that is really their own and that they get to really master throughout the years. Good stuff!

 

The BC page. 

 

Best heavy metal from 2020

 Here's my list of favourite heavy metal albums from 2020, various kind of heavy, traditional, doom/stoner & speed metal. In alphabetical order. Click to go to the review. And feel free to make suggestions in comments.

Demonic Death Judge - The Trail

 

King Gorm - King Gorm

 

 Megaton Sword - Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire

 

Midnight - Rebirth By Blasphemy

 

Pimmit Hills - Heathens & Prophets

 

Sons of Disaster - Cursed

 Tyrant - Hereafter

 

 

Demonic Death Judge - The Trail (2020)

I've been following Demonic Death Judge since their third album The descent in 2011. With their new one, their sixth, The Trail their offer something slightly different and I'd say it's their best one. The songs still have the excellent riffing, the heaviness and the groove, but on The Trail they added some more epicness, soul and atmosphere with some nice instrumentals, either in an acoustic americana style or with the voodoo psychedelia of Fountain of Acid. Like the excellently chosen cover photograph, The Trail breath wilderness and grandeur. Albums of this quality can make them a place among the "big names" of stoner / doom music. Excellent stuff.

The Bandcamp page.

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!

 

Demonic Death Judge-The Descent (2011)

Demonic death judge is a Finnish stoner/sludge band. They released last October 2011 their third and really good record called The descent. I said it's a stoner/sludge band but their music is more than that. It's a great mix of heaviness and melodies, aggression and psychedelia, all that in well crafted epic songs. But judge it by yourself by listening to it on their BC page.

You can also check their blog.