History Music / DemonHunter

* Brock Lindow (Music/ThirtySixCrazyfists) - clean vocals on "Beauty Through the Eyes of a Predator" (''Summer of Darkness'')

** ''Peace'' is their softest album of original material to date, featuring exclusively clean vocals on the majority of songs. This was intentional, as it was meant to showcase their softer side in contrast to its companion album ''War'', which was their heaviest album in a while at the time.

A HeavyMetal band formed in the early 2000s, Demon Hunter is one of the most popular Christian heavy metal bands outside of the genre's own community. The band has their own nickname for their fan base, similar to how Slipknot calls their fans "maggots", calling their fans members of "The Blessed Resistance", as seen on their website.

The band's music is classified by many as a unique cross between {{Metalcore}}, GrooveMetal, and AlternativeMetal, with a little bit of NuMetal as well, particularly in their first two albums. Despite critical acclaim and the many aforementioned fans outside of Christian groups, the band has found little mainstream success as of yet, though they have had some of their videos played on MTV's Headbangers' Ball.

** ''Outlive'' saw the return of minor NuMetal elements, but not to the extent of their first few albums.

* CarefulWithThatAxe: They do this a lot, but especially on the title track on "Storm the Gates of Hell". It begins with quiet static, then the drums start to come in and Ryan lets out a loud growl powerful enough to wake up a sleeping baby. And throughout the song, he sounds like he's trying to explode his throat.

** ''Peace'' is this in comparison to their previous albums, being a straight-up AlternativeMetal album that was intentionally made to showcase their softer side.

* ThrashMetal: A few of their songs have elements of this.

* FollowTheLeader: Ryan revealed in a Reddit AMA that their self-titled debut was heavily inspired by ''Iowa''-era Music/{{Slipknot}}. Indeed, their first two albums were often compared to them, and in a twist of irony, their current guitarist Patrick Judge cites them as a huge influence even though he didn't join until well into the band's career.

* NotChristianRock: Subverted. Most fans don't know they're Christian (see ChristianRock above) until they look it up.

* {{Metalcore}}: Arguably the biggest component of their sound, though they do have other influences as shown above.

* MetalScream: They do this rather frequently.
* {{Metalcore}}: Arguably the biggest component of their sound.

* NuMetal: They started out playing this, but slowly transitioned out of it on their second and third albums.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Ryan looked much older than he was for a good chunk of their career. He was only 23 when their debut album was released, but looked to be at least ten years older due to being completely bald and sporting a huge beard. This was exemplified when he became noticeably overweight around the ''World Is a Thorn'' through ''Extremist'' era. However, he lost a significant amount of weight circa ''Outlive'', and now in his 40s, he actually looks his age if not younger thanks to this.

* BaldOfAwesome: Ryan.

A HeavyMetal band formed in the early 2000s, Demon Hunter is one of the most popular Christian heavy metal bands outside of the genre's own community; along with bands such as Music/{{Underoath}}, Music/ThousandFootKrutch, Music/{{Red}}, Pillar, and Music/{{Skillet}}, they are among the most known Christian metal bands in recent history. The band has their own nickname for their fan base, similar to how Slipknot calls their fans "maggots", calling their fans members of "The Blessed Resistance", as seen on their website.

* ChristianRock: They said so themselves that they are. It's actually really hard to tell, though, even if you listen to their lyrics, as they never openly use the words "God' or "Jesus" in any form of praise - when they do, it's usually in a different context.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: In ''True Defiance'', "Means to and End" → "We Don't Care". This is an interesting example in that 'Means to an End' was made with this intention, and was going to segue into whichever song fit the key it was in. 'We Don't Care' was the only song they had in the key of E.

** In ''Outlive'', Trying Times fades into ''Jesus Wept''.

* RearrangeTheSong: They released ''Songs of Death of Resurrection'' in 2021, a compilation of redone acoustic versions of their most popular ballads.

* SurprisinglyGentleSong: They seem to have more and more per album.

* CarefulWithThatAxe: They do this a lot, but especially on the title track on 'Storm the Gates of Hell
. It begins with quiet static, then the drums start to come in and Ryan lets out a loud growl powerful enough to wake up a sleeping baby. And throughout the song, he sounds like he's trying to explode his throat.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Storm the Gates of Hell'' is considered their darkest album of their early era, while ''War'' is this in comparison to the three albums before it.

A HeavyMetal band formed in the early 2000s, Demon Hunter is one of the most popular Christian heavy metal bands outside of the genre's own community; along with bands such as Music/{{Underoath}}, Music/ThousandFootKrutch, Music/{{Red}}, Pillar, and Music/{{Skillet}}, they are among the most known Christian metal bands in recent history. The band has their own nickname for their fan base, similar to how Slipknot calls their fans 'maggots', calling their fans members of 'The Blessed Resistance', as seen on their website.

Discography:

* '''''Demon Hunter''''' (2002)
* '''''Summer of Darkness''''' (2004)
* '''''The Triptych''''' (2005)
* '''''Storm the Gates of Hell''''' (2007)
* '''''The World Is a Thorn''''' (2010)
* '''''True Defiance''''' (2012)
* '''''Extremist''''' (2014)
* '''''Outlive''''' (2017)
* '''''War''''' (2019)
* '''''Peace''''' (2019)

* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: They have used the phrase 'reap what you've sown' more than a couple times.
* BaldOfAwesome: Ryan.
* CarefulWithThatAxe: They do this a lot, but especially on the title track on 'Storm the Gates of Hell'. It begins with quiet static, then the drums start to come in and Ryan lets out a loud growl powerful enough to wake up a sleeping baby. And throughout the song, he sounds like he's trying to explode his throat.

* ChristianRock: They said so themselves that they are. It's actually really hard to tell, though, even if you listen to their lyrics, as they never openly use the words 'God' or 'Jesus' in any form of praise. Hell, their name is Demon Hunter, for crying out loud.
* CoverVersion: The band covered Prong's 'Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck'.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Storm the Gates of Hell'' is considered their darkest album.

* EpicRocking: 'The Gauntlet' clocks in at just under 7 minutes.
* FadingIntoTheNextSong: In ''True Defiance'', 'Means to and End' → 'We Don't Care'. This is an interesting example in that 'Means to an End' was made with this intention, and was going to segue into whichever song fit the key it was in. 'We Don't Care' was the only song they had in the key of E.

* FakeOutFadeOut: 'Deteriorate' sounds like it's finished around 3/4 of the way through, then the riff comes back out of nowhere and the chorus plays a few times.

* IAmSong: '[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin I Am You]]', 'I Am a Stone', and 'Death'.

* LoveNostalgiaSong: 'One Thousand Apologies'.

* MinisculeRocking: 'Lifewar' from ''The World Is a Thorn'' clocks in at just under 2 minutes.

* OminousLatinChanting: 'Death' starts with a group chanting "mors, obitus, decessus" 12 times.
* RapMetal: In some songs, Ryan screams in an almost hip-hop rhythm, most notably on 'The Science of Lies', 'I Have Seen Where It Grows', 'Beauty Through the Eyes of a Predator', 'LifeWar', the second verse of 'Through the Black', 'Not Ready to Die', 'Beheaded', and 'Tie This Around Your Neck'.
* RatedMForManly: Oh, yes. Quite possibly the only Christian band that qualifies.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: 'Fading Away' sounds like something Music/AvengedSevenfold would sing.
** ''True Defiance'' features 'Means to an End', an acoustic instrumental song.
*** 'What is Left' from the deluxe edition of the same album wouldn't sound out of place on a Music/ThreeDaysGrace album.
* SopranoAndGravel: Around 90% of their songs have this.
* SpecialGuest:
** ''Summer of Darkness'':
*** Trevor McNevan of Music/ThousandFootKrutch on 'Coffin Builder'
*** Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists on 'Beauty Through the Eyes of a Predator'
*** Howard Jones of Music/KillswitchEngage on 'Our Faces Fall Apart'
*** Mike Williams of The Agony Scene on 'Beheaded'
** ''The World Is a Thorn'':
*** Bjorn Strid of Soilwork on 'Collapsing'
*** Christian Alvestam, formerly of Music/ScarSymmetry, on 'Just Breathe'
*** Dave Peters of Throwdown on 'Feel As Though You Could'
** They themselves became a special guest for ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'' by having a number of their songs featured in the soundtrack. Including ones like 'Collapsing', 'Lifewar', 'Someone to Hate', 'This I Know', and more.
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: They seem to have more and more per album. According to the song samples, ''True Defiance'' is only keeping this up.

** Extremist brings more ballads and softer songs in comparison to the previous albums.

* ThisIsASong: Not quite, but 'This is the Line' is pretty close.

* VocalEvolution: Ryan's clean vocals have remained pretty much unchanged since the band's beginnings, but his harsh vocals have significantly changed since their debut album, not just the way he sounds, but also the style. Compare his growls on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAmIYZ2Wjk Screams of the Undead]] to his growls on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnHn_nY0rr Artificial Light]], from their first and latest album, respectively, and see if you can tell it's the same guy.
* VocalTagTeam: Averted. Whenever a guest artist appears on a song by the band, the featured artist practically ''takes over the song''. For example, in 'Just Breathe', the aforementioned Christian Alvestam, who sung on it, sings literally everything except for the verses. They might as well have put it on Scar Symmetry's album, for Pete's sake!
* YoungerThanTheyLook: It may be because he's bald and his beard (when he sports one) is at times very huge, but Ryan could have passed for a man in his early forties ever since he was barely out of college (the music video for 'Infected' was shot when he was just ''23 years old''). Now that he's actually hit his forties, though, he now looks his age, if not a little younger thanks to his significant weight loss circa the ''Outlive'' era.

The band's music is classified by many as a unique cross between {{Metalcore}}, GrooveMetal, and AlternativeMetal, with a little bit of NuMetal as well, particularly in their first two albums. The band's vocal style and instrumentation is often compared to Slipknot, although they are far more respected than Slipknot. Despite critical acclaim and the many aforementioned fans outside of Christian groups, the band has found little mainstream success as of yet, though they have had some of their videos played on MTV's Headbangers' Ball.

* {{Mondegreen}}: In the song 'Our Faces Fall Apart', the line 'I built this anguish with my own hands' is sometimes misheard as 'I built this sandwich with my own hands'.
** 'We Don't Care''s line 'feels like we've run out of air' may be misheard as 'feels like we've run out of ham'.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: It may be because he's bald and his beard (when he sports one) is at times very huge, but Ryan could have passed for a man in his early forties ever since he was barely out of college (the music video for 'Infected' was shot when he was just ''23 years old'').
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* VocalEvolution: Ryan's clean vocals have remained pretty much unchanged since the band's beginnings, but his harsh vocals have significantly changed since their debut album, not just the way he sounds, but also the style. Compare his growls on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAmIYZ2Wjk Screams of the Undead]] to his growls on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnHn_nY0rr Artificial Light]], from their first and latest album, respectively, and tell me you can tell it's the same guy.

A HeavyMetal band formed in the early 2000s, Demon Hunter is one of the most popular Christian heavy metal bands outside of the genre's own community; along with bands such as Music/{{Underoath}}, Music/ThousandFootKrutch, Music/{{Red}}, Pillar, and Skillet, they are among the most known Christian metal bands in recent history. The band has their own nickname for their fan base, similar to how Slipknot calls their fans 'maggots', calling their fans members of 'The Blessed Resistance', as seen on their website.