DEMON BITCH
- Metal Militia
- Aug 19, 2025
- 15 min read
// One of the most wild and chaotic new bands around is Michigan’s own DEMON BITCH. Well, “new” is being generous here, as the band started in 2011, but who cares? They have an insane level of chops on all fronts, their songs are frenetic and creative as all hell, and I’ll be damned if they aren’t just a fun band to listen to! These guys have been, by far, the most entertaining band I’ve gotten to interview. They’re a bunch of funny dudes and gave a ton of great responses; I hope you enjoy! It would appear that I forgot to ask them to introduce themselves, so DEMON BITCH is: Lord Mars (guitar), Solon Saton (guitar), B. Beastmaster (bass), Drummer Master Commander (drums, duh), and Logon Saton (vocals). //
You guys are one of the most unique-sounding bands I’ve ever heard. I hear equal parts heavy metal, US power metal, progressive metal, and even a little bit of speed and thrash. Where does this eclectic blend of styles come from?
↪ Mars: The more narrow the pipe, the less water will flow. So you can build and expand the diameter of that pipe but at the end of the day, the water is still restricted by the boundaries of the pipe. I’m not too interested in bands that sound like manufactured intensity. Essence and integrity also matter. I’m not sure if that’s something that’s easily quantifiable. Of course, there are bands that have both, but maybe the music or execution is something that is not it for me. But I think it's worth noting that while one can live in an expanded pipe of sorts, you're still ultimately confined. Whether that boundary is illusory remains to be seen. I'm not even sure if it's a worthwhile fight in all cases to attempt to penetrate the barrier. The comfort of confinement is a real thing. Freedom beyond these walls is at least something to strive for, even if it proves to be illusive. I find myself grasping for that power while accepting and working within the bounds set forth, and just maybe at the same time expanding the pipes by a little bit.
Drummer Master Commander: I always appreciated how drums can stand alone more in classic rock and fill the space. Clive Burr is unfortunately dead, which is a good reminder that we all die, but also a good reminder that as we live, we have to Rock like hell. Early IRON MAIDEN is the epitome of pure rocking energy, but also like HIRAX, AGENT STEEL, CORONER, Polish thrash like TURBO and WILCZY PAJAK [WOLF SPIDER]), USPM like WARLORD, LIEGE LORD, etc. My favorite Bay Area thrash band is DEFIANCE because of Matt Vander’s half time sensibilities and tasteful transitions. Favorite prog band is CAMEL and there's so much music I like more than I can play as well as, but if I add 20% of interest from those worth more, then we're in good shape. It's like how bands from the ‘70s and ‘80s would be worth a lot of money if exchanged today, but not so much if from ‘95 or later – you know? Plus, me and Mars have literally been making music for about 20 years now. We both bonded over Bones Brigade and always pushed each other to take it to the next limit. I remember one time Mars locked himself in his room for 2 or 3 weeks learning scales; he came out a better player and I had to get better then too. Music is as much ‘think’ as it is ‘do,’ but it helps having that chemistry we do from playing so long. We'll jam fresh riffs or freestyle and completely guess what we'll do next and have to stop and laugh. As for being on that same creative plane, some riffs will have a certain feel that I'll try to complement, strain, or power through. We never sit down and intentionally create something that should sound like this or like that band – just rock out, you know? Is that a crime?
Sort of in line with that last question – Logon, you have this insane power as a vocalist. The first time I heard you sing, I was dumbfounded! Your voice has this really emotionally-evocative “unhinged” (in a good way) nature where it feels as though you’re going to push yourself over the edge at any given point. Are you a trained singer?
↪ Logon: Definitely not a trained singer – I really just tried singing to a song Mars and Drummer Master Commander demoed out one day and the voice now associated with DEMON BITCH is what came out; there really was that little thought put behind it. That song was “Hail to the King,” off of our 2012 Demo tape – I never really tried to act crazy, it just came out a certain way, you know? Your description is high praise to me though; I value emotion and passion behind a voice over technical know-how any day. I’d say early on, one of my biggest vocal inspirations was KING DIAMOND when he reaches a lower register (like in the beginning of “Come to the Sabbath” or “Gypsy”) – there’s this mournfulness and almost whining sound associated with it, accompanied by these unintentional but ever-so-sweet cracks & breaks in the voice – that’s the kind of stuff that really sparked a fire in a young Logon and still does to this day.
I read in another interview that a former band containing DEMON BITCH members split up in part due to the bassist stating he didn’t like MERCYFUL FATE. Firstly, a terrible opinion to have! Secondly, DEMON BITCH played a MERCYFUL FATE tribute show at a bar called Small’s in Hamtramck, Michigan in 2012. What songs did you play and how important is MERCYFUL FATE to you all as a band?
↪ Logon: Well, the full story is that he didn’t like MERCYFUL FATE enough to want to go in the musical direction that we wanted. And then I wrote a song called "Demon Bitch"; he didn’t want to play on it because it sounded demeaning and so we started a new band without him named DEMON BITCH where could play music the way we wanted to hear it. That’s probably the most thorough explanation of the name you’re gonna get from us and that wasn’t even your question.
Mars: I have a copy of the DVD that Matt Preston made of most of that show. If I recall, the songs were “Doomed by the Living Dead,” “Gypsy,” and “Melissa,” bookended by the beginning and end of “Come to the Sabbath.” I don't remember if we did “A Dangerous Meeting” or if I just play that riff a lot. MERCYFUL FATE was one of those bands that was integral early on for us. Nowadays, the quintessence of MF may or may not be as upfront, but I feel it is always lingering somewhere, whether it be faintly around the periphery or at the inner of the inner – totally inner and totally private.
Lord Mars seems to be heralded as the musical mastermind in DEMON BITCH. Mars, what’s your process for writing music? Do you, Logon, and the rest of the band workshop ideas or do the songs come to rehearsal in their near-final forms?
↪ Mars: The way I see it, we're all cogs in this weird machine that grinds away whether we want it to or not. How it comes together is exactly as follows: I provide the skeleton, Drummer Master adds the cartilage, tendons, connective tissue, and will to live, Beastmaster adds the meat, Solon adds the blood and gives it juice, and Logon breathes life and spirit into it. The other organs eventually find their way in with Solon and Logon trading off injecting adrenaline into the heart to keep it pumping. As far as songs go, I usually have a complete or somewhat complete idea of the riffs, structure, and lead/solo placement when I initially present it to Drummer Master. But I do ask for feedback at times, and he's certainly been known to lend a hum that may become a riff. Part of the interesting thing to me is finding out how everyone ends up shaping and molding a song. That initial molding starts with drums. It goes without saying that Logon and Solon are ultimate masters here too. It's like having an undeveloped picture of a Polaroid where I know I took a picture of a naked mannequin, but by the time the picture is developed, it ends up being a fully-clothed man wearing a cool hat and a backpack. We lived with the initial ‘one guitar and drums’ mix for quite a while early on while recording, and I can assure you, it was very un-interesting to listen to.
Drummer Master Commander: You know, Man is gifted one thing in this life, and it is the will to live. Machines will never have this – they will take and borrow and do their best to wear some kind of sick flesh mask, but I would hope that most wouldn't be impressed by that. ‘Think it, drum it’ is a great philosophy that practices this will. I'd hope these songs can be exciting and actually make people want to headbang again instead of forcing a clap or two. Never let them take your will away, you have to give it life. Mars is a true riffsmith, probably a cousin to Will Smith who fought those vengeful creatures from the moon. I'll take an initial crack at a song piece by piece, and try to repeat and make adjustments. We know when we're not entirely happy with something, and we’ll have to come back to it at another time or totally shelf it. If we're insistent about a riff or a beat, then sometimes we have to yield to the other's tapdancing Frankenstein, but other times that mustn't be allowed at all.
As far as lyrics go, I’ve noticed that the vast majority of DEMON BITCH songs sound like they’re telling a story. In an era of heavy metal where many bands still opt for themes of chains and leather, I’ve felt like your style of songwriting is a breath of fresh air. Where do these lyrics come from and is the storytelling aspect intentional?
↪ Logon: To me, it’s not about telling a full story, but painting a picture – or laying the foundation for a story to exist. I want to vaguely bring you into this world I’ve created out of some hair-brained idea I’ve come up with, but my prose isn’t strong enough to give you a real cohesive story most of the time. These days, I’ve been really interested in Antediluvian matters. Old things. The unknown. Strange and mysterious, with a touch of otherworldly mysticism.
Very few modern bands have as strong an output as DEMON BITCH. I think pretty much everything I’ve heard, from the 2012 “Demon Bitch” demo through your latest release, “Master of the Games,” has been top-notch in terms of quality. Do you think DEMON BITCH just brings out the best in each of you, or is there some kind of method to the madness?
↪ Logon: I think the gap between “Hellfriends” & “Master of the Games” is a bit excessive, I admit, but I think there is some merit to reasonable pacing between albums. I see some bands put out too much material too quickly in an attempt to stay relevant and in the public’s eye. And while I understand the sentiment there and admit there’s something we could learn from that, at the end of the day it just isn’t gonna result in music that stands the test of time. You’ve gotta give yourself a little bit of time to get re-inspired, to listen to more good music, look at cool looking things, come up with a stupid idea, and eventually when you just can’t take it anymore, you execute with excessive force. Another trick is, you have to be friends so that during all the time that you should be making music but you’re not, you’re doing something else equally dumb with the same people.
Mars: For better or worse, spite will always remain as some force that pushes me forward. I do have to mine for it if it’s not naturally occurring. An example of a mined spite would be maybe forcing myself to think of an off-handed comment that someone said to me years ago and condensing that vitriol into a spite that can be saved and used to power my will to work at being better at my craft than they will ever be at theirs. Not to say that I'm solely inspired by what I hate and influenced by what I love. I mostly and truly only compete with myself in terms of riffing and structuring songs. Playing with Derek (Solon) forces me to be better than I would be otherwise. We all have an ear of what sounds nice to us both individually and collectively, and that hasn't let us down too much yet. I also think we all bring out the best in each other because, as friends, we don't want to let each other down.
DEMON BITCH has its own little empire of bands, including ISENBLÅST, WHITE MAGICIAN, and JOINT CUSTODY. Do you think it’s helpful for musicians to have multiple projects at once in order to release the peak amount of creativity? As an amateur musician myself, I find it’s nice to be able to explore different kinds of songwriting and musical styles apart from one another.
↪ Solon: I don't think it helps anything outside of being able to make sure you're not jamming black metal riffs into a heavy metal or hard rock song when it doesn't belong just because you wrote it and don't have somewhere else to put it. It's just nice to have proper outlets for different types of music that you want to play. In every other way it could be argued that it's basically the opposite of helpful.
Logon: Yeah, what Solon said – it keeps us from muddying the waters. This way we can keep our drinking water pure because we have multiple reservoirs available to us. No fluoride, no parabens or additives, no chemicals and nothing you can’t pronounce.
Beastmaster: I think it can be a good thing and a bad thing. It can definitely help with creativity while learning from other musicians and playing different styles/genres. As long as it's done in a way where no project suffers from another project’s existence.
In relation to that last question, does it ever get overwhelming having multiple projects going at the same time? How does it affect touring or the gigs you decide to play in each band?
↪ Solon: It can, I suppose. Good news is I don't really concern myself so much with when people expect things from me or my projects. Better to come out when it's right than way earlier and half-baked. WHITE MAGICIAN and DEMON BITCH play shows together sometimes... so that helps in regards to shows/touring, but one band always has to be basically in the spotlight at a time so to speak. When they're all doing stuff at the same time it's a little wild honestly. We were finishing the ISENBLÅST and DEMON BITCH records at the same time and that was frying my brain a little bit. This past year I was doing 3 to 4 rehearsals a week which was a little nuts for me.
You’ve said in the past that DEMON BITCH was a name that was decided upon without any real thought given. Personally, I think it’s an awesome name and perfectly suits your music. Have you ever regretted naming the band this?
↪ Logon: I don’t care about it, but it’s not a good name. I wouldn’t say I regret it – it feels right. Drummer Master Commander said it best I think, “It’s just an intense sounding name for intense sounding music.”
With the naming situation, you’ve also stated in the past that you don’t enjoy promoting DEMON BITCH as often as possible. And yet, you’ve managed to gain a wide following – I know a lot of people from all over the world who lost their minds when they saw the teaser for “Master of the Games.” Is it DEMON BITCH that’s afraid of being marketed, or is it marketing that’s afraid of DEMON BITCH?
↪ Logon: I think I’m getting a little better with this, but yes, in an ideal world we could just make music and people would listen to it and it would be as simple as that. We’ve always been lucky in the sense that our music has seemed to resonate very strongly with a small, but passionate group of listeners and – despite our continuous attempts at self-sabotage – the people that wanted it still would seem to find it somehow. We’re not trying to convert anyone to liking the more wild and strange heavy metal that we like, so promotion never made sense to me. I think you’re right on both accounts; I was always afraid of us being marketed because that’s where things are liable to become misconstrued, but I’m beginning to see that there is a comfortable middle ground where I can work a step or two above bare minimum & still sleep at night. And then the album reaches more ears and we can do cool stuff as a band instead of being bitter. Still, we’re not a band for everyone, and we knew that when we wrote the music – there are a lot of people, promoters, etc. who our music just doesn’t click with, and you know what? Those people probably don’t click with us and we would probably hate their band too – that is if they wrote music instead of taking advantage of weekend warriors in an underground scene to assert a false sense of power and minimal-moderate financial gain… but I digress, we’re not for them, we’re for us and people like us.
The twin guitar attack is mighty and strong in your music. Solon & Mars, who influenced each of your lead guitar styles? Do either of you have a favorite guitar to play?
↪ Solon: Michael Denner, Hank Shermann, Andy LaRocque, Buck Dharma, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Howe, Frankie Sullivan, Uli Jon Roth – I'm sure there's many more I'm forgetting... My favorite guitar to play is either my 24-fret 50th anniversary Gibson SG w/ mirror pickguard or my new 2024 Les Paul Custom.
Mars: I used to be so enamored with the intro of “Into the Coven” because it conjured a Victorian dance in my mind and I never heard anything on guitar that quite had that sort of acute mental visual effect on me. So of course Denner/Shermann. LaRoque. Yngwie. Becker/Friedman. The intro to “The Ninja” off of “Speed Metal Symphony” is just so powerful; I aspire to write something as hard-hitting as that. Choosing one, I guess I'd stick with Marty Friedman especially for his unique expressiveness and sideways thinking. As far as favorite guitar – my Jackson that I irresponsibly bought with student loan money back in the day has been my trusted axe for rehearsing at home and recording leads.
Sam (a.k.a. Master Drummer Commander), the incredible drummer of DEMON BITCH, seems to be the only member who isn’t credited anywhere else on an instrument besides drums. Sam, do you play any other instruments? For the rest of you, do you find it helpful to be multi-instrumentalists?
↪ Drummer Master Commander: I play guitar poorly, but will sometimes come up with a riff or two worth some salt and should exist. Maybe some life would come from guitar-led side projects or maybe we'll devise some kind of 5-guitar interlude in the future for DEMON BITCH or WHITE MAGICIAN.
Here’s a couple of questions some friends (and fellow DEMON BITCH fans) of mine wanted me to ask. First, would you ever consider doing a covers album? If so, since this is purely hypothetical, what songs would you include?
↪ Logon: Sure, we can do that, but you will have to wait 16 years before the third proper DEMON BITCH album. But okay I’ll play along, hypothetically… JEFF WAYNE - “The Spirit of Man” (from Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds) & MAGNUM - “The Great Disaster.”
Mars: ENCHANTER - “Defenders of the Realm” & KANSAS - “Play the Game Tonight.”
Solon: It would piss me off honestly. Let me answer anyway... MERCYFUL FATE - “Burning the Cross” & YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN - “As Above, So Below.”
Drummer Master Commander: OZZY OSBOURNE - “Shock the Monkey” & GOTHAM CITY - “See How It Flyes.” “The Great Disaster” cover would rule too, I bet we'd beef that one up a little.
Beastmaster: SLAYER - “At Dawn They Sleep.”
Second, how much HELLOWEEN do you all listen to?
↪ Logon: The absolute bare minimum. I don’t have anything against them, just don’t listen. But I do like H(A)LLOWEEN, Detroit’s own Heavy Metal Horrorshow – what a nice band.
Mars: I don't listen to too much HELLOWEEN, I have “Walls of Jericho” on CD though.
Drummer Master Commander: “Judas” and “Ride the Sky” are great songs which I need to hear from time to time, but “Grapowski’s Malmsuite 1001” was the track I would play over and over in high school.
Beastmaster: I couldn’t tell you one HELLOWEEN song to be completely honest.
Now that you’ve put out your first album since 2016’s “Hellfriends,” what’s on the horizon for DEMON BITCH? Are you going to tour in support of “Master of the Games,” or will you just play whatever shows come your way?
↪ Logon: You likely won’t see a proper full-blown tour from us for some time, unless something really nice comes across our desk. I won’t rule it out – but we don’t have any plans drafted. As for right now, we have a couple Midwest shows planned, January 18th in Detroit is going to be our official record release show, where we bring back local legends Harbinger from near death – we’re all very excited about that and suggest that everyone comes out to witness this (unless this doesn’t get released in time – in that case, your loss!) We’ll be in Athens, Greece for the Up the Hammers Fest this spring which is nice for us & then we have some ideas for one-offs and weekends in a few different corners of the U.S. in the summer of ’25. I’m open to ideas, so if anyone wants to reach out, you know where to find me – or if you don’t, you’ll figure it out.
Thanks for entertaining my questions! Any final words?
↪ In Hell and Heavenly Friendship, my friends!
Interviewed: December of 2024
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