Demos and Mcds reviews: Old demos

CDs/LPs - DEMOS - OLD STUFFS - FANZINES - GIGS
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Update ----------

OLD STUFFS:

OLD LPs: A -> F / G -> L / M -> R / S -> Z

OLD DEMOS: 1980 -> 95 / 1996 -> 99 / 2000 -> 02

ABYSSALS (FRA) Demo’94.
This band included some ex members of MUTILATED, an old cult French death metal band that was totally blasting and about 5 years in advance on the french musical extreme underground of its time.
What we’ve got here is a really good sounding demo in the vein of MORBID ANGEL’s « Altars of madness » album that was far better than all what the french Underground could offer at this time.
Good sounding tremolo riffs in the vein of godly old school Trey Azgtoth with variations on two guitars harmonies ANGEL CORPSE also uses nowadays. Good sounding apocalyptic ill dementia lead guitars in the vein of very old MORBID ANGEL. Good sounding vocals that wouldn’t be so far from MASSACRA or even old MERCYLESS’s 2nd LP (but not sure for the second one). And there was some real blast parts!
Everythings sounds pro and well done here. There are here no average parts used to hide a lack of inspiration.
8 years after the release of this demo, some riffs are still branded in my head, and it’s very rare with demos!!
At this time, I heard from the guitarist they had to release a CD or a MCD on HEAD NOT FOUND, but nothing happened and the band split up. I think the guitarist played from some time in AGGRESSOR, but I heard no news since this time.
Why is the Underground sometimes so stupid not to support a great band when there’s one and not to push it very far to release a CD??? Was it to extreme for its time? I don’t think so! It was maybe too much extreme for the so called french undergrounders of ‘94 but there was in the world some as must punishing bands that got a lot more support !!
If you can check out this demo, don’t hesitate! I saw some traces of this one in some forgotten but still existing underground distribution lists.

ACCURSED (Usa) A curse called life Demo Tape 1993.
What the fuck are you doing in the boring present, while the whole past of metal keeps on screaming "AAARRRGGGHHH!!!"??! 20 years of non-stop orgasms and billions of neck-breaks nothing could seriously match! Especially not these "modern metal" craps! Superficial music without balls remains over the surface and can't affect in any way your rotting existence!
As the flies of tasteless honey keeps on flying, we remain under the rotten soil, hailing putrid death, morbidity, and vomiting the serpents of nebulous glauco-maniacal underground stench!
And finally your drown! Deep in the tremendous heaviness of gut-oppressing Death metal morbidity!
ACCURSED played a typical kind of heavy, tremolo ridden, Death metal regorging the dead with heaviness à la early DECREPIT, and fastest influences chopping the cunt in half à la "Scream bloody gore".
Nothing above the average for normal hears, but the bizarre deformity might resonate in the atrocity infested hears of the deranged putrid minds. There might be too much melodies wasting the morbid, and the vocals weren't deep pitched enough! (Even if some bowel squashing old AUTOPSY can be found). But it was a cool band for big fans of ancient rotting death metal morbidity!

AFTERBIRTH (Usa) Psychopathic Embryotomy Demo'93.
BANISHED INSTINCTS, FORCE FED BRUTAL CRAP, ARTIFICIALLY REVIVED, INTERNAL DEATH & ILLUSIONS OF EXISTENCE! No need to type more 'nice' words here since this Demo didn't inspire me much!
This is common Brutal death grind in a more or less American Style with some old school Death influences! Ok it blast, ok the guitars are fast, ok the growls are cool... but hell it's common as fuck for most of it! Not enough punch to blast out a big fat ass! Their slower parts are meant to be heavy, but are too common in the style! The drummer have some quite nice parts... Reminds me of old DEEDS OF FLESH, old CANNIBAL CORPSE, old MONSTROSITY, old UNLEASHED, old OBITUARY (for slow parts)... Blah! I'm bored! AFTERBIRTH is only a band whose goal is to play brutal death, without anything special nor really brutal (as it seems). It might be an Ok band to check live, but their compositions are too common! Between the average and very average!
http://www.afterbirthli.com

AGONIZING TERROR (Por) Disharmony in god’s creation Demo’95.
This quite old portuguese band played a Death metal reminding me of BOLT THROWER (“Realm of chaos”).
They had the same kind of old SLAYER influenced melodies, breaks or gonna be fast riffs, as well as quite heavy riffs with double bass drums and heavier/ almost doomy parts that turns into a tremolo Death metal part. It reminds me the BOLT THROWER “Peel sessions” LP for the style and for the fact it’s not really tight.
They lacked some epic melodies and really crushing and catchy riffs, but for the time it was released I think it’s not too bad. It’s almost an old BOL THROWER copy and it’s not so pleasant to listen to it 7 years after its release, but at this time some bands were really worth in the style.
http://go.to/agonizing_terror

BLOOD DUSTER (Australia) Menstrual soup Demo’91.
I downloaded this demo on a "trendy" forum, "point, click: RELAPSE board".
I knew only the "Yeest" CD'95 of BLOOD DUSTER that had some very good Grind rock tracks. And it's always cool to hear some older stuffs of a band you enjoy!
On a musical point of spike, there are not much difference with what I know of BLOOD DUSTER ("Yeest"). It seems more gore influenced than their following stuffs. It was Grindcore that with Heavy death/ almost stoner parts that could eventually remind of MASTER's 2nd CD "On the seventh day..." in the slowest parts, but the main drill in here was Grinding Death à la very old CARCASS with old NECRONY and GENERAL SURGERY elements. There are gory vocals, and the pig disgorge screams on the 4th track are fun.
The blast weren't that good, didn't sound quite massive compared to the "Yeest" ones, but it was one of their first recordings.
Even if the music was quite average, it wasn't bad for what I think is their first recording.
http://www.bloodduster.com

BRAIN DECAY (Fra) More! Demo'89.
Skateboard, beer and Thrash metal! That was the way of life of many Thrashers during the first and second French Thrash metal "waves" (If I could say so).
At this moshing epoch, BRAIN DECAY were quite present in the small French Cut'n paste unreadable photocopied zines, while their style was quite nice compared to some French bands I heard...
Old school Thrash metal à la KREATOR was their main high line, but can I also feel a will of being somewhat technothrash like (with small technical or various breaks), so they may have reminded a bit of CORONER(old) or WATCHTOWER. Needless to quote some SLAYER and METALLICA influences: these two bands were worshipped by the hordes of French Speed thrash metallers! BRAIN DECAY also makes me think of D.B.C, and a little bit of NUCLEAR ASSAULT and ASSASSIN.
The sound wasn't bad for its time, correctly produced and clear enough. That remains a pretty cool Demo for its time... but don't listen to this if you aren't in a nostalgic feeling! Lol
If I'm not mistaken, most of the BRAIN DECAY members later formed a Deathcore industrial band called ACTING OUT who had few releases.

BURIAL (Uk) Optical mass Demo’92.
To review old demos is a good way to revive a forgotten past and imagine you're years before, headbanging in front of an old typing machine! An obscure aura emerges from nowhere. You're ready to totally fucking die! Welcome to the old school subterranean simulator v. 666!
BURIAL was a cool Death metal band petrifying the sufferance between the mid-placed and fast paths of mortification! You happen to think about early DEATH ("Leprozy"), early NECROPHOBIC ("The nocturnal silence"), NIHILIST, early UNLEASHED, early GRAVE with few doomed heaviness à la early PARADISE LOST/ early IMMOLATION/ ROTTREVORE! Channeling the deadly despair of the mighty cathedrone on a creeping point of putrefaction! 100% Relicus Doomicus Metallicus!
The vocals weren't so deep, it was rather some kind of midly engulfed death-thrashing asphyxiated Martin Van Drunen with a zest of sadism à la old SADISTIC INTENT!
All putrefaction taken in rotsideration, this demo wasn't that killer or neck-breaking, but BURIAL was a fine Underground Death metal band with good influences, the right atmosphere and decently corpse-shredding songs! Only for the biggest underground Death metal fans the old school way who like it underground! (Was early Death metal ever meant to be anything else than drowning in the deepest Underground? Ah!)

CANNIBAL CORPSE (Usa) A skull full of maggots Demo'89.
On this fucking old Demo, Cannibal was quite different from the Brutal Death band we all know! As well as their first LP "Eaten back to life", this was so fucking influenced by the old BLOODFEAST's stuffs and in particular by the "Face fate" MLP! Old school Death thrashing metal with some splattering and butchering heavy riffs!
At the time the band was fucking promising as they ever offered a fucking bunch of energy! Most of the time with Death thrashing tremolos that makes the things run warm in your slip!
Some guys acclaimed their first CD as original and stuff, Ok it was a good one I still enjoy! But Check the BLOOD FEAST's "Face fate" MLP and you'll see Cannibal weren't so original!
There were also some old NECROPHAGIA influences for slower riffings! Obvious old POSSESSED influences for some technical riffs! And the vocals of Chris Barnes weren't Grunts nor gore! It was total Thrash speed metal vocals! Ah!
Nice demo to check, to have a good view of what these bastards did in their very first days! It can be interesting to check both this demo, the first CANNIBAL CORPSE Lp and the BLOODFEAST MLP quoted before
(If you can find some Mp3s...) to see where they're coming from!
http://www.cannibalcorpse.net

CARDIAC CEASE (Fra) Altered beast Demo'91.
No milk please, it's a waste of good headbanging! We've the beerternity for your flesh!
I was quite soarprized when this demo crossed the styx of my cadaveric tape player! Good old energetic thrash metal with many riffs per track and plenty tempo changes! CARDIAC CEASE kinda had the enthusiasm (and teenage's rage) of KREATOR's two first Lps mixed with the complexity of "Terrible certainty", with nice touches of DARKNESS, early DESTRUCTION and thrashing old AGRESSOR! The guitarist had allright skills and the riffs were well-thought enough for this time. A shame the drummer wasn't totally tight (but he didn't suck. It was probably due to his way of playing the "chuga-chugas" with double bass drums) and the production wasn't heavier, because CARDIAC CEASE could have kicked more than few ugly grandmas' bottoms!
Of putrid corpse this demo has grown quite old, but it remains a nice item to listen nowadays, if you're into old school and old stuffs... Especially since it is becoming one more time trendy to be into the old school! Ah Ah! Next time I will listen to POISON (Us) and switch a broken BON JOVI Lp in my arse while screaming "Yugha Yugha"!! Ah Ah! Only pink is real! Ah Ah!

CONSCIOUS ROT (Spa) The soil Demo tape 1994.
Conscious rot, as the rot takes over your consciousness and becomes a totally independent entity. Free of mind and decision, controlling your body and turning your now uncontrolled acts towards the path of the vilest putridity!
This Spanish band would surely be just another average 2nd rate underground ugly procreation for most, but I know some sickness-archeologists will find enough obscure cavities of interest to dig, and nice influences of death to satisfy their lust for the unknown and forgotten.
Yes, even if at first schizophrenic sight CONSCIOUS ROT is nothing catchy or special, their nice mixture of "Old school" death metal and "old" brutal death styles, evolving both in the fast, mid placed and quite doomy, is quite cool.
The whole isn't too badly played and structured, I found some few nice doom melodies à la early ENTOMBED, and some fast moments (Old styled death metal beats or quite brutal death blasts) kicks quite well.
The band was somekind of "Multi death metal" influenced, taking a bit from various things to build their own (Selfless?) songs, so a detailed cryptic description would be quite dull.
All in all, there's both some cool and average stuffs (That waste my putridity). I regret there's not a real dense atmosphere.
Notice some of these guys used to play in RUINATION and OSSUARY (Already heard about these bands?… I had these on tapes héhéhé)
To sum it up, I should say this is far from being one of the worse demo I heard from the Lithuanian underground, especially for this time! Only for explorers of immured underground cavities and maniac death metal collectors.

CORPOREAL DECAY (Usa) Divinely impailed Demo tape'91.
Dripping in the unknown and forgotten might seem useless, but it's a good way to extract the pulp and taste the true saviors of death.
CORPOREAL DECAY might have been a second or third rate band, but what they played was quite neat. Death metal with technical and nicely embalming thrash influences. The technical edge and some quite vibrating riffs remind me quite a lot of early PESTILENCE (Malleus maleficarum), while you could think about a more skilled old KREATOR, or a bit of old MEKONG DELTA; while touches of OBITUARYor old MORTA SKULD could be detected.
The songs were seriously built and the level of the guitarist wasn't bad, he had some neat sounding technical riffs (With a bit of craziness and some heavymetallish leads).
The Death metal vocals were average (Just 'raw' old styled death), and the drummer simply followed.
A little discarding edge in the riffs made it a bit more particular.
What lacked to CORPOREAL DECAY was probably some hooks, more burning intensity, and a vocalist that would have stood above the average.
I'm surprised this band isn't featured on any website, because they were far from being one of the worst demo bands I heard! This tape is a cool item for fans of old PESTILENCE and MORTA SKULD.

DECEIVER (Fin) Nocturnal death Demo tape 1994.
No, you are not reading a review of the Swedish thrashing heavy metal band. Years before some Swedish metallers rewarmed their cold beers and chose this moniker, there actually was a Death metallic band brutalizing the morbid skulls from Finland’s dust-saturated ground, and this wasn't the worse Finnish band I heard!
Quite tight and well built death metal songs hitting you in a quite crazy way. Imagine some fast brutal death à la CANNIBAL CORPSE ("Tomb of the mutilated") with a faster playing, more tempo changes; some accelerations of frenzy à la ATROCITY ("Hallucinations"), plus a bit of old DEICIDE or DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (For strange touches). Some riffs ripping the bowels over some blasts aren't bad, it sounds quite bizarre enough.
For some reasons, DECEIVER kinda sounds like SOILS OF FATE's first demo recordings (Neat production, tight playing and influences), but hopefully they injected more moments of crazyness to refresh the skull...
I feel like a part of the songs is just average brutal death riffs, or too common stuffs, and there's nothing especially emotional an embalming or haunting way of death. So, many peoples will just consider this as "Just another average demo"... I have some doubts flying between the agreement and the disagreement... But hopefully for me, some moments are quite energetic and crazy, so I can listen to this tape, even if the hooks kinda flatten down after a putrid while...
It seems the bands was playing something softer on their earlier recordings, apparently even not death metal (But thrash power whatever), so beware were you put your coins, you fans of old brutal death metal.

DISGUST (Fra) Anorexia Demo'93.
This demo is 10 years old now! And it's cool to hear the musical evolution of the band!
I just got it recently and didn't know the tracks, even if I was in their rehearsal place every wekkends in 98-99 with the mighty beers! Ah ah!
They where then in a Brutal death style that was less technical.
The sound ain't bad, but it's hard to understand something when the drums grind. Brutal Death metal à la old SUFFOCATION, BAPHOMET, old CANNIBAL CORPSE, old GRAVE... Sounds like their next releases, but less evolved, sounds more like an american band than like the french scene of this time! (For those who didn't know the french bands of the past, well... most of them were week and very boring!!)
This release could have turned into a cool CD if it had the benefits of both more tightness and a better sound...
It sounds outdated in 2003, but for a french band of 1993, it was surely enthusiastic and Brutal!
http://www.disgust.fr.st

DISLOCATION (Can) Into the horror Rehearsal Demo'93.
Bestial urge of necrosterones, ecstasy on the hormones of the dead and massive escalation of violence! Dead, buried and ready to fuck up the pink metal morons!
Eventhough this old blasting Brutal death Demo doesn't embalms the burnt corpse, nor awakes the cadaveric anger, I detected enough surface blasting aggression to keep some of you putrid readers awaken. This second demo sounds like fast death grind somewhere in hell between early MROBID ANGEL, DEICIDE, and NAPALM DEATH (Utopia), with mid placed splatters à la old CANNIBAL CORPSE and few old thrashing death behind the chunks of green putrefaction. They remind me a bit of old SINISTER, eventhough DISLOCATION didn't have the hypnotic side and was weaker than SINISTER.
The production was raw, the vocals were raw... All in all, nothing special or catchy, it's average (or very average), but I guess it was a pretty ok rotting tape for underground maniaxes of Brutal death. Average and forgotten, but nice for the big maniacs of the good old demo tapes' collection!
DISLOCATION recorded 4 demo tapes and split up. I think none of the band members took part in another orgy of mucupurulence later. Asatanos amigos...

EVITERNITY (Fra) Demo'94.
Here's one of the first underground demos I ordered!
The band was playing complex techno Death metal, but it was more extreme sounding than the techno Death bands of the time! I'd rather say it was a Death grind band with complex breaks put here and there.
For this time it wasn't bad at all, all the more the French underground cruelly lacked in guts and professionalism!
The guys were tight, no part sounded hesitating or shit... They hadn't got the fucking approximations that were just the french mark! Ah!
Total discordance riffs that were quite original, Death/ Grind influences à la old MORBID ANGEL; nice melodic leads inspired by classical music, some BAPHOMET/ BANISHED for heavier riffs and some COMECON can be evoked for some bizarre riffs as well as for screamed vocals!
They had some morbid "melodies" à la CANNIBAL CORPSE. It reminded me of DEATH ("Individual thought patterns") in more complex parts while some moments were catchy and fucking obscure with some evocation Death metal screams! Soulful futuristic visions riffs reminding me of PESTILENCE ("Spheres") and DEATH. There may be a bit of BRUTAL TRUTH. Only their lyrics weren't that serious and quite funny since they worshipped the cat eater named "Alf"! Read a few tracks' titles :"Iron slip", "Brain chewing gum" and "Eviterniclown".
Quite cool and original cover! But where were the labels at this time??
They later formed a folk music band called STILLE VOLK I don't enjoy at all. A guy (the drummer if I remember well) is in HYPOKRAS now.
It's surprising I still get some pleasure listening to it now!

EXECUTION (Fra) Promo tape 1994.
Here's another one of the very first underground demos I bought. I remember this 2 tracks tape was cool at the time!
Heavy Death/ Thrash riffs reminding me of old BOLT THROWER with some high pitched melodies that were rather in the same style that what could be found on "Realm of chaos". Correctly constructed tracks with enough variations. Cool vocals with some very low tuned ones, nice female vocals that were decently placed and reminded me of old PARADISE LOST. Thrashing riffs à la mid old KREATOR. A few melodic death harmonies. It has grown old but I still can listen to it a bit without any dark and vast boredom appearance.
Well, there was nothing exceptional here, but there was quite catchy riffs and it sounded better than the most of the other French underground bands I heard back then... They're still playing nowadays, but I think their style is more melodic with lots of synths...
executionmanagement@free.fr

EXHUMATOR (Rus) Sacrificial bleeding Demo'94.
This first EXHUMATOR Demo became a real cult item in the Russian underground! These 4 tracks were composed and recorded with the anger of deadly hungriness and thirst for blood as the demo was tape traded as hell in the Bolshevik underground, instigating EXHUMATOR on the Perverse underground Death metal throne of the cold East!
Technical sadistik Death metal influenced by early DEICIDE and old MORBID ANGEL! Tight as fuck skillful musicians who know how to brutalize their instruments and compose tracks with perfect structures! These songs were built with many morbid or satanic riffs, including a bunch of ones being technical, but that always kept a hearable and enjoyable aspect. It was truly outstanding for its time!
The only really negative point was the production; it's not the best one I've heard, that's clear... but at least it brings the music a pleasant raw underground aspect. One could also find some old MALEVOLENT CREATION and few early CRYPTOPSY, ALTAR (Hol) in these 4 tracks of controlled Death metal attack.
Later on, EXHUMATOR went to live in Belgium. Of corpse they kept on playing this kind of satanic death, they even recorded a second Demo around 1998, but this release missed the catchy and brutally satanic anger of the first demo! The living conditions are probably too cool in Belgium?
Anyway "Sacrifical bleeding" remains an important piece of Underground death metal, the obscure way, and even if it wasn't really killer EXHUMATOR had quite impressive and catchy tracks! I think the band split up.

FILTH (Australia) Clitoral vision Demo'95.
I didn't enjoy that much what FILTH did after this Demo ( including a 4 ways split CD released on Bizarre leprous). It wasn't so much cool and the sound wasn't that good.
But on this pro demo recorded on 95 (same both sides) their style was definitely cool! Grind death groove à la BLOOD DUSTER meets old HAEMORRHAGE, with some good groovy rock parts their blood dusted comrades used so much! Bizarous sexualo invitations berserking the pussy love box of old MUCUPURULENT! There was some vicious catchiness in here!
The tracks"Tissue love box" and "Vulgar taste of dusted blood" were the best ones in my opinion, even if each of their tracks included some nice ideas as well as catchy bizarrous perversion choruses! And there were samples before almost every tracks!
If I remember well, a sample is taken from a documentary in which the guy who speaks was a Judas Priest fan and shot his head with a gun in the name of Rob Hallford's band and became somekind of an human Marshmallow! Ah Ah...
A good amount of riffs here were full of mid tempo groovyness and there was some fun introduced in the love box of the vocals... Nice demo for a bloody period party! So, this was a very very cool demo at its time!
Pussy lovers can prepare their artificial vaginas!
mikefb40@hotmail.com

GARCHAROT (Fin) Cradle of sorrow Demo tape 1994.
12 years ago, it was quite usual to meet the paths of GARCHAROT on some flyers or in some tape compilations. It seemed like the band was doing a nice promotional work, or the underground enjoyed their Death metal. And this wasn't necessarily a bad rotting affair, since the death metal of GARCHAROT was solid and quite brutal!
Imagine tight death metal à la old DEICIDE, old KRABATHOR ("Lies"- When they were brutal and quite obscure) with the most brutal parts of HYPOCRISY's 2 first Lps (Not the already melodic stuffs, but the most death metallic and rhythmic guitars) with some touches of fast ENTOMBED (old)/ GRAVE (old) and a zest of fast BANISHED. The whole was well packaged in quite efficient subterranean structures of confinement.
This tape is still worthy to dig some holes in your walls, but there's not much to dig some graves thanx to some old school feelings of nostalgia, since GARCHAROT was mostly focused on the brutality and efficiency. Even if nothing is especially crazy or demented (Yes, death metal was an abuse of pure craziness, you sleeping old farts! It's pointless to bash today's extreme musics because of its abusive craziness... Find other arguments that could be worthy!) and nothing is that catchy, this tape remains enjoyable and will sound quite efficient in the hears of those (Older or not) who like the style.
The band split up after various rehearsal and demo tapes (This one apparently being the first) and never released an album...

HETSHEADS (Swe) Remonstrating the preserver Demo'91
There are some band's names I've ever seen on some old tape trading lists or on some old flyers printed in 90's zines, but I never had the opportunity to put an hear on these as it will remain endlessly forget for most and will remain somekind of crystallized through dust thoughts lying in my decaying brain.
HETSHEADS is one of these names I may have crossed one or two times in an old sulfuric Death metal past. Even if the style of the band has got its Swedish Death metal influences, especially at the levels of the vocals that sound like NIHILIST, the music was cat into some old Death thrashing warlines that remained less dynamic in breaks/ structures and bombastic than the Swedish style.
If you dig my petrified words... the style of HETSHEADS rather reminds me of old Thrashing speed metal bands such as very old SLAYER, very old DEATH, MANTAS, GENOCIDE(?), RAZOR with some Swedish Death like riffs in here and there (GRAVE, NIHILISTIC, CARNAGE).
ere's nothing really special here, only Ok stuff in the style for this time.
Compared to some other releases of these years of primal Death metal rage, I think this HETSHEADS demo has grown old a lot, and except from the archeological dust breathing ultimate old school maniacs, I don't see who could be interested!

INFEST (Fra) On stake and consume Demo'92.
INFEST is a Death metal band that drown in the abyss of the forgotten ones, even though the band had a relative importance for Death metal in the North of France. Their music was obscure old school brutal death à la old SUFFOCATION, early IMMOLATION, BAPHOMET, with touches of ancient Death metal à la early DEATH, ADRAMELECH with some early PESTILENCE. The overall mood was mourning, abrasive, it's almost a true morbid old school Death metal state of mind. The music was well constructed with a bunch of cool deadly, strange and technical parts from here and there. Morbid Death metal to awake the damned from its brutal mourning and motivate the armies of nervous beer drinkers!!
The band was composed of Laurent (drums), who's now a part of DISGUST, Christophe (Guitars) who was later involved in KHROMADEATH, DAZED, SCARVENGER and another guitarist who left to form the gay FORLORN EMOTION...
Alcoholic reincarnation of morbid graven souls that speaks to the guts of the beer injected ones! Brutal suffering overwhelming. Gut crushing terror. Pus-filled liquefaction of the acidified entrails. Sickening torso hallucinations. You fucking die!!
A noticeable fact for cock wankers: the cover artwork of this demo was supposed to be the one of LOUDBLAST's "sublime dementia" Lp, but INFEST chose it before! So they kept it! Anyway this info might be useful for ass-lickers! Ah!
Note: This isn't the same French INFEST that recorded the very average "Any recall" Demo'93.
INFEST offered a totally cool and soulful Brutal death metal while they were musically and technically ready to record a full-length CD! If I don't mistaken what I heard, they even got some deal offers... but the guitarist/ vocalist preferred to leave the band to form the gay FORLORN EMOTION! This is a cruel damnation since INFEST could have had a good impact on the French scene of its time... but this is how trends work and kill the real Death metal bands who deserve more than a local recognition!

INFEST (Fra) Any recall Demo'93.
According to what I heard, there was two French bands called INFEST at the time, and many bands used the same name later... The cover of this demo is a nice drawing with cool 'introspective' and imaginary ideas, reminds me some stuffs I've drawn, at least it's cool to watch it.
But the music of the band was boring mid placed Death metal. They had double bass drums and simple riffs... The leads also sound too much everheard! Sounds a bit like DEATH (?). I may have no nostalgic feelings for it since I didn't know the band at the time, but it remains too much very average in the old boring style of this epoch! (And the French scene was boring! trust me!) Just boring stuffs...

MAGGOTY CORPSE (Jap) Baptisma Demo'93.
Even before the strange grind rock noise band C.S.S.O, there was MAGGOTY CORPSE! Buried in the past and unknown by the modern metal cock-suckers, MAGGOTY was filled with enough revenge and atmosphere of the damned to awake your vilest castrated sociopathic fantasms!
Nice second demo of obscure Death metal with nice touches of death grind (NAPALM DEATH "Utopia banished" and TERRORIZER) and some deadly melodies of doomed existence awaking the morbid dead the way CREMATORY (Swe), PARADISE LOST (very early), and MY DYING BRIDE (Very early) could do! A shame it's not a bit faster tempos or more blast ridden.
The overall spirit of this demo is obscure with a little bizarre touch.
All in all the music wasn't that original (and ways less strange than C.S.S.O, which isn't necessary a bad point if you ask me), rather some cool and enjoyable Death metal with elements of Doom-death and enough little wicked touches to turn on aids the fans of embalmed Death metal obscurity!

MASTICATION (Swe) Demo'91.
Here's a little paradox. Even if I'm downloading MP3s as a voracious bastard, I surprisingly come back to a bit of good old tape trading. The cool stuff with trading tapes is this isn't your Mac Donald fast-food Brutal Death Devourment: you've got to wait a few weeks before you can listen to the wanted item, and as the days pass you can imagine how the band will sound as a nice real envy grows... You don't download everything as a blinded fool that checks every demo even before he thought about listening to it...
Now that this little introduction is finished, I can review this old demo a friend of mine dubbed me even before I thought about asking him so... I'm Cursed! Has the American cheezy clown also possessed the tape traders?
MASTICATION was totally in the old school Swedish Death metal style, with the same kind of compositions and kinda eroded sound. The music is very reminiscent of CARNAGE's "Dark recollections" LP at every morbidly assembled levels, but it also sound like old GRAVE very much! Nothing exceptional, but it was a quite cool Demo for this time. For nostalgics of the old style only!
It may please the old school maniacs who are buried by time and dust and need more than their old CARNAGE, GRAVE, ENTOMBED (1st!) Lps they've played so much it's totally unhearable!

MELEM (Fra) Ties of death Demo'93.
I heard a new track of the band on the compilation CD of a French stupid and illusionist magazine a few years ago, and their style is way more melodic than before, if I remember well it's some melodic metal with a few synths.
But in 1994 they were far more into Death metal! It was an extreme style that could remind of old MORBID ANGEL with some nice and quite technical leads assorted to more melodic parts. But they had some original touches such as some monks' singings, some Indus samples and few more sorrowful riffs. It was Death metal with nice ideas reminding me of POSSESSED, old MORBID ANGEL and MUTILATED for the tremolo riffs while there was some quite catchy Doom death riffs à la very old PARADISE LOST ("Gothic") assorted with both clear and well sounding/ deep low vocals. Some DEATH influences were present for more Death metal breaks with a nice melodic aspect. There was maybe some old SUPPURATION influences also.
The first track "Hecate" was by far the best one... the following ones included nice or less nice moments, it was more hesitating and sounded less "accomplished". I would have liked to see them evolve in the way of "Hecate"! The sound wasn't bad at all... The problem was the drums are low in the grinding parts!
The whole remained quite classical but was enough well done and included enough cool ideas to make it worth the listening for a demo, and it was better than most of the French stuffs released at this time.

MESMERIZE (Fra) Eyes of life Demo'94.
Another old demo I bought directly in the town of the band while I was travelling in the south of France! It was cool to find a very underground demo in a so small town it seemed to be the hole of France's ass! I guess it was distributed to very few copies... Well, in my remembrances it was more extreme!
It begins with an intro that includes a discordant riff à la PITCH SHIFTER. Then follows a Death/ Thrash reminding me of old LOUDBLAST, SUPPURATION and a bit of DEATH. Their tracks were articulated on quite complex riffs and structures. And they were tending to the Techno Death metal style... But well, I remember I found it quite obscure and complex at this time, it's only Death thrash with "original" riffs à la SUPPURATION ("The cube"), for sure I was young!
Some parts aren't too bad as it reminds me old buried feelings and images, but the music in itself wasn't that great nor special, and their tracks were a bit too complex in my opinion... I'd better say it lacked for example the highlight moments and melodies SUPPURATION had on "The cube" (when it was still a good band, I can't stand their following releases under the SUP name). It was ok for its time.

MULE SKINNER (Usa) Stripped of flesh Demo’92.
It's hard to find some releases of the killer Grindcore band MULE SKINNER once was! Their first and only album violently pierced my anus thanks to its merciless grinding power! And more blasting energy was needed! I was pleased to find this older demo in an obscure Death metal hub, hoping it would be as crushing as the aforementioned CD! But well it's not so powerful, I'd rather say MULE SKINNER sounded like an average but promising band back then. Raw grinding Crustcore with a bunch of mid placed parts reminding me of RIGHTEOUS PIGS and the first era of NAPALM DEATH. The raw production makes the band sound like a bestial war metal band in the vein of BESTIAL WARLUST during the blasts! But we are talking about a core crushing piece of shit that has also some punching beats à la REPULSION and slow riffs à la old DEFECATION. The vokills are growled in a brutal way! Quite gorgeous brutal death screams!
Well, nothing really special, but at this time MULE SKINNER was a quite promising band with nicely rounded moments of Grind! :-)

MUTILATED (Fra) Psychodeath lunatics Demo'88.
France, 1988. While most of the French scene of this time is still deeply asleep and only few of the French metal heads play thrash metal, some totally sick minds offer the most extreme and total death metal a French band had offered until then! (Only very few bands such as AGRESSOR, MASSACRA or NOMED had been considered as a real extreme outfit until then!) It immediately explodes your face with a chaotic lead à la old POSSESSED! Good Death thrash metal à la very old POSSESSED that's surprisingly fast and good sounding for this time in France!
While the French Underground was conveniently pleased by amateurism and chauvinist behaviors, MUTILATED kicked more than one arse with this piece of true Death metal! Total Death Metal morbidity in its purest form! Professional, with the old school feel!
The 3 tracks on this demo were definitely good, and still sound very cool and morbidly energetic nowadays (even if there were a few problems on drums' beats). Good technical leadzzz holocaust that knocks the scum of some wanna be technical nowadays' bands! Ah! It was technical and aggressive! This was a piece of Underground Death/ Thrash metal with few speed metal riffs the old way! Total cult! If you are a true Death metal fan and don't know MUTILATED, you deserve to rot!!

NAPALM DEATH (Uk) Demo '85 CDr Bootleg.
Cool bootleg with NAPALM's very first Demo.
It's weird to hear how NAPALM could sound very much into Punk/ early chatoic HxCx at it's beginning. Just imagine the 1st side of "Scum" without any blast beats and only mid tempos... and Mick Harris didn't do his mighty drum toms' rolls at the time.
IT was also nice to hear that Justin Broadrick who later composed all the mighty GODFLESH albums ever had some depressive (and disconnected from this world) riffs such as in the "What man can do" or "So sad" tracks. These tracks sound for me as the embryonic beginnings of GODFLESH for me.
It's almost sure if Justin had remain in NAPALM DEATH the band wouldn't have turned into Extreme Death metal later! Think about it when you listen to GODFLESH(R.I.P)!
Anarcho Punk mixed with chaotic HxCx punk à la "Scum" and depressive disconnections à la GODFLESH. The sound ain't very good (of course) and the band had improved a lot for the release of "Scum", but it remains interesting for all Napalm Death fans and enjoyers of Grindcore and Extreme music, to understand were a part of all the extremity we enjoy comes from.
http://www.enemyofthemusicbusiness.com

NECROPHAGIST (Ger) Necrophagist Demo tape'95.
Masturbation decreases the size of cock... And it might be a real pain in the underwears for the guys of NECROPHAGIST! Album after album, song after song, ejaculation after ejaculation, their music became always faster, more technical and more complex... If you follow the early principle of this chronicle, I wonder what might happen in there, deep in the waters of the kangaroo-styled underwears... maybe nothing? Ah Ah Ah!
Anyway, before being a strong addict to overabusive technicality, the composer of NECROPHAGIST used to write good brutal death metal songs being catchy enough to entertain the brutallers: not too fast, and injected with some nice classical music influences from here and there.
The songs were played at the right blasting speed to punish you hears with brutal, yet melodic riffs (that didn't abuse mellowdickness), haunted variations of livid terror, screams of livid liquefying anguish... the whole melted in efficient structures of spirit dissecting damnation! The drum playing was performed by a real drummer of flesh and bones (contrary to the not so sexy machine of the first album: things turn hotter when it burns).
I can say it, this demo was a KILLER one when it was released! It stood as a good technical mix of old DEICIDE, old CANNIBAL CORPSE (The bleeding), some old SINISTER, few CARCASS and some European Death metal bands I won't quote to keep you awake.
Unfortunately, the German brutallers went for a spermicidal and fast as a cold fuck brutal death on their first album... and they re-recorded some of these demo-tracks in an abusively fast way! What's the use to fuck as fast as fucking speedy Gonzales if you don't let the feeling and heaviness of torturing horrific death emerge from the inner embalments of "Tout Ankamon" 's voracious mummy? At least... let it flow!!!
So, I can say it now, NECROPHAGIST started and kept feeding the disappointment in my hears! Of corpse, and as always, as it's played fast and a professional way, with knowledge, many guys will claim it rules... but as always it lacks the feeling it needs to naturally kick my ass! The following to this demo was just listenable, or entertaining when you're very much focused...
This demo remains the very best and most 'human' sounding NECROPHAGIST recording in my hears! Not for wankers or sterile mind abusers! But for fans of really obscure and horrific terrifying brutal death metal! Those who need it straight from the guts! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!
http://www.necrophagist.de

NYCTOPHOBIC (Ger)/ ENTRAILS MASSACRE (Ger) Split tape’95 AXIOMA Prod.
I use the opportunity of 5 minutes of freedom to blow a black fuel injected fuse on this review! Ah!
Before turning to heavier but ways more convenient Grindcore on "War criminal views", NYCTOPHOBIC was a more aggressive Grindcore band that released a few Grinding core kracked-brain pieces Cerebral molestation! (Some demos, Eps and a split CD).
You get here a split tape that was recorded before this "War criminal views", the side of Nyctophobic is an older live recording that keeps a good sense of the electric Grindcore blasting explosiveness!
Urban Grindcore with many old school grooves and punches! Bizarre life vomiting deep consciousness low pitched growls and classical Grindcore vocals. That shredds and blasts the fuck out of your scumbag!
Energy, Grinding stress and passionating aggressiveness where the fucking here! Why did they slow down on their first full-length that was only Ok?

There are some bands I happen to review several times not for the quality of their music, but because they're featured on Split Eps with other cool bands... And ENTRAILS MASSACRE is one of them!
What I hear is somekind of Grind/Crust that does nothing for me! They have some tracks, but the riffs are noisy and the blasts are too fast! I don't like their crust beats! Screamy vocals. Very average live sound (not to say anything else). Well, that’s not for me! More energy in your Grindcrust! Or stop playing this style! Very average band!

http://www.nyctophobic.de

OLD FUNERAL (Nor) Abduction of limbs Demo'90
This first OLD FUNERAL demo is probably the one that remains the most raging, apocalyptic and blasphemic! What you could hear, you perverse nun-fucker, it a complex Death grind à la early MORBID ANGEL meets ABHORER! Skillful apocalyptic shredding riffs that molest your brain as cut-razorblades and strange sounding melodies the old morbid way! Plus a good dose of the clerical vaginal blood is composed of good old complex and quite techno-death-metallish death metal in the vein of what DARKTHRONE could play on their first Lp and early demos: quite strange death metal with lots of breaks and tempo changes! One could also detect few similarities with the early Swedish death metal shredders who had the real and never matched morbid enthusiasm for creating gut-tripping hymns of cold as fuck and visionary Death metal!! Something really cool in this demo are the spitting vocals of the illustrious unknown "Olve" who later left the band for other winterish and forest induced considerations... It's really scorched and sometimes were aren't so far from the brutal and full of rancid bile spittings of some South American Black war Death metal bands who blaspheme the Church at continuum crescendo! Something cool about this early demo is some riffs sound strange (discordances, strange changes). Early ATROCITY(Ger) could be quoted as an influence for the semi apocalyptic accelerations in strange 3 foots sounding riffs being kicked in the ass by a virulent blasting drumkit! Of corpse, some riffs and other stuffs could remind of this or that band (few early Bolt Thrower for example), but I feel like this demo remains fresh and cold as a dark winter in a Nordic December! Needless to say I've played these 3 tracks over and over at least 9 times the last two days! So move your ass and try to find this nice piece of well composed ancient Death metal if you like it fast, cold, bizarre sounding with plenty of old school morbid riffs and spitting vocals from the abyss of ecclesiastic castration! Hailz the Old Funeral!

OVERLORD (POL) Darklors Demo'95
I’m bored, another death metal band trying to sound nice and melodic, usually I try not to care about trends when it’s up to make a review but I’m really fucked up this time. How can this be called death metal ( Death means morbid ) when this music is so funny, pretty nice and overall unaggressive. Do not misunderstand me, this is correctly made and the sound is OK ( but it’s too clean and not heavy enough!), I’ve nothing againstt this kind of music but I don’t like 99% of those bands and that’s ever the beginning of a problem! The musicians play proper and they seem to have some ok ideas which makes their thrashing melodical death not so linear... But even years after I remain unconvinced, it didn't grow on me to the contrary of what many labels like to say: "Check it again! It will probably grow on you! Check it! check it!" They only want to make the reviewer almost asleep and mentally abrupted to get a good review! Ah ah

PHLEGETHON (Fin) Neutral forest Demo tape 1990.
It's time for the vilest putrefaction to awake again and take over the fallacious minds, to spread the voracious underground gangrene one more time!
Death metal will be totally dead, totally putrid and disgusting one more time! Any kind of mellowdick and watering down influence will definitely escape the turmoils of pain to let escape and explode the strongest revenge and pure hatred! Pure fucking death in your face!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!
But, I should slow down the insane dreams of prevailing pure putridity, since most of the coming-back old bands disappoint the strongest fans of death metal down to rotting agony (Pure damnation!), and the newest bands, even if some are good, aren't able to match the shredding enthusiasm of the end 80's…
So, a wiser possibility would be to extract again the morbid saviors from some older tape recordings; even if some weren't the best, at least the obscure feeling and enough putridity were there.

This time, I'll exhume an old demo of the finish band PHLEGETHON. Before all confining walls start to tremble, I should immediately state they didn't sound that much like a Finnish death metal band of the 90's. In fact, the style of these fukkers of dead was much more complex and technical.
Imagine the first album of DARKTHRONE (When they were playing quite technical (For this epoch!) and obscure death metal) with some death thrashing influences exploding the pustular agony right from the frustrated bowels of MERCILESS's first album ("The awakening") and a bit of OLD FUNERAL (First demo). Add few crazy riffs, some "dissonant" melodies resonating a quite bizarre way, and your vision of death is focused on the right maelstrom of pain!
Well, to be a bit more realistic, I should notice this tape wasn't that killer and emptiness-filling; not sure if some current metal-listeners would like it that much, but a good answer could be: FUCK YOU!! This sounds quite crazy enough for my putrid needs, and the complexity of the thing, even if it doesn't necessarily sounds composed the best way, makes it nice for my traumatic brain!
A cool tape for Death metal maniacs... These words shall be your grave.

PORNOCRATE (FRA) Tape 97
Beware! This project isn’t being taken for serious, imagine a couple of stoned friends recording their improvised stuff on a 4 tracker! Total carp! Drum machine and buzz guitar sound! Total crap! It’s funny and laughable, if you’re interested by this total crap!

REGURGITATION (Usa) Bathrooms rule Demo tape'87.
Where has gone the good crushing Death metal? My trembling scalpel can't wait for more.
Are the endless legions of current underground bands unable to write any sincere and life-long killing riffs? This seems to be another sad but true malediction!
We might need to search anywhere else for pure darkness and complete extreme sincerity. Some peoples listen to something drastically different, secretly waiting for a killer Death metal come back, some find a refugee in old and quite rotten demo stuffs... This is exactly what we will do right now.

This old American REGURGITATION (That has nothing to do with the second American Regurgitators who used to play brewwwtal death... This one is some pre-incarnation of O.L.D) played a cool sounding old styled Death metal with mostly fast parts (almost blasts) that could sound like some REPULSION with strangely high pitched vocals, and some shooted thrash hardcore claims.
I also think about ATROCITY (Us). This tastes a bit like some kind of pre-Grind, with a not so serious aspect... Maybe for some vocals that could remind of early NECROPHAGIA and especially Killjoy who would have abused something being too saturated with toxic strawberries.
There are also few doomy riffs à la AUTOPSY, this is what I prefer. I also happen to think about old DR SHRINKER... Maybe for the production and most death metal edge.
Some vocal effects and few screamed guitar screams mixed with a not so easy to understand production gives it an early Earache feel.
I guess there's nothing to please the younger fans of metal, or all those who can't help but stick their ass at all costs to the homodernity, but REGURGITATE sounds cool and quite more extreme than all nowadays craps, once your head is flying in a world of old school spiked sea urchins or when it's taken in a nostalgic old fart urge.

REIGNTERROR (Jap) Reignterror Demo tape'92.
Sit tightly in your comfortable cunt-armchair, and open another warming comfortable beer to fully appreciate what will follow... And what won't be the next mainstream metal revelation (Ah Ah).
This demo didn't contain the most aggressive or savage thrash metal, since REIGNTERROR choose to play a style reminding of METALLICA (Especially "Master of puppets") and so the result was quite neat and varied. There were both the fast controlled (Or not) riffs, heavier parts, quite a lot of nice sounding leads, technical breaks and a few acoustic interludes. I also happen to find small similarities with old INFERNAL MAJESTY or eventually early EXODUS.
It was quite well played and built, and nothing seemed bad, but according to the context of this epoch while many bands used to emulate this kind of neat thrash metal, I'm not sure if they could make a little hole for themselves, especially since there wasn't anything personal or I'd call thrilling.
Nothing memorable, and the band apparently split up after this one and only short recording (Composed of only two songs)... But it remains a nicely listenable demo once you're brewing your metal in a cool state of mind... I might notice the drummer also plays in GORGON, few Japanese metal maniacs might find this info of interest.

ROTTING (CAN) Drown in rotting flesh Demo'95
Well, I know this is an old demo but this is a cool band so they need your support! They play very professional heavy and brutal death metal with GRAVE, BOLT THROWER influences, vocals sometimes reminds me of OBITUARY or even AUTOPSY (R.I.P), Cool pro demo if you're into pure heaviness! Their tracks might sound quite long, and with the distance I'm not so fond of it (their CD is better and more intense), but this let us see ROTTING wasn't a crap band! A cool Demo that could announce some good things!

SANITYS DAWN (Ger) Mortal consumption Demo tape'94.
When I downloaded this demo I expected Grindgore stuffs, full of blasts and bizarre sickened ideas from the disfragmented brain of the putrid pervert, but I was quite surprised: what you have on this 1st SANITYS DAWN demo is mid-placed death metal for most of it. It sounds like slow NECRONY, old CELTIC FROST, OBITUARY meets some slow CARCASS. Not very fast and not much energetic, even though few accelerations à la early EDGE OF SANITY were there. The vocals weren't much gore of powerful, not extreme enough!
Some of their riffs were quite gore and strange for the band's level, but it wasn't the prevailing element in there, so you might not hear these riffs as gore or bizarre but common Death metal if you aren't in the schizogore process of flesh ventilation (Bad joke...The weather is damn hot) uh?
It seems only the third track of this demo later appeared in their first full-length "Criptic menu", it's actually the most "bizarre" song of this tape.
To conclude this demo wasn't anything special, it only sounded as a new band playing average death metal with touches of bizarre stuffs. The sound and the tracks were quite clean, but I wouldn't ( have detected in this release the intense aggression and bizarrity SANITYS DAWN would have displayed later on their second and best album "Mangled in the meatgrinder".

SCARVE (Fra) Demo'94.
Here's the very first recording of SCARVE. I got it in a shitty trade with an obscure as fuck distro that had to get rid of some impossible to sell stuffs. This trade wasn't so shitty since this demo isn't bad, and it must be hard to find now! Ah...
At this time the style of the band was different from what they play now! But it was complex and 'in a way) original! Somekind of Techno Thrash with little Death touches. And there were a few melodic vocals in between the thrashing ones. It wasn't so technical as they didn't own the technical guitar killings of DEATH's "Individual thought patterns" (for example) more common (but nice) riffs with variating ideas on structures and surprises. Their tracks weren't bad, quite complex songs with a good amount of breaks and variations. I may quote a bit of some musical elements of these bands for you to get an idea of SCARVE in 1994: MEKONG DELTA, very old ATHEIST, old FAITH NO MORE DEATH ("Individual" without the technical edge) or even old ATROCITY(Ger) 's less technical parts. There's a nice energy in here, some discordant tunes and the drums' parts were quite alive and varied.
It wasn't an amateurish band, and it was one of the coolest bands of the French techno death/ techno thrash microcosm of this time (that included bands like Eviternity, Thalidomide, Droys and others).
If you enjoy their actual releases, it can be interesting to put an hear on this demo if you can lay one hand on it.
http://www.scarve.net

SHUD (Fra) Promo tape'92.
After an averagely impressive first demo in the thrash metal vein, SHUD Brutalized their metal to offer your pure morbid fucking Death metal! The ancient feeling and riffs emerging from darkened past materializes straight from your Hi-Fi and haunts your depressed brain as the visions of the ancient necrotic and sadistic deities torment your weak consciousness in agony!
Pure old school Death metal influenced by the following great names of deadly metal: early DEATH, old and deadly MORGOTH, early MERCYLESS (Fra), some very old MORBID ANGEL and some fucking MUTILATED (Fra)! Fast pounding Death metal of Death with a burning bunch of fast Death thrashing riffs, hellish or melancholic leads but also some heavier doomy guitars and infinite darkness melodies that can evoke the old days of ASPHYX!! I like the disgusted vocals of death! The vocalist vomits right at the cross between these 3 incarnations of Death: Marc Grewe (Morgoth), Martin Van Drunnen (Asphyx, Pestilence) and Max Otero (Mercyless (Fra)). The true scourge of annihilating existence!
There are also some melodic interludes from here and there, but it fits well since it remains deadly and obscure... à la BRUTALITY (First albums) and MERCYLESS ("Abject offerings").
I think nowadays bands such as UNFRAGMENT or VEHEMENS share the same spirit of Doomed death metal morbidity.
SHUD wasn't a really original or outstanding band, as many formations they did mistakes from here and there, but this promo tape was and is still enjoyable for fans of Death metal the morbid and mourning way! It was done with enough knowledge of death and taste of the obscure to be a very pleasant tape!
One last line for the maniac hunters of obscure metal: surprisingly enough this demo is still available in few surviving distros that remains hidden from this reality of shit! Search and fucking fester!

SOLEMN (Usa) Exiled at the well of souls Demo tape 1992.
I have no obscured clue about the rotting position SOLEMN could have in the underground of the beginning 90's.
After all, it might have been quite common obscure death metal, drowned in the endless legions of death metal bands endlessly escaping the vomiting mouth of the underground at this time, and many current bangers would find this demo as just "another old useless crap"… But I find some quite morbid qualities in this quite sulfurous tape.
The style of "Exiled at the well of souls" evolves mostly between the mid-placed and the slow, as you can think about IMMOLATION ("Dawn of possession") or some old INCANTATION, with doomy touches à la (very) early PARADISE LOST/ MY DYING BRIDE/ DECREPIT, and heavy/ quite mechanical brutal death riffs à la old SUFFOCATION with a zest of old GORGUTS... But there are also some accelerations on granitic frenzy between the blast and the old punching death metal beats.
All in all, the riffing and composition of songs sound average, but I feel a quite good atmosphere of obscurity that helps to make the rot a bit more than crepitating. This might be a cool demo tape for big fans of underground doomy death metal (The real doom in my rotting opinion! With heavy guitars of lividity and death throats from hell). Nothing spectacular or that thrilling, but an atmosphere and some claustrophobic riffs of doom are cool.
(Notice the drummer of this band used to play in DETERIOROT, and the music of both bands isn't so far from one to another).

SUFFERCATION (Malaysia) Cryptic existence Tape Lp’93. VALENTINE SOUND Prods.
It might not seem so wiiiize or sex-appealing to do that, but it feels safer to review older Death metal releases that do not sound as professional or “good” than what the current standards impose.
Away you’re still free to leave!
SUFFERCATION might have been somekind of trusty valor of the brutal at the time, since they sounded more right to the point than the past Malaysian records I checked. And what could you expect? Fast, almost blasting Death metal reminding of early DEICIDE, early SEANCE, with Brutal touches à la SUFFOCATION, and mid-placed Death metal parts à la old DEATH and early ASPHYX.
The production wasn’t top notch but rather quite gruffy (I have the same problem with a DETERIORATE tape album… It might have been abused by a sadistic tape player!), but it’s not necessary for the worst since some blasting parts earn a little of the parasites some old Grindcore records had.
To sum it up, SUFFERCATION wasn’t an exceptional, but rather 3rd grade or average underground band (Depending on the mood), but I happened to play few songs during moments of boredom, so it might not have been that bad, and for the time the band at least had some skills.
Notice they were previously called SUFFOCATION and changed moniker for obvious reasons, plus I own another tape of their so a review might come up in few years…

TIMEGHOUL (Usa) Tumultuous travelings Demo Tape’92.
I never heard about this band until recently, and I absolutely don't understand why! For its time, it was innovative Brutal death metal with a mix of unexpected influences and real energy! Imagine a mix between SKELETON OF GOD, old IMMOLATION, old GORGUTS, ATROCITY ("Todessehnsucht"), very early MY DYING BRIDE with touches of early GODFLESH and you'll have a good overview of the THING!
TIMEGHOUL married with success moments of fast brutality, suffocating heaviness, obscure dark doom, with a bunch of strange riffs à la early ATROCITY! Tortured visions of a morbid future! This was promising and full of potential! This is quite vertiginous to think about what the band could have developed with few more years of practicing... But where the fuck where the labels back then ??! TIMEGHOUL was probably too strange and innovative (This means there wouldn't have been many immediate sells and the album would have needed an adequate promotion... which needs money! But some businessmen probably preferred to 'invest' on the trendy shits of the time... all these craps most of us already forgot!) Fuck the corporate "independent" music business... deep in the ass!
http://aegea-synergy.com/aegeasynergytimeghoul2.htm

TOTAL MOSH (Ger) Greed and lust Demo tape’89.
What the fuck is that? I ordered this tape expecting some thrashing stuff (see the band's moniker) but there's absolutely no metal... Uh!!! What you have here is 20 tracks being mostly composed of very short grind impacts à la early NAPALM DEATH (See "You suffer" and "Dead") with some mid-placed Hardcore and Thrash/ HC. The blasts sound fast as fuck, and it's probably one of the few only qualities I could find in there. Guitarwize it's average and unimpressive (Some punkish HC stuffs sucks). Vocalwise it's rather Hardcorish spoken and half shouted (No guttural, no deepness). So it's an average and quite useless tape (in my opinion) that might refresh few minutes in the shitty existences of those who like stuffs like SPAZZ, the less noisy of ANAL CUNT and half serious old Grindcore recordings... It might have been an extreme and quite innovative demo for its time... who knows... But we're in 2005 and I don't see many points for headbanging on TOTAL MOSH.

VERMIN (Swe) Scum of the earth Demo tape'93.
VERMIN was a nice Death grind band that might have rang some underground bells at the time, but probably not much more.
Their music evolved between some kind of Death grind à la REPULSION, VIBRION, RIGHTEOUS PIGS and older Death metal meets brutal death patterns like old DEICIDE, DETERIORATE, NAPALM DEATH (Harmony), early SUFFOCATION and some quite old styled death formations.
There are melodic Swedish Death touches that bring a bit of mystery. I quite often occur to think about early BROKEN HOPE (When they were more focused on brutality and gore than technicality) for blasting or heavy reasons. In fact there are a bit of many influences, and I could have quote many names including CEMETARY (Early), ROTTING HEAD, CARNAGE (Crusty parts), VIOGRESSION, DEATH (Scream bloody gore) and many others... but what's the use of giving too much names?
The sound of my copy isn't very clear (It might be at least 6th generation), so it doesn't help to check out every riff the right way, but one thing is certain: At the time of this demo VERMIN wasn't more than a 3rd grade Death metal band. There are nice ideas and quite raw parts, but it lacked a touch of originality, overall coherence and catchy feelings from hell to turn the breathers of death into addicted beasts. I didn't listen to what VERMIN did later, but if I remember well there's at least one album... It might be the best record to tastes the blasting savior of the VERMIN.

WITCH-HUNT (Usa) Darkened salvation Demo tape 1995.
I used to read about WITCH-HUNT and decrypt their nice logo in the 1st newsletter issues of the dead and buried death metal fanzine LIQUID OF LIFE... Unfortunately I was never able to lay my hands on any of their releases...
Never, no...
But finally, more than 8 years after, as unreal as it could seem, I finally found a copy of this demo tape in a cool US distro who still carries few copies (The name: ETERNAL DARKNESS Creations).
The music is quite surprising if you ask me, coz in my darkened remembrances WITCH-HUNT was clustered as somekind of old school death metal, while the music you can hear on the tape has more melodies.
I could call it a mix between US Death metal à la MORTA SKULD/ RESSURECTION, early DEATH, with an half of melodic stuffs apparently taking from some heavy metal and what could have been the melodic death of the beginnings...(But I won't quote any name since I didn't give a fuck about mellow-dicks in death metal... And do I give a fuck now??... Ah!!).
I also happen to think about a bit of some good old BAPHOMET (The heaviness), few VIOGRESSION (Cool 1st Lp), with blasting zests à la PYREXIA (old) and some OBITUARY... But the death metallic parts aren't SO dominating, and the music is generally mid placed.
It's a shame the band didn't focus more on the extremes (Much slower or much faster than the mid-placed beats of... Pop rock? ahah), and threw so much melodies in the pot of rancid green jam, because they had some cool (Yet not original) deah metal patterns.
This remains some kind of average demo tape that could turn on those who like it both melodic and not so melodic... But it's too convenient for me, since I'm addicted to much more intense urges of death and much more dense obscurity.