Closing time.

Voices from the Grave has merged with Morbid Knocking, to be found at http://morbidknocking.blogspot.com/ - all future updates will go there, and old entries from here will soon find their way. Thanks for reading!

Black Dethe (USA) - "Mary's Blood" demo, 1988

Vocal performance can be a make or break part of a band. A bad job behind the mic can turn a great band performance into a tedious listen, and conversely, an energized and inspired vocal performance can bring a lot of excitement to an otherwise dull recording. One of the cases where this holds especially true are the California band Black Dethe.

Formed in 1985 during the beginning of the death metal explosion, its easy to see why Black Dethe got immediately lost in the shuffle. Not only was their name rather similar to an already established act Black Death (who to this day still have a substantially larger cult following), but their first demo, 1985's "Evil Prayer", was very typical of the time. The sound is very tinny, the performance is sloppy, the songwriting is unfocused and the vocals are rather standard death metal vocals with a fair amount of distortion on them. Not to say that the demo is bad by any means, but it doesn't exactly do much to distinguish itself from its peers.

Three years made all the difference in the band's sound. By their second and final demo, the band had honed in on their sound, found a slightly better recording techniques, and switched vocalists. "Mary's Blood" shows the band playing the same kind of simplistic death/thrash found on "Evil Prayer", but the vocal change makes this one an instant hit. The new vocalist, Chris Turner, sounds totally manic and possessed throughout the entire recording. Starting off with an intrusive backwards fade-in to the vocals (one of my favorite production techniques in heavy metal), Turner's vocals come in the form of rapid paced blood curdling screams that sound like they are being unleashed from the bowels of hell. This guy has a truly powerful voice that I'm sure left his throat sore for days after the recording session; they are the same kind of brutal howl that Martin Van Drunen uses, except about an octave higher in pitch.

Musically the band is no slouch either. As previously noted, the band plays a sort of simplistic yet energetic form of death metal. The band isn't going to pull any punches that the listener won't expect on here, but the sound quality is pretty good, allowing for plenty of room for all the instruments to breathe; the bass is actually prominent in the mix, which isn't something you hear too often in death metal demos, as typically when you get a bass sound it tends to drown out the rest of the music. Solos come short and furious and the drumming is very loose and at times very hardcore influenced, playing more into the energetic nature of these tunes.

As far as I know, the band didn't record anything past this demo beyond one rehearsal track entitled "Iron Cross" which is in the same vein as this demo. A shame, really, as these guys had definitely hit their mark with this recording and showed a great deal of promise. Unfortunately this stuff has not been reissued on any format that I'm aware of, which is also a shame. Make sure to track this one down, crank at full volume and be prepared for a mighty declaration of "Mary's Blood".

Dr. Shrinker (USA) - "Wedding the Grotesque" demo, 1989

When one thinks of death metal in the late 1980s, there are a few hotspots that come to mind. Florida, and Sweden are among the most popular, but several other locations had excellent scenes as well - New York, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands, France, and the list can go on. The midwest is one of the more overlooked areas in the United States when it comes to death metal. Many of these bands never really made it past demo stage, and even the most successful and influential band from the area (Chicago's Master) took more than half a decade to release a full length. Dr. Shrinker were one of the many bands from this region who maintained a sizeable cult following throughout the years, but remained largely ignored by the growing death metal scene.

Forming in 1987, the band released three official demos in their short career. The first demo, "Recognition" was a very basic, primitive, sloppy and crude recording. Good in its own right, it did not really have the personality or charm to distinguish it from more competant bands who played in a similar vein. Their final demo, "The Eponym" shows a very cleanly produced band going for a more technical death metal sound, not too far off from what Death would be doing on "Human", and unfortunately he clean production and overcomposed songs killed most of the raw energy the band had.

"Wedding the Grotesque", however, is their Goldilocks album. Not too basic, not too produced, but just right in the middle, acting as the best of both worlds. Rather long for a demo, 12 tracks in 47 minutes, "Wedding the Grotesque" is easily the band's masterpiece, and one of the best death metal recordings to come out of the 1980s. Starting off with a sample from Hellraiser 2, the band immediately kicks into high gear with their brand of death metal, which rarely lets up for the remainder of the demo. The guitar tone on here is extremely filthy and savage and lends a great deal of atmosphere to these songs, and the vocals are a unique high pitched shriek that does not sound like any other band I have heard. Combined with the unique delivery, the vocals are often coupled with over the top reverb, echo and delay effects in key points which accentuate the eccentric nature of the music. Its unfortunate that the band cleaned up their sound and went with a more 'professional' approach on their next demo, as this style of production really highlights a certain insanity that many bands were unable to capture.

The songs themselves retain a simplistic approach to their composition, and the riffs are very well placed and keep the listener engaged without getting overly repetitive. Drumming also lends to this, with some excellently timed fills and hits that greatly add to the music, something many drummers tend to avoid in favor of tedious double bass runs.

Dr. Shrinker is certainly competant at playing fast death metal, but really shines when they favor a slower demo, creating a very morbid and brooding sound. The band does display a certain sense of humor, in both the lyrics and their selection of samples (the best being one of Charlie Manson spouting off gibberish), but it does not get in the way of the overall dark feel of the music.

Necroharmonic has reissued the band's three demos on a CD called "Grotesque Wedlock", which includes lots of awesome flyers that contain some great artwork in them. The only material missing from this discgraphy CD is a rehearsal song called "Our Necropsy" that appears on a split 7" with Nunslaughter - an excellent slower track which would have fit right in on "Wedding the Grotesque". While this demo is slightly off-kilter death metal that might not sound much alike other primitive and simplistic death metal bands like Master or Massacre, its certainly an underground classic that deserves greater praise and recognition then it has received over the years.

Mondocane (Ita) - "Project One" LP, 1990

"Crossover" is one of my least favorite names for a musical genre. Starting off as what happens when punks slow their music down and start to write heavier riffs in the style of contemporary thrash metal bands, the first crossover bands (D.R.I., S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies, etc) bridged the gap between two hostile audiences that were playing styles of music more similar to each other than either side of the fence would probably care to admit. D.R.I. and Suicidal both started off as a fast hardcore bands and S.O.D. contained both members of the NYHC and New York metal community.

Crossover itself is useful for describing what these bands did for music rather than the actual music itself. If "Speak English or Die" were recorded by four guys with shaved heads and Agnostic Front tattoos, it would most likely be seen as an ultraheavy NYHC album as opposed to the penultimate crossover record. Instead the lineup consists of three guys with long hair who played in Anthrax. Since almost all metal bands since the NWOBHM movement (and many during said movement) were musically influenced by punk in some way or another, crossover as a term to describe a band's music quickly loses its meaning and instead becomes more of a descriptor of a cultural movement. Bands like Hellhammer, Slaughter, Repulsion, Slayer, Kreator, Sarcofago and Metallica all had a great deal of punk influence in their sound, aesthetic and attitude, but it would not make sense to call any crossover. Conversely, hardcore bands such as Sheer Terror, Breakdown, Deathside, and Tetsu Arrey had a heavier aesthetic, but it would also be erroneous to label them as anything other than firmly rooted in the hardcore scene.

Such is the case of Mondocane. Formed as a supergroup between two of Italy's best black/thrash bands, Necrodeath and Schizo (both logos are prominently featured on the album's cover), and named after some of Italy's most outrageous exploitation films, "Project One" is a manic thrash metal album which is constantly labelled as crossover for reasons which I am still rather unclear on. While Italy had a rather vibrant and large hardcore scene during the 1980s, "Project One" musically has nothing in common with what bands like C.C.M., Raw Power or Negazione were doing, nor were Schizo or Necrodeath in any related to the hardcore scene. If anything, Schizo's song "Nazi and Proud" featured on both of their first two demos would have alienated themselves from the Italian punks.

Both Necrodeath and Schizo started off releasing sloppy and nasty demos that are classics in the mid 80s black metal scene. By the time they were releasing full length albums they had tightened and cleaned up their sound, and instead sounded more like the heavy thrash which was typical of their German allies. Mondocane's sound isn't really that far off from a blend between both band's late 80s output; the vocals are delivered in the exact same fashion as "Main Frame Collapse", and many of the riffs would not be out of place on either album. The song structures alternate between hyperspeed, almost death metal in tone riffs and slower mosh oriented riffs typical of late 80s thrash bands. What separates this recording from the glut of bands doing similar things is the rather chaotic approach to composition; riffs are totally across the board and jump into one another without any sort of warning or attempt at clean flow. In the hands of lesser talented bands, this can come across as a mismatch or a bad cut and paste job, but here works in the bands favor in creating a breakneck and pummeling assault on the listener that never gets boring. The core of the band consists of three members, but all seven guys from both Necrodeath and Schizo eventually end up playing on the album in some form or another, which adds to the dynamic nature of these songs.

In comparison to both Necrodeath's and Schizo's late 80s albums, "Project One" has a rather slick and clean production job; the drums in particular sound extremely clean. Fortunately the band delivers an extremely energetic performance, and the more produced sound does not take away any of the aggressive elements of the Mondocane's music. The song titles would indicate a brand certain "wacky" thrash like Wehrmacht or Spazztic Blur, but fortunately the album is completely free of jokey musical passages. It is probably these song titles as well as the Exploited cover of "Fuck the U.S.A." (here changed to "Fuck the U.S.L." - about soccer?) which would lend to the miscategorization of this as crossover. While the Exploited cover is by far the most minimalistic song on the album, it still has a very metal feel to it, and fits in with the rest of the album quite nicely.

As far as I know, this has only been released on vinyl and has yet to be reissued by anyone, which is unfortunate as it would appeal to anyone into the heavier thrash bands in the 80s. Fans of Necrodeath or Schizo should especially take note, as this really does not deviate too far from what either band was doing, and it is clear from this recording that those guys had a lot of fun making some great heavy music together. Just don't expect this to sound like "Speak English or Die".

Carnage (Swe) - "The Day Man Lost" demo, 1989

"Reek of Putrefaction" is simply one of the greatest albums ever released. A lot of people hate it for all the right reasons - it's absolutely filthy, the vocals are disgusting, downtuned and murky, the guitars have a huge, muddy cavernous tone, the entire thing sounds like a blur upon first listen, theres tons of guitar squealing leads that are about three times as loud as the rest of the music, the lyrics (when they can be deciphered) are absolutely disgusting, and of course the playing is super sloppy, bearing none of the finesse that the later Carcass albums would have. "Reek" is the true litmus test to whether or not I can fully trust someone's musical tastes or not. If you want to listen to overproduced, slick and clean music, why bother with death metal or grindcore in the first place? Shouldn't a fan of this kind of music want the most disgusting and filthy sounds to come out of their speakers every time? Personally, I think so.

Figuring out how to top such a landmark recording is a pretty challenging task. Carnage clearly spent a lot of time trying to wrap their head around such an impossible seeming task, so they went probably the easiest route; releasing a demo tape that sounds exactly like it. Clone bands can be a tricky issue to review. Many times bands going for another band's specific sound can get all the aesthetic details right, which Carnage certainly does here. The thick, muddy guitar tone, the absurdly low pitch shifted vocals, the shrill divebomb guitar leads that are so much louder than the rest of the music, the sloppy blasting, its all found here. However, what most clone type bands neglect to incorporate into their music is the spirit of the original. Theres really no point in listening to a band that captures the musical stylings of the original, but fails to capture the manic intensity and attitude. For this reason bands like Cretin have no interest to me. If I wanted to listen to Repulsion, I would. If I wanted to listen to Transilvanian Hunger, I would, not some random USBM band that released their first demo in 2004.

Carnage however, does not fall into this trap here. They seem to know exactly what Carcass were going for, but more importantly how and why they went there, and as a result almost manage to outdo the masters at their own game. The guitar sound on here is absolutely massive, much heavier and downtuned than "Reek", which adds a lot to the recording. The only remotely negative thing I have to say about the demo is its length. The whole thing clocks in at about four and a half minutes, which leaves the listener wanting a lot more. The band never lets up the intensity for these four and a half minutes, and while it may have been interesting to see what the band could have done on 7" or even an LP in this style, it might be for the best that the band decided to keep it short; the recording never gets boring or redundant, which is often the worst crime a musician can commit.

The band would change directions drastically after this, moving towards the style of death metal made popular by Nihilist. The second demo, "Infestation of Evil" and the "Dark Recollections" full length are both quite excellent recordings in their own right (the latter of which even absorbs and recontextualizes two songs from "The Day Man Lost" demo), but neither can even begin to approach the extreme and filthy sounds on here. The cover art, a crudely done cut, paste and xerox job of a basic dripping logo on top of a nuclear explosion matches the music quite nicely, and despite the fact that these songs are easily available on the "Dark Recollections" CD as bonus tracks, would look even nicer in 7" format.

"The Day Man Lost" is one of the rare recordings which are far more than the sum of its parts. Going beyond basic Carcass cloning and almost surpassing the original, this is easily in the top tier of grindcore recordings, and has a tendency to get overlooked in the wake of their more popular LP.

Pentagram (Chl) - 1987 demo

Like many other bands that tend to fall under the radar, going with a rather generic name like "Pentagram" can cause confusion amongst other, more popular bands bearing the same moniker. In the case of these Chilean maniacs, they had to compete with a long running and influential American doom band , as well as a groups composed of Mexicans, Turks, and Swedes. The American Pentagram were one of the first bands to play heavy metal (in the US or anywhere else in the world), and as good as they are, for my money this Chilean group represents the best band to use the Pentagram name, and this demo, their first officially released recording is arguably their best output.

Slightly different than some of the other contemporary South American bands, this three song demo is very composed, focused and tight in its execution. Instead of opting for a schizophrenic wall of noise, off time drums and maniac vocals, Pentagram's brand of sonic assault is a more controlled approach, falling somewhere between what Slayer was doing on "Hell Awaits" and a more musically competent "Morbid Visions". This demo captures the darker atmosphere of those two recordings very well, and while it doesn't push any boundaries in the way of speed or extremity, has an excellent sense of songwriting that is effectively able to carry across a very dark and sinister feeling.

Most of the music on here is mid-tempo and almost plodding at points. The faster moments never really take off, and the band is at their strongest when they are working at a slightly slower speed. Guitar tone is somewhat on the treble end of the spectrum, but this can be expected from a low budget demo. It works quite well with the recording, and is mixed at a sufficient volume which allows for the drums and the bass to be fully audible. The vocals on the other hand, completely dominate the recording, and while they do not drown out any of the other instruments, they are certainly the prominent layer in the band's sound. Instead of a rasp or a growl, the vocals are delivered in a very harsh shout; these are some of the most intense and angriest vocals I've ever heard. All the lyrics are intelligible, and while they deal with basic occult/satanic stuff, the extremely confident and strong vocal delivery conveys a much stronger sense of sincerity, especially the lines written in command form (a majority of the first track, "Fatal Predictions").

This demo is an absolute masterpiece. The band would release a second demo shortly after, which is in the same vein and maintains the same level of quality as this one, but perhaps due to familiarity, I slightly prefer this recording. This recording has been reissued numerous times, first on 7" (the cover of which is pictured above, omits the final track), and at least two discography CDs have been released. "Demoniac Possession" has been covered numerous times, one of the best being by Torturer on their 1992 LP "Oppressed by the Force".

The South American scene has produced a great deal of stellar recordings, but in my book this one lies at the top. While the most competent of Pentagram's peers such as Sarcofago and Vulcano approach the dark atmosphere and intensity of this recording, they ultimately do not surpass it. This sort of stuff is truly nasty sounding music, and even though its a bit tighter and composed than what most of South America was doing at the time, its not exactly the kind of stuff which will appeal to the Century Media types. An absolutely standout recording, this one is mandatory listening for anyone into raw death metal.

Morsüre (Fra) - "Acceleration Process" LP, 1985

One of the more interesting things I find in the realm of heavy metal are bands that are actively trying to push the envelope. This shouldn't be confused with some of the "experimental" bands today which have 9 members, female vocals, and flute solos, but bands that legitimately have a concrete idea of what the core elements of heavy metal are and tried to push their music to that other level of the game. As evidenced by many of these reviews currently on this blog, its not that I don't appreciate bands that play in a tried and true style, but every now and then its refreshing to hear someone that is trying something different. Voivod were one of the earliest oddball thrash bands who had released two outstanding albums ("War and Pain" and "Rrroooaaarrr") in the mid 80s that perfectly captured the destructive ideals of thrash and the blossoming death metal scene, but also managed to integrate a far more dissonant approach to their songwriting. Not too many bands were influenced by Voivod's sound, and even today few bands approach music from a similar dissonant angle, however, there are two notable exceptions; the midwestern hardcore band Die Kruezen and Morsüre from France.

Much like in the case of Die Kruezen, whether Morsüre was directly influenced by Voivod's music or were just happening to be doing similar things at the same time is difficult to determine. Morsüre's first demo, "M.A.D." (standing of course for Mutually Assured Destruction - I'm a big fan of cold war imagery and paranoia in heavy metal and punk) came in 1984, the same year that Voivod's first album was released. By this time Morsüre had already developed their sound; dissonant guitar playing, almost "anti-riffs", at very high speeds, but don't have a driving rhythm typical of the thrash bands at the time. This wasn't party thrash music, but instead a very intense and cacophonous blast of noise at this listener. In short, much like Voivod's "Rrroooaaarrr".

In 1985, the band released "Acceleration Process", which reprised all of the songs from the demo and included six others. The playing and tone is very similar on the LP as it is on the demo with one very noticable exception; the use of an electronic drum kit. The band stated that they wanted to play the fastest, most extreme music on the planet, and that when the drummer played on a standard drum kit, the sound recording was not good enough to effectively capture how fast the drummer was actually playing. Instead of going for a muddy and blurry wall of noise, the band figured that if the drummer played an electronic kit, the recorded sound would be much clearer for the drum hits. In addition to this, the drumming was apparently sped up in the studio to further add to the intensity.

Its really difficult to say whether or not this approach worked or not. The drumming is extremely fast, and while the drums are sped up slightly, the drummer does do some notable work on the kit. However, the electronic drum sounds very out of place for this kind of music and is very high in the mix. It took me a while to get over this hurdle, but I personally feel the juxtaposition adds to the already chaotic nature of the music, just pushing it over the top a little more. The rest of the playing on this album is very tight to accompany the drums, but composed in such a fashion that it doesn't particularly move in a way that would appeal to the average speed/thrash fan. Instead the album acts as a wall of noise; chaotic in the sense that the guitars and drums are moving very fast, and combined with the hoarse thick French accent of the singer (another way this band bears similarities to Voivod), this is a great album to listen on headphones to just to try to take all of it in. One of my friends remarked that it sounded similar to Revenge in this element, and I agree. While the playing on the album is tight, it isn't to the level of cleaned up, polished and overproduced degree that technical death metal bands from the late 90s were, and despite the band's attempts to produce a less muddy and cleaner drum sound, the album still feels like an impenetrable wall of random notes assaulting the listener from all angles.

Naturally an album of this nature won't appeal to everyone. Even Voivod, one of the most original and outstanding bands in heavy metal have a large amount of detractors. While this album really sounds like few albums I've heard, "Rrroooaaarrr" would be the closest point of comparison. Fortunately there was enough cult interest in the band to garner a CD reissue of "Acceleration Process" and the "M.A.D." demo by Hell's Headbangers, which should still be rather easy to find. Listeners wanting a similar dissonant and overwhelming musical experience to early Voivod will probably appreciate this, but those looking for a standard straight forward death/thrash recording may be disappointed. This isn't one of those albums that will click right away, but instead requires multiple listens to fully understand what is going on; appreciating this can be a process, but is ultimately a very rewarding album.

Funebre (Fin) - "Cranial Torment" demo, 1989

While the Swedish death metal scene may have been more prominent in the eyes of metal's more mainstream media, Finland had an equally strong scene in the late 80s and early 90s. Bands from Finland tended to be more obscure and occult sounding in their approach, often opting for more slower, doomier parts than their Swedish counterparts. This type of music is getting more and more recognition these days through bands like Funebrarum who continue to carry the torch for this rather underapprciated style. Interestingly enough, Norway, in rather close proximity with both countries, did not have a particularly strong death metal scene during this time; many of the death metal bands that were active in the late 1980s, most of which only released demos or the odd 7" here and there, jumped ship to black metal when the 1990s rolled around.

Funebre's first demo, "Cranial Torment" is an example of the heaviest music this country could produce. The death metal scene in Finland was just beginning to take shape in 1989. A handful of bands released demos in 1988 (including the classic Repulse "On a Car Trip in Sweden"), and by 1989, many bands were playing in the slower, drudging style that Finland would become known for. The sound on this demo is extremely bass-heavy and loud. Its one of the heaviest recordings I've heard, both in terms of the slower speeds and the massive guitar tone. While it still has a bit of a raw and unpolished edge, the amount of bass will guarantee to make anything around the speakers shake when turned up to an appropriate volume.

The songs on here tend to be somewhat long, averaging around five or so minutes in length over five tracks. Compositionally this music tends to be rather simple, utilizing a large amount of crushing mid-tempo riffs which server to emphasize the pummeling faster paced sections. The solos are shrill and the vocals are gutteral and low pitched, exactly the complimentary elements that this type of music needs.

Two songs from this demo would be later reissued on 7", and the band would do two more recordings: a demo in 1990 (an excellent recording that isn't quite as heavy as this one), and a full length "Children of the Scorn" (which to this day I still find rather lackluster). "Cranial Torment" remains their best recording, and while not as out there as other Finnish masterpieces such as Demilich, it serves as an excellent example of the strange, heavy and brooding brand of death metal that Finland excelled in, and certainly deserves to be included in the same sentence as the rest of the Finnish classics; any fan of ultra-heavy death metal would be doing themselves a great disservice by not checking this out.

Afflicted Convulsion (Swe) - "Beyond Redemption" demo, 1990

Sweden had one of the most prominent and best death metal scenes in the late 80s and early 90s. While a little slow to start off, it seems that after Nihilist released their seminal demos in 1988 and 1989, literally dozens of bands popped up all across the country in the next couple years. The sheer amount of bands trying to recapture the Nihilist/Entombed sound certainly put some people off; when I started getting into this kind of music in the mid 1990s, the black metal backlash was still in full swing. Many reviews from this time referred to albums like Darkthrone's "Soulside Journey" as being trendy garbage, death metal as life affirming hippie music, and black metal as being an true uncompromising anti-trend music. Its interesting how this mentality in itself forms a trend, evidenced by the extremely fast stagnation of the black metal genre in the late 90s, going from what was a very vibrant and promising scene with landmark releases across the globe to a large parody of itself in less than half a decade's time.

Coming back to Sweden, while a mass amount of death metal bands formed there in the late 80s, not all of them went for the Entombed buzzsaw guitar and riff heavy approach. Afflicted Convulsion in particular played a form of very heavy and detuned death metal that in approach almost bears similarities to contemporary grindcore works; their second demo was called "Psychadelic Grindcore", and while this rather tongue-in-cheek title hints at the bands sense of humor (possibilty in addition to the cool three dimensional "Afflicted" in the logo juxtaposed on top of the more death metal font "Convulsion"), it at least gives a good glimpse into where they band was coming from at this point in time.

The "Beyond Redemption" demo, their third, reprises most of the tracks from the "Psychadelic Grindcore" demo and while it doesn't have any jamming or pointless meandering like the "psychadelic" aspect would imply, what it does have is a cavernous wall of sound production that is intensely heavy. This type of music bears a strong similarity to what Grave or Carnage were doing at the time, and considering the classic status of the early works of these two, this is certainly not a bad thing. The music tends to be rather fast-paced, occasionally breaking into more mid-tempo sections, vocals are low-pitched growls that are rather flat and basic, but enough to do the job. The song titles in particular are rather strange, particular "Utilization", which hint at an odd sense of humor on the band's part which tended to be prevalent in these acts.

This demo is a nearly flawless piece of heavy Swedish death metal, favoring a massive steamroller approach rather than a more visceral and raw attack on the listener. After this demo the band would drop the word "Convulsion" from their band name and released a couple of albums under the name of "Afflicted". These albums I found to be a huge disappointment, especially compared to how awesome this demo is. Over time I grew to appreciate their first LP, "Prodigal Sun" a little more on its own terms, but the "Beyond Redemption" demo simply remains one of the best recordings to come out of the early Swedish death metal scene, and easily blows away anything the band has done since.

Siekiera (Pol) - 1984 demo

The Soviet Bloc produced quite an interesting amount of music during the 1980s. Before Glastnost in the late 1980s, punk, and to a somewhat lesser degree, metal, was very much an underground phenomenon. As bands had to have their material approved by the government censors who controlled the state run record industries, a majority of the more fringe bands who professed extreme views had little chance of releasing anything on vinyl in their own country. A direct result of this was the prevalent use of cassette as the medium of choice for releases. Tapes could be made and duplicated quickly and cheaply by the band members without having to worry about government intervention. Despite this fact, the government would often crack down on punk bands, resulting in many cancelled gigs and band members being detained.

Poland is the country in the Soviet Bloc which probably had the largest scenes in punk and metal. Being second only to the USSR in terms of population and size, its clear to see why so many great bands came from here. By the late 80s the country had enormous metal and punk scenes which could easily hold their own with the rest of the world. Siekiera were one of the first bands to play hardcore in Poland. Their sound, like their name (meaning "Axe") , was an extremely primitive form of stripped down hardcore, harsh, raw and uncompromising.

The demo they recorded in 1984 remains their masterpiece. Even the production is extremely primitive and low-fi; in the right channel you have guitars and drums and in the left channel you have bass and vocals. The whole atmosphere of this recording is completely dead and lifeless. This isn't a fun recording by any stretch of the imagination, just very stark, bleak and cold sounding music. While it has nothing musically in common with albums like Godflesh's "Streetcleaner", Ildjarn's "Forest Poetry" or Swans' "Cop", this demo manages to evoke similar brooding imagery. Structurally this is almost as basic as its production, simplistic hardcore songs using little more than two or three riffs per song, often mid-tempo and plodding. Much like early Amebix, the drumming has a tendency to be rhythmically angular, giving the music an almost post-punk feel at times. Vocals are very hoarse, gruff and low-pitched shouts in Polish; the Slavic language group is far more harsh sounding than English and the Polish language suits this type of music perfectly. It seems the band has channeled the agony of Poland being partitioned by Russia over centuries, being devastated during two World Wars and then having been dragged into being a satellite state of the Soviet Union into fifteen hardcore songs.

After this recording the band would contribute two tracks to the Fala compilation LP (the title track of which has a beeping out of some lyrics by the censors). Strangely enough, the band decided to completely switch musical directions in 1985 with the "Jest Bezpiecznie" 7" and the 1986 follow up "Nowa Aleksandria" LP, which have more in common with Ministry's "Twitch" and Sisters of Mercy's "Floodland" than the early hardcore recordings. This stuff is good in its own right, but the demo remains the bleakest hardcore recording I've heard, and easily my favorite hardcore to come out of Eastern Europe.

Reencarnación (Col) - "888" LP, 1988

In case any fans of raw death metal were wondering, becoming a librarian requires going to graduate school in which you enroll in many courses that teach you useless theory that has very little to do with the practice of librarianship. One of the first courses that I took, "Human Information Behavior", a group of people in my class did a presentation on the information needs of "outsiders" vs "insiders". For about 45 minutes these individuals talked about the theoretical ins and outs of exactly what an "outsider" is - this term for this purpose was defined as someone who is a part of a 'scene' (for lack of better word) tangentially on the outside and do not have easy access to the same kind of information the members of that 'scene' have. While this definition is rather vague and a little convoluted, it becomes a little easier to see what exactly this is meant when one looks at outsider art or, in particular, outsider music. Outsider art, which outsider music is naturally a subsection of, is any art created by an artist who generally is unaware of any trends and thus any kind of outside influence in their music, whether by choice or not. This generally leads to very strange works, often produced by mentally ill people such as Henry Darger or Wesley Willis.

Its difficult to place exactly where the Colombian metal scene fits into all this. In particular, bands like Parabellum and Reencarnación played a type of music which not only does not resemble anything else coming out of South America, but really nothing that I've heard before. The line between insanity and genius is often fine, and its hard to tell retroactively on what side either band fell on. Trying to label this as a brilliant piece of outsider art, a breathtaking and conceptually complex piece of high art, or just a bunch of talentless kids trying and failing miserably to emulate their Motorhead LPs is a futile attempt, and this sort of music can only be judged on its own terms.

A lot of outsider music due to its strange and often quite literally retarded sounds can produce a great deal of unintentionally hilarious songs. This was my first reaction to hearing "888". I had never heard music this insane before and burst out laughing when the band kicked into high speed in the opening title track. Its hard to describe exactly what this band sounds like. Structurally they play a rather limited range of riffs, generally only 3 - 4 per song at most, almost no soloing, and vocals are delivered in a gruff yet intelligible fashion. However the riffs themselves don't really sound like much of any type of discernable riffs. They have much more in common to the harsh noise anti-music stylings of early Beherit than anything else that was present in the metal scene at the time. The guitars sound horribly out of tune and the guitarist sounds like he is just running his fingers up and down the frets in a seemingly random pattern that is repeated in a riff form. The bass is largely unconcerned with what the guitar player is doing and is playing something else, the drummer is barely keeping the whole show together with a series of sloppy rhythms that would make early Sodom proud, and the Spanish language vocals are spit out at such a rapid pace that initially it sounds like the singer is having some kind of anxiety attack.

Its difficult to pin down any sort of influence in this music. South America, especially Brazil, had a very strong metal scene known for its raw death metal, but as harsh as those bands were, at least they had some semblance of song structure, riffing, and were clearly influenced by the heavier speed/thrash metal bands of the time. Brazil also had a rather large hardcore scene in the early 80s, but Reencarnación sounds like neither. Instead this sounds like a mismatch of sounds randomly pasted together. The whole recording feels very musically "wrong". If there was some kind of handbook that instructed you how to write a proper heavy metal song (ala the KLF), it seems that Reencarnación studied the handbook very carefully and decided to do the exact opposide. The band employs a few noise tracks, out of tune violins, and some truly mindblowing break down parts that sound like nothing a sane human being would write. To further add to the mystery, their countrymen Parabellum, who were producing equally insane and strange music, sounded nothing like this either.

I realize everything I've written so far sounds like it could easily be a negative review, but its not. I absolutely love this band, and this album is easily the best thing they've done. "888" is such a frantic and crazy recording, after the initial shock wore off, the recording clicked very heavily with me and certainly is amongst the best metal albums to come out of South America. Its difficult to call this death metal or black metal, but probably would not be incorrect to say that it falls in some nebulous hole in between the two.

This band has built up such a cult following that "888" has been reissued several times on both CD and vinyl, with the following EP "Acompáñame A La Tumba", another fantastic recording that is slightly thicker sounding and has some of the best cover art to grace any heavy metal 7". For the uninitiated, expecting a rather standard South American black metal recording like "I.N.R.I." or "Bestial Devastation" might be disappointed, but those open to more esoteric forms of death metal should love this. I really can't recommend this recording enough, this is one of those rare gems that encompasses the true essence of what makes being a fan of this kind of music worthwhile.

Armoured Angel (Aus) - "Communion" demo, 1990

The Australian metal scene, especially in the mid-late 80s was a rather small but strong group of bands. The death and thrash metal scenes started rather early with excellent bands like Slaughter Lord and Sadistik Exekeution cutting a few influential demos in 1986 and 1987. Armoured Angel, while predating both bands, started off as a fairly straight forward speed metal band. Their first cult demo, "Baptized in Blood" came in 1985, and for the rest of the decade the band was largely silent. In the four year span between "Baptized in Blood", and their second demo, "Wings of Death", the band changed some members and took on a more death metal approach. Though a far cry from the insanity that bands like Martire and Sadistik Exekution were doing around the time, "Wings of Death" was a very raw and nasty piece of death metal that would have fit in nicely with the American first wave.

"Communion", the bands third demo, is very much in the same style as "Wings of Death". Rather basically structured death metal, but with a huge emphasis on the riffing. These songs are extremely well written and catchy, and have a similar, almost rockish, approach to riffing style that bears some similarities to albums like Slaughter's "Strappado" or Celtic Frost's "Morbid Tales". These riffs are eccentuated by simplistic, yet well timed percussion. The drummer knows which objects to hit at the right times and in particular does some excellent cymbal work which greatly livens the pace of the demo. In the time between this recording and "Wings of Death" the band had musically tightened up a lot; even though the two recordings aren't very dissimilar in terms of style and approach, "Communion" is a much more focused and tighter assault and for this style of music works much better than "Wings of Death". Vocals are delivered in a manner that isn't exactly a harsh death metal growl, but neither is cleanly sung, instead falling somewhere in between. I get the feeling if Lemmy were more into death metal and had a thick Australian accent, he might sound somewhat like this.

The band's sound would tighten up even more for the following releases, and while aesthetically they became much heavier, they lost some of the energy present on this recording. While "Communion" is a lot tighter than "Wings of Death", it still retains somewhat of a feeling of musical looseness and youthful energy. Not to say that the later material is bad, far from it in fact, but this remains my favorite recording by them and one of the best recordings to come out of Australia.

Due to the nice balance of a somewhat rawer sound and more focused musicianship, this should appeal to both fans of raw death metal and the more polished bands that were becoming popular at the time. The flow and composition is excellent, and when I first heard this recording, the four songs on here couldn't leave my head for days, thick Australian accent and all. From what I can understand, there is some conflict between the members of the band that played on the "Wings of Death" and "Communion" demos and the two following EPs, so it is unlikely that this material will ever see a legitimate reissue on CD or vinyl, which is disappointing considering how good it is. Highly recommended.

Rottrevore (USA) - "Copulation Of The Virtuous And Vicious" 7", 1991

Its hard to imagine nowadays that Relapse Records was once a good label. Releasing a string of excellent death metal and grindcore 7"s in the early 90s, Relapse proved to be one of the best labels for extreme metal along with Century Media, Nuclear Blast and Earache. In the first 20 Relapse releases, the band released material by Incantation, Monstrosity, Repulsion, Destroy, Deceased and Amorphis. Compared with only ten years down the road, it seems almost unfathomable that a label would decline so far. Their roster now is a joke and shows that the label prioritizes trend hopping and maximizing their profits in what is supposed to be an underground scene devoted to playing honest music that is anything but trendy. The fellow aforementioned record labels also went the same route, and proved that not even death metal is exempt from the presence of business in the music "industry".

With that slight aside, Rottrevore's "Copulation Of The Virtuous And Vicious" was one of Relapses' first releases, clocking in at #10. Reprising one track off of the classic "The Epitome of Pantaglia" demo, this 7" is four monstrous tracks of extremely heavy death metal. The second wave of death metal is marked by lots of downtuning; low, gutteral vocals, extremely heavy and cavernous guitar sounds, and this 7" is no exception. The sound here is absolutely massive, visceral and absolutely flooring, and the band goes back and forth between faster, almost grindcore speeds, and slow dirging riffs, almost reminiscent of the first Incantation album. This isn't quite the "riff-salad" type of death metal which would become popular a few years later, but is far more complex than the basic straight forward three chord/three riff songs that characterized the first wave of death metal. The result is an unrelenting, pummelling recording which can easily hold its own with the rest of the Relapse catalog at the time - certainly not an easy feat.

After this 7", Rottrevore released another excellent 7", "Fornication in Delirum", and a full length, "Iniquitous", which reprised many of the tracks from the 7"s and the demo. While I personally would give the edge slightly to the non-LP material, all of the Rottrevore material is outstanding and deserves to be tracked down. The non-LP material has been reissued several times; the Relapse 7" appears on the Relapse Singles Series, volume 3 CD, a rather poor sounding bootleg which contains the 7"s, the demo and some live tracks (my introduction to the band), and the best option - Necroharmonic's reissue "Disembodied" which contains the 7"s, the demo, and two compilation tracks from the "Son of Bllleeeeaaauuuurrrrgghhh!" 7" and "Pantalgia" LP. The original 7" on Relapse fetches about $10 - 15, and can still be easily found.

Shortly after this recording, Relapse, Nuclear Blast, Century Media and Earache all went down the drain. The ultra-heavy style of death metal eventually became a parody of itself when bands started turning into Suffocation clones, lbut for the first few years of the 1990s the style yielded some truly excellent recordings and bands, Rottrevore being one of the best.

Necromancy (USA) - "Cremation" demo, 1986

By 1986, the United States death metal scene had started to take a definite shape. In the two years after Possessed's landmark "Death Metal" demo, over 100 death metal recordings had come from the United States alone. While this volume is relatively high, the style was still firmly cemented in the underground; many of these early death metal bands had only released demos, a handful released 7"s and only a select few released LPs. Thrash was barely catching the attention of mainstream metal media, and the death metal bands were making waves only in the eyes of tape traders and fanzines run by people that had the "right" idea of this kind of music. With all these factors considered, its not that difficult to see how some bands would get lost in the shuffle, especially a band like Necromancy who was only active during the period of one year.

Also known as Necromansy, "Cremation" is their second demo and shows a vast improvement over their first output. While their first demo, also from 1986, was fairly decent, it suffered from slightly poor production, unfocused playing, and weak vocals. In many cases I don't mind a rawer production and loose playing, but the band's performance on this demo was more indicative of a young band trying to find their sound as opposed to a group of maniacs channeling wild and untamed raw energy.

Containing three songs, "Cremation" reprises one song from the first demo ("Submit to Torture", arguably their best song), as well as two others. Musically this straddles the line between first wave death metal and the heavier thrash at the time. Like many of the other death metal demos from this period, it doesn't have a clear edge which firmly pushes it into one genre or the other, but instead encompasses both at the same time. This isn't particularly complex music, but contains rather smart songwriting; the band has a good sense of flow and doesn't rely on repeating riffs for longer than they are welcome. Vocals are somewhat atypical for the music of the time, as they come in the form of hoarse shouts as opposed to growling or a raspy snarl. The production is clean and heavy and compliments the vocals quite well; fans of heavier thrash bands like Demolition Hammer or Prime Evil would probably find a lot of similarities here.

The only real problem with this demo is its length. The three songs on here are excellent yet short, and merely whet the listener's appetite. Necromancy show an enormous amount of potential on this recording and its a shame that they didn't get a chance to record more material. As it stands, this is a great yet brief document of American death/thrash. The delivery and atmosphere of the music isn't nearly as dark or evil as some of their contemporaries, but anyone looking for catchy and heavy music will not be disappointed with the three tracks contained within this demo.

Silent Death (Mys) - "Before the Sunrise" CS, 1993

Malaysia had a rather interesting death metal scene in the early 1990s. Much like their neighbors Singapore, Malaysia had a rather oppressive government which is notorious for its harsh penalties for minor offenses. With that said, its rather odd how the metal scene evolved in Malaysia; the early to mid-1980s saw a fair amount of activity in the form of hard rock/traditional heavy metal, and by the late 80s the underground scene skipped over the evolutionary thrash step and went straight to playing extremely raw black and death metal. Aside from the obvious influences of the bands playing in this style in the area (Singapore, Japan), the Malaysian bands took influences from whatever records they could get their hands on. In an interview with Silent Death from the early 1990s, the band cites a list of their favorite albums, which were rather ecclectic to say the least; I don't think I've ever met anyone who would admit to liking Destruction's "Cracked Brain", nevermind calling it one of their favorite albums or biggest influences. Malaysia is one of those countries who are notorious for record scammers, both inside the post office and out, as a result a much smaller fraction of metal records hit Malaysian shores than the ones which could easily be found in America or Europe. This interview, reprinted in the reissue of the demo and singles compilation "Harbinger of Devastation", goes on to namecheck essentially the entire Southeast Asian death metal scene, which shows an unsurprisingly strong knit underground community in an area of the world where this sort of music was most likely very frowned upon by the authorities.

The Malaysian scene by the early 90s had developed rather quickly beyond its primitive beginnings. A number of foundational bands were releasing very raw, simple and sloppy demos in 1990, but bands like Silent Death, Brain Dead and Suffercation (formerly Suffocation, name changed to avoid confusion with the New York band), were playing in a more complex and refined style of death metal as opposed to some of their peers like Rator or Mutilation who were more concerned with playing as noisily as possible. Following a rather awkward (and much more black metal in tone) first demo, Silent Death's first full length album "Beyond the Sunrise" shows a very well composed and mature sounding recording.

"Beyond the Sunrise" is generally a mid paced album with a very thick production; guitars are super heavy, bass is fairly flat and the vocals are a rather lifeless low pitched growl. The songs themselves have an excellent sense of melody, which produces a similar kind of occult feel that other Malaysian bands such as Langsuyr and Sil Khannaz would play later. This type of melody isn't very dissimilar to the slower style of black metal being played in Europe at the time (Varathron, Samael). While this release is clearly a death metal album, it certainly invokes a similar murky feeling to these bands; the cover depicting a sort of reptillian/skeletal creature emerging from a swampy depth suits this kind of music perfectly. The songwriting is excellent and always keeps the listener engaged with a series of dark riffs that flow very well together. One of the only weak points of the album are the vocals, which are delivered in a rather bland, monotonous low-pitched growl and sounds rather generic for a death metal album in 1993. A stronger vocal performance could have improved the album, but at the same time the vocals don't stick out negatively to do anything to hurt the album either.

As far as I know, this album was only released on tape format and not CD or vinyl; this seems to be a trend with some of the bands in this region due to either budgetary restrictions or ease of duplication. Fortunately, the Psychic Scream Entertainment label reissued the album on cassette in 2004 so it should still be fairly easy to find, but it would be nice if a label did a proper reissue of this on vinyl. While this may not be an all-time classic, its still a very good death metal album that can easily hold its own with some of the best records to come out of Europe or America. Being from a rather obscure and difficult location to reach most likely diminished the popularity of the Southeast Asian scene in the light of more prominent scenes like Sweden or Florida, but the music contained between the two reels is what matters in the end, and it would be nice to see this scene getting the same kind of reverence that their first world contemporaries have.

S.O.D. (Swe) - "Sounds of Disaster" 7", 1985

Discharge was one of the most influential and best hardcore bands, inspiring an entire genre based on one drum beat that is still quite popular today. Listening to the early records before they poofed their hair out, its quite easy to see why their influence was immediately felt within the punk scene. Bleak, hopeless and noisy songs that dealt with the abstraction of violence, nuclear war and government corruption struck a certain chord amongst disillusioned people in the height of 80s cold war paranoia. Discharge's influence was felt not only inside the English borders, but worldwide as well. Sweden in particular had a large number of bands that were played a similar style of punk rock.

S.O.D. had tracks on the compilations "Really Fast, vol. 2", "1984 the Second", and "24 Love Songs", but their only vinyl release where they were the sole band was in the form of this epynomous 7". A classic from start to finish, these six songs are noisy, dark, simple, and sloppy, in short, everything that makes hardcore from this time period great. Much like Anti-Cimex's two classic 7"s "Raped Ass" and "Victims of a Bombraid", this is very abrasive music with very little polishing or finesse. The drummer tends to fall behind the rest of the music in various places; as the music is played at a reletively fast pace, this tends to give the recording a slight plodding feel, adding to the already oppressive atmosphere of the music.

Like many of their Swedish contemporaries, S.O.D.'s lyrics were largely sung in Swedish. However, judging by the manner in which the vocals are delivered, it would appear that the lyrics are as minimalistic as the music is. The vocals are extremely hoarse, completely devoid of any melody, and shouted to accentuate the beginning of each musical phrasing, often in the form of three or four words per line.

Tracking down the original 7" can be rather pricy, but fortunately there is a rather good looking and sounding bootleg floating around which can be acquired without incurring any serious debts. The band's second 7" from 1990, "Speak Swedish or Die" (a rather obvious jab at the more famous S.O.D. from New York) and their compilation appearances are certainly worth listening to as well.

This kind of music will not only appeal to hardcore fans (in fact, I'd be surprised if there are many people who are into Swedish hardcore that do not know this 7" already), but fans of the lo-fi fuzzed out black metal from the late 90s might enjoy this as well. While S.O.D. and their ilk came from a completely different musical scene, and often times, a completely different side of the political spectrum, the end result is often similar in tone; very bleak and dissonant destructive music.

Poison (Ger) - "Into The Abyss" demo, 1987

Germany arguably did more than any other European country in the 1980s to push the boundaries of extreme music. Sodom's first demos in 1982 were an astoundingly raw and primitive form of musical bashing of which the like was unheard of in heavy metal at the time. Their masterpiece "In the Sign of Evil" would, along with Bathory's first album and Hellhammer's "Apocalyptic Raids" would define the first wave black metal sound. Playing right alongside them were equally as influential bands Destruction and Kreator with their own forms of primitive blackened thrash by way of "Sentence of Death" and "Endless Pain". The German thrash scene would grow into one of Europe's strongest scenes, producing a myriad of bands which on the whole were much heavier than their American counterparts. Orienting towards more of a death metal approach as opposed to the lighter, more mosh-pit oriented structures that plagued the American thrash scene of the late 80s, the Germans produced a wealth of bands which would stand the test of time.

Poison were one of the first thrash bands from Germany. Forming in 1982, the band started off playing a murky, barely listenable form of primitive music which was clearly inspired by Hellhammer. Mirroring the Swiss trio's mid-tempo riffs found more on the "Triumph of Death" and "Death Fiend" demos as opposed to the faster Discharge type songs found on "Apocalyptic Raids", Poison's first demo "Sons of Evil" had the right idea, but ultimately failed in execution. The admirable adoption of cool pseudonyms like "Virgin Slaughter", "Angel of Death", "Witchhammer" and "Incubus Demon", awesome simple song titles ("Black Death", "Reaper", "Demon"), and handdrawn cover artwork of the grim reaper are all signs of what is sure to be a killer recording. Unfortunately at this stage in the band's career, the songwriting skills were fairly clunky and the recording terrible is barely field recorder rehearsal quality, which makes the listening experience rather difficult. The second demo "Bestial Death" had much better sound quality, but the actual songwriting skills hadn't improved too much. "Awakening the Dead" followed in 1987, which was another step in the right direction. "Into the Abyss" came around in 1987, and by this point, the band had drastically changed for the better.

Containing only four tracks in over thirty two minutes, the band had largely scrapped their prior Hellhammer influences and went for a more epic and drawn-out approach to writing music. The riffs themselves were rather simple, but the songwriting had improved to make even the simplest riffs string together effortlessly, with various subtle touches in the forms of slight rhythmic changes, well-placed drum hits and angular guitar leads. The sound quality the band had on this recording had never been better; all the instruments are mixed well and heard perfectly, the guitar tone is extremely dark sounding.

Opening up with a classic line of "Into the abyss I fall..." (also used to open up Darkthrone's first album "Soulside Journey"), the song "Sphynx" nicely sets the tone for the entire recording. Very dark and occult sounding black metal. Poison adopted a rather Lovecraftian slant to their lyrics, and this carries over into the music as well. "Into the Abyss" is one of the few recordings I've heard that are able to truly capture the weird, otherworldly vibe of Lovecraft's writings. This odd atmosphere is one of the demo's strongest points, and is part of the reason why this has always been a cult record for as long as I've been listening to this kind of music.

For a while this recording was difficult to track down. The album was released on vinyl in 1993 (the cover shown on the right with the upside down cross made up of skulls incased in triangles - a very cool cover if you ask me), and since then has been bootlegged several times until the recent Iron Pegasus compilation "Further Down the Abyss", which includes "Into the Abyss" in its entirety, as well as several rehearsal, live and various other demo tracks. None of the previous three demos are included in their entirety, which is rather disappointing as I quite like the "Bestial Death" demo, but its not a huge loss considering how much better "Into the Abyss" is than the rest of their catalog.

Poison never really achieved the recognition that they deserved, and split up in 1987. "Virgin Slaughter" would later form the band R.U. Dead?, which aside from having one of the worst names of all time, carried on the Poison legacy through the 90s, moving in the same musical vein as "Into the Abyss" with varying degrees of musical success. Most of this material is compiled on the "Completely Dead" CD, and is certainly worth tracking down. "Into the Abyss", however, is an absolutely essential recording, which to me is the best metal to come out of Germany. While Kreator and Sodom were certainly much more influential in the long run, none of their works were as well composed or performed as Poison's masterpiece. A true classic.

Savage Death (USA) - "Mass Genocide" demo, 1985

1985 was one of the best years for death metal. Following a series of landmark recordings in 1984 such as the demos by Possessed and Mantas, dozens of new bands formed and inspired by the genre's founders, released their own demo tapes. From all areas of the globe ranging from Brazil to Denmark to Japan and all the way back to the US, what started as a handful of teenagers pushing the limits a little beyond their favorite Exodus and Venom recordings quickly turned into a tangible genre that would be well defined a by the tail end of the decade. 1985 was the year that many of these first wave bands got their start, and at this tine the death metal genre was still nebulous in that it would constantly overlap with the developing thrash metal and black metal scenes. Savage Death were one of the many bands releasing their first demo at this time, and certainly rank among the greatest.

Hailing from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Savage Death naturally took a more American approach to death metal than some of their contemporaries. Instead of drawing influence from Hellhammer or Sodom like the European bands, Savage Death's sound was derived more from American thrash. Possessed cited that Exodus were one of their biggest influences, and based on this recording, its clear that these guys had a similar approach. The music on presented on this demo is fast and reckless the same way that "Bonded by Blood" and "Darkness Descends" are, except the vocal approach is much rougher and the music is far less polished. The vocals are typically delivered in raspy growl; exceptions to this come in the form of totally over the top high pitched shrieks which make appearances through the rest of the recording, including a very memorable wail that opens up the demo. Vocalizations such as these greatly add to the overall energetic feel of the primitive metal played under them.

The sheer energy which is exuded from this recording alone would propel this into great demo status. Not to say that the music on this album isn't totally catchy, fun and well written, but I always find it preferably when the band is able to capture a sound that sounds uncontrollable as opposed to bands who overproduce and overrehearse their music to the point where it sounds clinical and sterile. Musically it may not be the most original stuff in the world (the opening riff to the first song sounds suspiciously like Death's "Infernal Death"), but the band has such an intense vibe that even when they slow down and play on a mid-tempo riff you can still tell that they still mean business. The songs themselves aren't too complex and don't really exceed a handful of riffs, but considering that this is death metal from 1985, that isn't too far out of the ordinary.

Later these guys would do another demo in 1986 called "Crucified in Hell", and guitar player Tom Stevens went on to play with other bands such as Nokturnel, Morpheus Descends and Exhile, but for my money, this demo is the classic recording. This demo absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other death metal classics from the mid 80s; "Surrender or Die", "Seven Churches", "Bestial Devastation"... it really is that good. Unlike some of the other demos released around this time, the production is rough enough to give it a more sinister sound, but not too raw that hinders its listenability. For first wave death metal, it really doesn't get much better than this.

Rossos (Swe) - "Live in Kiruna" demo, 1982

A number of the best bands were one-offs that cut one demo and then promptly folded. Originating in Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden (approximately 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle), Rossos were one such band. In the early 80s, as a direct result of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal explosion occuring a few miles west of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden experienced its own wave of heavy metal bands popping up. While none of them received the fame outside of the Swedish borders that their British counterparts did, there was a very healthy scene which produced a number of classic recordings. However, many of these bands hailed from parts of the country which were far less isolated, and could likely network, trade tapes, and play gigs and in general have far more opportunities than a band that far north could.

Aside from their location, not too much is known about the band; they were around for a brief point in time, recorded this on what is apparently a Swedish radio station, and then at sometime later called it quits. Which is an absolutely shame, as this material is easily in the top tier of quality of early heavy metal bands coming from Sweden along with Heavy Load and Crystal Pride.

For a live demo, the band got quite a heavy sound for this recording, especially in 1982. The guitars are very thick, and the vocals are delivered in a strong, confident manner; I've heard this band compared to Gotham City, which would be an apt comparison musically, but the strong vocals really sets them apart from that band. The band plays in a mostly mid-tempo style during the first three tracks, and goes into a heavier, almost speed metal number for the final track "Stronger than You". All of the songs are excellently put together with great senses of melody and flow. The band clearly knew their limitations, and the band plays in a very composed and tight fashion, yet still retains a very youthful energy. One exception to the band playing tight is band starting off time making a mistake at the beginning of "Where are You?", bringing the song to an abrupt halt and bring the audience to an outburst of laughter. Apparently the banter following this moment (and through the rest of the recording) is rather entertaining if one can speak Swedish, which I unfortunately cannot.

If there was any band that deserved a reissue treatment, it is Rossos. For the caliber of music these guys were playing, its a damn shame that they are so criminally underrated and overlooked. Considering Kiruna's size of less than 20,000 people, its somewhat easy to see why they probably weren't too popular in the time that they are active, but in today's world where heavy metal music like this has a much larger cult following, this is one recording that begs for a vinyl pressing. This can easily stand on its own not only against the Swedish high-water marks, but also against what the rest of the world was doing at the same time.

Mayhem (Hun) - 1989 demo

Sometimes choosing the wrong name can make what would already been an obscure recording even more obscure. By the time that 1989 had rolled around, there were quite a few bands who would bear the moniker of Mayhem who had various degrees of success; at least two bands from the United States, a speed metal band with a track on a New Renaissance compilation and the legendary hardcore band who would later change their name to NYC Mayhem, a band from Brazil who would contribute to the legendary second entry in the Warfare Noise compilation series, four demo only bands from continental europe (Finland, Italy, and two from Germany), a UK82 band who did a 7" on Riot City in 1982, as well as the Norwegian band who would gain international fame and infamy in the early 90s both from a string of foundational black metal records and the unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths of two of their members. Needless to say, its rather easy to see how this Hungarian band might have gotten lost in the shuffle; the fact that they come from behind the Iron Curtain probably didn't help matters too much either.

This particular Mayhem weren't around for a very long time and represent a small blip on the somewhat small Hungarian late 80s death/black metal scene. During their short period of existence, the band cut two demo tapes as well as a few rehearsal and live tracks floating around. The demo from 1989 is the first one, and contains a rather lengthy running time of over 30 minutes (almost 45 minutes if one were to count the bonus rehearsal tracks distributed with the recording), which more than makes up for the fact that the band didn't really do too much else.

Musically the band plays in a fairly standard black/death style that was fairly common at that time in Europe. While their Hungarian contemporaries such as Tormentor, Fantom or Angel Reaper were pushing the envelope with more extreme music, Mayhem's brand of black metal was rooted more in European speed/thrash, and sounds a bit more like it was released in 1985 as opposed to 1989. As this is a cheaply recorded demo tape, the sound is naturally rather thin, leaning more towards the treble end.

While by no means a musically complex recording, the band play a bit more than the average three-chord riffs that many of their peers were doing. Many of the songs have a bit of melody to them, and even while the musicianship may be a little sloppy getting the riffs across, the band makes sure to hit the right notes at the right time. On one of their live tapes they do a cover of Sodom's "Sepulchral Voice", and their seminal album "Obsessed by Cruelty" might not be a bad point of comparison for the music played on this tape; vocals are delivered in a similar harsh snarl (filtered through the incomprehensible language that is Hungarian, of course) on top of a series of rather catchy and primitive thrash riffs.

One thing that I've always found interesting and desirable about Eastern European bands that play this kind of music is a majority of them invoke a certain occult atmosphere; one of witches, counts, ancient spellbooks, rusty torture devices, that sort of thing. This band is no different, and that same strange feeling runs very strongly through these tracks, without the use of any keyboards, female vocals or intro noises to add a masking gimmick to cover up for the actual music itself. Fans of this style will surely not be disappointed with this demo, and while it is not the best or most innovative recording in this genre, it is certainly competent enough and worthy to anyone interested in the goings on of Eastern European black metal.

Y Diawled (UK) - "Noson Y Blaidd" 7", 1983

One interesting thing about the United Kingdom is that while English has been the primary language spoken for centuries, pockets of civilization exist in which Celtic languages still thrived. English is a language derived from a strange combination of Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) and Norman (Romance), both quite different language families than Celtic. As a result, Celtic languages have a much different look, feel and sound to them than English, and many predate English by several centuries.

Welsh is the most popular of the Celtic languages spoken in the United Kingdom, and as such, it only makes sense that a handful of bands would come from Welsh speaking areas. Forming at the height of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal explosion, Y Diawled (translating to 'The Devils' in English), their vinyl release came in 1982 with a track on the four song Fflach Records compilation entitled "Shwt Mae Siapus", which would be followed by the "S.O.S" 7" a year later in 1983. With original singer Kevin Davies backing the band, these tracks while being competant NWOBHM, did not particularly stand out from the rest of their peers. Some moments in this era of the band remind me a bit of the songs from the first Witchfynde LP.

1983 showed the band recruiting Rhiannon Tomos, who has had a very successful solo career in the realm of Welsh rock music. Tomos has a very powerful, almost gravelly voice which to my ears sounds a bit like Janis Joplin might have sounded like if she fronted a Welsh heavy metal band. Tomos' addition to the band brought a whole different dimension to the band's sound, adding a much more mystical and ancient feel to the music. The 1983 7" "Noson Y Blaidd" ('Night of the Wolf') was her only recording with the band before the band folded, leaving her to pursue her solo career even further.

Containing two brilliant heavy metal tracks, the A-side of the 7" is the slow and brooding title track, featuring somewhat intricate and well placed leads. Not quite moving or constructed like a doom song, the song's slower pace and moody vocal delivery creates a rather eerie mood which goes well with the minimalistic cover design of a set of inhuman looking eyes peering out from the darkness under a reddish moon. The B-side, "Dewch Gyda Ni" ('Come with Us') is an upbeat scorcher of a song with a completely different tone than its A-side. With a faster driving beat and an unstoppable riff behind it, it gives the perfect opportunity to Tomos who really showcases her vocal abilities, belting her way through the song. Its a shame she didnt get a chance to record more material with the band, as these two tracks really show her command of vocal ability. One of her previous tracks "Cer â Hi" from her solo days before joining Y Diawled is also a ripping, almost speed metal song, but a majority of her solo output I've heard is basic bar rock type stuff which does not hold too much particular interest to me.

A bunch of cool live footage of the band (including performances of several unreleased songs from the Davies era) can be found on Youtube, the best of which is Tomos singing the song "Noson Y Blaidd" at a concert in 1984, which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9t9FF2L7Jw

As far as I know, none of the Y Diawled stuff has not been reissued in any form, so some of the material can be difficult to track down, but is absolutely worth it for any serious NWOBHM collectors or heavy metal fans.

Introductory post / Abhorer (Sin) - "Rumpus of the Undead"

Welcome to Voices from the Graves, which is intended to be primarily a repository for my music reviews. Every couple of years I'll decide to write reviews, and usually end up getting bored of them. When I revisit them years later, I always end up feeling embarrassed at the poor writing quality and asinine observations, so hopefully with this blog I won't fall into that particular trap. But only time will tell. The scope of these reviews will focus mostly on obscure metal, punk and hardcore, especially those with particularly raw, noisy and dirty sound qualities. Reviews on here will tend to me my favorite recordings which I've been familiar with for some time, so I would not expect too many negative reviews to appear here.

I do not plan to post mp3 files on here of the material I'm reviewing. People today are too lazy to actually check shit out for themselves, even with the convenience of peer-to-peer file sharing. If you're using the same internet that I am, I presume that you should be able to open up Soulseek and download any of the stuff mentioned here for yourself.

I also do not plan to post any of these reviews to metal-archives or other type sites. These reviews may not necessarily be confined to just heavy metal, so I feel that would be too limiting. Plus a lot of people that use that site are total idiots who have shitty taste in music.

With all that boring nonsense out of the way, let me get to the first recording that I will discuss on this blog:

Abhorer (Sin) - "Rumpus of the Undead" demo tape, 1989

A general rule of thumb when it comes to death/black metal, especially during the second wave explosion of 1987 - 1992 or so, is the shittier the country, the better the metal. Singapore is absolutely no exception. While having one of the most authoritarian governments in the world who actively repress art, subversive or not, had a thriving death/black metal scene in the late 80s/early 90s. One part about playing this kind of music is that singing about Satan, cemeteries, corpses, witchcraft and the like is rather abstract and fantastical, opposed to the direct protest and idealism of the contemporary hardcore and punk scenes. Still, even in a place like Singapore it takes a hell of a lot of balls to play this kind of music and at times feels a lot more sincere as a result then its first world counterparts. Not to say that places like United States or Western Europe didn't have a great scene for this kind of stuff, but the Singapore bands tended to play only raw uncompromisingly harsh music which was never meant to be anything but for underground diehards only.

While Abhorer were not the first band to play this kind of music in Singapore, they played a much more stripped down and brutal form of music than their elder countrymen Nuctemeron were doing at the time. One interesting point to note about the Singapore scene is that it largely morphed out of nowhere in the late 80s. Malaysia had a sizeable heavy metal/hard rock scene in the early - mid 80s, but the presence of these bands were largely absent from Singapore, aside from one band Rusty Blade. Rusty Blade's first release is from 1987 which was fairly late in the decade; by this time death, black and thrash metal scenes were well developed all over the globe, and this was and only one year before Nuctemeron would cut their first death/thrash demo tape. "Rumpus of the Undead" is arguably the most influential Singapore recording, and in my opinion certainly the best. While the full length "Zygotical Sabbatory Unabapt" would give them international recognition, the band never sounded better than they did on this demo tape.

The cover is pretty much perfect for this recording. A hand drawn monochromatic image of a satanic priest rising from the grave, where one of the headstones reads "RIP JESUS CHRIST", hands poised to either cast some kind of evil spell, or just from rigor mortis in true hopping vampire style. Its difficult to tell with Eastern countries sometimes. The logo is engulfed in flames, features multiple upside down cross and a pentagram. In other words, fucking perfect.

Musically the four songs (+ intro of noises, wind, growling, etc) are just as primitive and crude. Each song contains a handful of basic riffs, that are almost punk like in construction. A good point of reference would be perhaps the Sodom demos or Hellhammer's faster tracks, but with a more dissonant approach to the songwriting. The production is extremely dirty and raw, and the guitars just sound so vile. The drumming is sloppy yet unrelenting and the vocals are an inhuman howl which pushes the recording even more over the top. They are probably the best part about the demo, and its a shame that they were toned down a bit for future recordings. The dissonant qualities of the riffs combined with the sloppy drumming give this a real chaotic feel, one of those super energetic recordings that feels like its going to burst at any moment. Even though there have been faster bands, even for 1989, few bands were able to capture this level of raw intensity. No doubt people that care about silly things like "technical proficiency" will hate this, but people that care about such nonsense will probably do best to hit the back button on their browser. Death metal is supposed to exude a certain atmosphere, and this nails it right on the head, something that modern sterile tech-death bands like Necrophagist completely miss. This is death metal how it was meant to be played, completely raw, unfettered, and uncompromising.

This recording was reissued several times over the years, first as a split LP with the Japanese death metal band Necrophile with their recording "Deride the Remedied", a classic in its own right. The two recordings play well off one of another. The second reissue came in the form of the Xtreem Music CD "Unholy Blasphemer", which compiles this demo, the Upheaval of Blasphemy 7", and the "Zygotical Sabbatory Unabapt" LP - essentially everything the band had recorded. This is by far the easiest version of the demo to track down, and while the packaging on the CD isn't the best, it gets the job done of making the best Southeast Asian recording widely available to the public.