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.