Yet another obscure gem discovered via YouTube. While perusing through assorted thrash clips I stumbled upon this absolutely badass underground death metal from 1994, from a band so obscure that I think even the Encyclopaedia Metallum is wrong about 'em. According to their data, Terminus released "Creations" through a label called Stinkfist Records in 1994. That much appears to be accurate. But they cite the band as hailing from Stockton, CA, with another EP called "Victim Culture" being released in 1995. However, the lone eBay listing I can find for the "Creations" CD (with no artwork, sadly) states that the band was from Detroit. And while the five tracks that the Encyclopaedia Metallum lists as being "Victim Culture" appear on a MySpace page for the band, the Amazon listing for said EP only contains three (different) songs. From what I can gather, there was another Terminus from California that was more of an industrial metal band, so this Terminus was more than likely from Detroit – releasing "Creations", an EP of unknown title, and probably calling it quits at some point in the mid- to late-90's. (If anyone has more information about this band, please email me! Edit: They were from Stockton, CA after all. See this comment.)

"Creations" drops seven tracks averaging about six minutes apiece, for a total of 40 minutes of churning, midpaced death metal that's loaded with thick, chugging rhythms; some weird, semi-technical dissonance; and a lot of unexpected twists that flirt with some discordant tinges and melodic bass runs that really give the material an interesting feel. It's cool, because in some ways it comes across with this straightforward, in your face meatiness, but there's this other side that blends in influences you'd never anticipate, so they end up with a darker and more atmospheric edge that doesn't detract from the blunt aggression and heaviness at all (a combination perhaps best exemplified by the instrumental title track). They actually kind of remind me of Demented Ted (especially the vocals), which is somewhat fitting as I guess that's another relatively obscure reference. I don't know, all I can say is that I saw the album cover on YouTube, thought, "Damn, that looks promising!", and proceeded to flip out when I sampled my first track. I really wish I could dig up some more information on these dudes…

Terminus "Life Beyond"
Terminus "Isolate the Sick"
Terminus "Creations"

Unfortunately, this is another case where your chances of scoring physical copies of the band's material seem highly unlikely. I can find no trace of anything beyond "Creations" out there at all, and the aforementioned eBay auction (sans packaging of any kind) is all I see for this album (It's not even listed on Amazon!?). It's definitely getting harder to track down rarities…