This is the debut demo from this Virginia death metal band. Their style seems to be based around the brutal early 90's style with slightly shorter songs and a small dose of moderate technicality on occasion. The vocals are the most modern element, resting in the midrange screaming arena for the most part, with some scathing high shrieks popping up every now and then. Some of the faster riffing does have a little bit of a Cryptopsy-ish vibe, but they don't go too far into the realm of ultra fast, crazy complex stuff. A lot of the music sort of sounds like Suffocation meets Cannibal Corpse, but without the gurgling low vocals. Of course the performances aren't quite as tight as they should be just yet, but this is a good start. "Habitual Sleeplessness Repeated" is definitely the best track herein. There are lots of changes and some great dissonant riffing that's slower and oddly melodic, which really sticks out. "Out of the Darkness" follows in a similar vein with some pummeling slow breaks that have just a little bit of dissonance going on, and man do those riffs come as a welcome change of pace and add to the tracks. I'm definitely not a fan of the solo in this song just because the harmonies are way out of tune and it doesn't really fit, but if they can work on that more leads would spice things up nicely. My only gripes with the songwriting are that there are too many pinch harmonics and a lot of the riffs can tend to sound the same after awhile. I don't mind the recording considering that this is, after all, a demo. It's a little bit muddy, but I like the fact that the bass is audible and tends to play a larger role than is often the case with this style of death metal. The drums are slightly distant and the vocals sit out in front of the music a bit, but it's not so bad. The guitars are heavy and have a nice bite of treble for clarity, I just think they need to be a little bit louder and perhaps brighter somehow. Less low-end to the guitar distortion would give the bass more room to breathe as well. Slightly altering the mix would be my first move, though. I can deal with everything else. The layout's pretty basic. The CD-R comes in a slim case with a transparent yellow tray, and the booklet is double-sided with a guy being strapped to the electric chair on the front, and a photo of a wall at a construction site or something on the back. Inside is a faded band photo with some overlapping photographic textures and minimal text (lineup/recording information, and so on). The text is slightly pixilated, but it looks okay otherwise, especially since it's probably a color copy. They didn't include the lyrics, but I would assume from the track titles that they're not into the senseless gore crap or any of that stuff (thankfully). This is a solid effort for a first demo. I would expect to hear some interesting material from this band as their writing skills mature.
[self-released]
Running time - 16:16, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Site of Suffering, Habitual Sleeplessness Repeated]
Akeldama - http://www.akeldamarva.cjb.net
