This brief demo consists of six tracks of strange metal that ranges from blasting grind, to quirky dissonant riffs, to moderately paced classic death metal with a little extra groove, or even some old school thrash metal or black metal (see "Calculations of an Antagonist's Demise"). It's quite strange. I can hear almost everything mixed in here at one time or another, but really the only reason it feels slightly inconsistent is because most of the actual songs have few connections to one another, so you can tell it's the same band, but it feels like they're going for different styles on numerous occasions. They never shed melody, but most of the vocals are screamed, with a few hints at distant singing in tracks like "Coronation" - which I find to be one of the strongest pieces in its infusion of numerous influence into one track. The final two tracks, "Calculations of an Antagonist's Demise" and "Building an Empire", are more towards a black metal style, which is a strange way to end the demo as it feels more fluid than any other transition from one song to another. The recording needs a lot of work. It's really messy, so the drums and vocals tend to be the most dominant elements. The bass is really hard to make out, the guitars are sort of strange, so they're not loud enough nor powerful enough to really make much of a mark. You can usually make out the riffs if you can sort of block out the drumbeats, but the guitar tone has a sheen of midrange hovering over it which further clouds what's really going on. The packaging is in a similar rut. I'm fine with the fact that it's a xerox, and I like the jet black CD-R, but the entire layout is heavily pixilated, especially the text, which looks pretty tacky. There's not much to it, just a tracklist, contact information, etc. - but it still needs a cleaner look to be at all effective. I like some of this music, but I feel like the band needs more direction. I can't make sense of the somewhat cheesy demo title in relation to the atmosphere of the songs, but whatever they're going for at least they're trying to be a little different.
[self-released]
Running time - 13:34, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Coronation, Calculations of an Antagonist's Demise]
Overlord Industries - [email protected]
