Here's some thick and nasty death/grind from current and former members of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Catholic Priest, Daybreak, Enemy Soil, Hatebeak, and The Index, among others. Deep vocal shouts, chunky guitars that almost have that early 90's Swedish death metal tone going on, plodding distorted bass, pounding percussion, tons of tempo changes from blasting fast to the moderately paced and droning... it's all here. The guitar tone really gets me hearing a lot of classic Swedish death metal in here, from Entombed to Grave, and a few of the more melodic riffs bring early Carcass to mind as well. But this material is less linear and repetitive, constantly keeping things moving within the short timeframes. "The Means of Ethical Purity" uses lots of tempo variation, resting mostly with slower, doom-laden rhythms and arrangements and even a nice sample mixed in, while "Cudgel" drops slick distorted basslines and excellent dissonant guitar lines creating an eerie sense of melody that almost brings Godflesh to mind (except for the vocals). Fucking incredible. The recording is raw, but not bad. It just needs an even mix. The drums sound surprisingly good, as do the guitars, but the vocals fluctuate in the mix and the bass presence isn't always obvious. I think the levels just need more consistency and somehow the drums need to drop back with a bit more emphasis on the vocals, but barely. My complaints are minor though, as the songs aren't affected all that much by these inconsistencies. The CD-R is totally blank with some simple, quality printing on the CD face (all text), and comes with a black and white insert that includes the unusual band logo alongside some abstract artwork and minimal text regarding recording information, etc. No lyrics or anything are included. This is a great demo, though. The visual presentation definitely leaves something to be desired in my opinion, but the four songs herein kick ass and leave me wanting more... this fucker doesn't even run 10 minutes! Good stuff.
[self-released]
Running time - 9:24, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: The Means of Ethical Purity, You're Their Figure of God, and the other two as well...]
Triac - http://www.manofthegear.com
