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Chaos in Paradise – Demo (2010)

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All the way from Portugal today we get Chaos in Paradise a very young band that is releasing their first demo. This demo features four very interesting songs that showcase the band’s talents, but it also shows the areas where they need work. Since it’s a short demo we will use the dreaded ‘song-by-song’ approach to this review.

The band opens their demo with “Dawn” a very well structured song that features what this band is all about in less than 4 minutes. With powerful riffing, you quickly get the impression this might be a Melodic Death Metal release, but soon Sara’s angelic vocals follow and your whole impression of this album is changed. The band does a very solid job in crafting a powerful chorus section with solid riffing and a catchy vocal melody. However, the small use of male vocals could have easily been avoided and this would have kept the song more consistent.

Crematoria – Demo(lish) (2009)

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In the last few years most of the new kids playing Death Metal (or at least trying) have managed to completely miss the point and get a solid grasp on the genre. We can guarantee that most of those bands have gone and changed into playing Metalcore or dissolved. However, there are always a very limited number bands that truly get it and release bad-ass demo’s, Crematoria is one of them.

Hailing from Denmark, the band formed in 2008 and released their first demo in 2009. This 3-song release is aptly titled “Demo(lish)”, featuring very solid songs that punch you right in the face. With some Trash foundations on their riffs the band has crafted these songs very nicely, and while they might not be revolutionary, they are solid and very catchy.

Daylight Misery – Promo (2009)

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While checking our ‘to review’ folder of digital promos sent by bands we happened to stumble upon this little gem that was hiding underneath the piles of albums we get every month. Daylight Misery is a band from Greece that plays a mean combination of Death/Doom Metal with some Gothic Metal influences.

Highly focused on the guitar work rather than the keyboards, the band creates a very depressive atmosphere (the part we love the most from the genre). When the keyboards are used, they are like the icing on top of an already delicious cake. This 3-song promo is probably one of the best we have received in quite a while and their upcoming release “Depressive Icons” sounds like it will be even better.

Distractress – Escalate The Thrill (2009)

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Arriving from Finland, this month we have Distractress 3-song demo called “Escalate The Thrill”. This relatively young band does an interesting job in mixing Trash Metal influences with a modern Metal influences. The band sometimes sounds like the newer Amoral, in a good way! Nobody can sound as bad as Ari Koivunen does in that album.

Anyways, “Escalate The Thrill” features 3 songs that will have many people scratching their heads as why the band chose to use clean vocals over Trash Metal influences paired with Melodic Metal. However, the band does pull it off to some extent. Sometimes the clean vocals get a bit overpowering and just sound annoying, but the band has the right idea when it comes to the music.

Dreams Of The Drowned - Demo (2008)

Some demos are better not recorded, and this demo is one of them. The recording quality is pretty bad, and the music itself is extremely bad. It sounds like a amateur effort at making music.

I have no other words for this demo, there is nothing worth mentioning about it.
Euphoreon – Before The Blackened Sky (2009)

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Euphoreon hails from New Zealand and their demo “Before The Blacked Sky” took me by surprise. This one man band is clearly influenced by Wintersun, Ensiferum, etc. This demo is one of the best I heard this month, since it’s perfectly produced and the music is very fresh and enjoyable, too bad it only has 3 songs.

The guitars, bass and vocals are performed by the sole member, while the drums and everything else is programmed. The guitar work is excellent and it’s clearly the style of music this band is shooting for (Epic Melodic Metal). There are plenty of nice guitar solos that complement the music.

Fenris Cult – Heil Blackgod! (2009)

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Every time I listen to a terrible demo I say that it can’t get worse than that, well many times I’m wrong. This month I found this demo, and let me say (again), it’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. As you can see the title of the demo is misspelled (no it’s not one of my many typos), and from this it all goes down to hell (in a bad way).

Hybrid Heaven - The Textures Of Spirits (2008)

There are several reasons why I label this as a demo: 1) The production quality is not very good, 2) The band is unsigned and 3) It’s limited to 200 copies. Setting this aside, this Mexican band plays a pretty decent trash/death metal with progressive elements. The vocals are the weakest element in this release.

The music however is pretty good for a first release from this band, they are clearly influenced by progressive music and they have enough skills to incorporate these influences in their songs.

This release is around 50 minutes long and the songs are very short, however they are not too repetitive or annoying and they do a good job at creating different rhythms in every song. 

Khadaver – Beta Version (2008)

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Khadaver is a 3 piece band from the Slovak republic and they bring us a very solid self produced demo EP. The band plays an interesting blend of Industrial metal. I say it’s a blend because they fuse traditional Industrial elements with some Black metal and Electro elements. The whole EP is very diverse and showcases the bands creativity in writing songs.

My Life's Despair - Love, Sorrow, and Suicide (2009)

I will call this release a demo since it contains only 3 songs and it’s freely available on their myspace page. This is an American one man band that while not having the best production behind their demo, it clearly makes an impact.

My Life’s Despair has their music style well defined to be a mixture of early My Dying Bride, Crematory and The Sins of Thy Beloved. And this release is a great stepping stone into hopefully a full length album with better production.

Nachtreich – Sturmgang (2009)

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After releasing six demos (only two available to the public) this two man band blew my expectations away after just looking at the cover. I imaged it would be another shitty Ambient / black metal demo that was just going to make my ears bleed. And I was totally wrong.

This demo features amazing neoclassical compositions using a variety of instruments, and of course, some distorted guitar riffs. The length of the demo is 55 minutes, but it felt like it was only 10 minutes. I was so immersed in the music trying to identify all the instruments used, and enjoying how each song is very well composed and executed. I must say I’m a sucker for good neoclassical music, but when it has distorted guitars perfectly blended, I’m even more enthralled with the music.

Norinian - Absent Seizure (2009)

When this demo starts, the first track provides almost 3 minutes of nothing, since it is only a few noises and that’s it. I fail to see how this sets the mood for the album.

This band labels themselves as black metal, however, the second track is an industrial type of song with some beats and deep vocals. At the same time, neither of the previous things is well realized and it just gets monotone and it’s easily forgotten.

This band seriously needs to either define their style or just stop playing, since the next 3 songs are just a weird mixture of different genres and ideas meshed together in 3 different songs. While Cacotopian Masses is a more ‘straight forward’ black metal song, and the last 2 are more industrial-based, they are still in a few words: pretty bad.
Scuffproof – Demonstration Of Strength (2010)

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Hailing from the small town of Tübingen, Germany, today we have Suffproof with their four songs EP. The band plays traditional neck breaking Death Metal. While they do not provide anything original or super brutal to the genre, “Demonstration Of Strength” is a pretty solid first release for the band.

Kubo, the band’s vocalist, kicks off the release with a very ‘nice’ message to all the special people in his life, and jumps straight into a crunchy DM riff and some growls. Immediately you can notice some issues with the recording quality of this release since the vocals standout WAY too much as the guitar fills the background and the drums are just a distant banging sound.

The Worthless Dream - Trip Through Depression And Autumn (2009)

There is only one way of describing this ‘rehersal demo’: WTF, yes I just said What The Fuck, how do you even leak something like this on the internet. The demo consists of only 1 song that is around 16 min long, and let me guide you through my experience on it.

The first 6 minutes sound like just a shitty metal band learning how to make a doom metal song. Then I was almost in a boredom trance, when I hear some fucking screams like somebody out of an Asian horror film, it kind of caught me of guard and freaked me out, not because it’s impressive, but because it is so lame.

Windfaerer – Glory Bound (2009)

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Today we find ourselves reviewing the 2 song demo of Windfaerer, an American band that plays a very interesting sounding Pagan/Folk Metal. And the only problem we find about this demo is that is too short.

The band hailing from New Jersey, has a very polished style and when they release their first full-length (which is on the works now) will surely take the scene by surprise. The songwriting for both songs is very well alternated with mid-tempo passages to blazing fast sections.