Demo Reviews

  • Corrosive Carcass – Rot.In.Pieces (2010)

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    Hailing from Sweden, today we have a very catchy demo from Corrosive Carcass and their old-school Swedish Death Metal. In “Rot.In.Pieces” this relatively new band gives us 7 tracks totaling 18 minutes of neck breaking old-school Death Metal. While the production is a bit on the ‘raw’ side of things, the overall sound of the band will take you back in time quite a few years.

    Having a raw and gritty sound actually helps Corrosive Carcass get the old-school vibe going for most of the duration of this very effective demo. Most songs are under 3 minutes and feature a hefty amount of catchy riffs, tight drumming and somewhat standard growls and screams.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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).

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