Crimson Nightgate

Cosmic Death is a quite obscure band with a member of Vintersorg, released a demo in 1997, vanished than during 1998-2006 and rose again in 2007, with a slightly differ line-up however. One demo has been released so far and recently been made available on their website, from where I downloaded it; I could not resist and it is interesting to get a demo from a band which is hardly known to anyone. A first thing that comes to my mind by listening to the demo is the close relationship to the music of Necrophobic, although none of their members is involved in Cosmic Death. Especially the vocals of Andreas Hedlund (the man behind Vintersorg and also member in many other bands) can be compared to those of Stefan Zander, who lend Necrophobic his voice for a couple of years. It works however and as this facet fits to the music, I have no reason to be annoyed or bored due to the lack of independence that Cosmic Death is offering here… actually this is not their only reference to this band can be examined on this demo.

In contrast the album Darkside of Necrophobic that has been released in the same year as Cosmic Death’s demo, the latter music has more elements in their music, is not that straight and Death Metal oriented and has also some small pieces of Thrash in their compositions which have a positive effect on the music. The songs are loaded with breaks, different tempi and riffs without to overload them to much; hence they are good to listen to and above the average of the Death Thrash scene. Especially the variation in song writing make the songs good to listen to and in the way they have been, composed the listener is able to recognize that the members behind Cosmic Death have some experience, skill and featured with the ability to transform their ideas into fitting frame. The amount of riffs that are used is huge, especially for a demo, but without overstretching the repetition of parts unnecessarily. Even the unbalanced production is not able to reduce the quality of the compositions to a level in which they are annoying and boredom inducing, while their key elements are not vanishing under a layer of noise.

Harming does this lack in the mixing the bass in particular and the drums in general. The former has in parts to much volume, whereby the latter has an ounce to little. Is it necessary to mention more professional recording equipment would do well to the music, to this with rehearsal room atmosphere loaded record? Not really. The compositions are good and the band has proven its qualities with their early work and now it is up to them to prove it again with a different line-up and after years of hibernation. I am curious about their forthcoming release/s.