Die If You Want You Die

To follow up on my previous review of one of Fastkill's demos, it's time to review yet another hidden gem within the obscure and largely unknown Japanese thrash metal scene. Kreator/Sodom worship is a recurring theme when I listen to old-school thrash metal. 666 or Triangle Six of Death have a very limited amount of releases and this demo is the only thing I could get my filthy hands on from this band.

"Die if You Want to Die" is a speedy thrash metal demo which relies less on extreme metal tendencies and relies more on the sheer savagery of the standard thrash riffs and ideas. The drumming on this album is kind of limited and to an extent very derivative and uninspiring. The vocals sound kind of unbalanced and forced and corny. There practically no bass guitar to which I can refer except for some very few instances especially in the second song called "Ayaturi" where the bass is given some pretty cool moments to shine through. The guitar riffs as I've already said in passing, is very standard Slayer/Metallica/Sodom-inspired straight to the point thrash metal.

Unfortunately, the production of this demo is horrendous. I would normally give such a short-coming a pass when it comes to certain brands and types of extreme metal music. However, the music being played by 666 on this demo cannot really leave a strong and lasting impact unless it had at least semi-decent production in order for the listener to be able to enjoy this demo at its full potential. The songwriting is kind of amateurish and heavily derivative. However, don't confuse this statement to the musical ability of each member within this band.

In my opinion, the main highlight of this demo is the lead guitar. The tracks "Why you Believe in it?" and "Ayaturi" have some killer solos on them whence the full talent of the guitarists can shine, and god-damn it do they manage to pull off a killer line of solos. I keep making references towards Slayer and Sodom, however, the more I listen to this demo, the more I'm certain about the fact that you'll be unable to interpret the place of this demo within the whole thrash metal continuum unless we fully appreciate the impact early Slayer releases have had on this short-lived band. There is not much more to say about this demo. I'm giving this demo a solid 60 out of 100. I reduced a lot of points due to the impact of the poor production of the overall quality, the derivative nature of certain moments within the demo and the complete burial of the bass guitar by the rest of the instruments.