Unholy Conversion

In the review I wrote for Abuse's 1997 debut album, "A Sunday Morning Killing Spree," here on Metal Archives back in May 2021, I had explained that the South of the United States of America has some very amazing and obscure bands to offer to the world of heavy metal. Since I've written that review, I have come across bands from the South that have only strengthened my claim. New Orleans death metal outfit Apostasy is an example that comes to mind. Apostasy originally formed under the name of Malignancy playing thrash/hardcore. As time passed, the band went through a few name changes, lineup changes, and stylistic changes before settling on the name Apostasy and sticking to death metal. Apostasy's "Unholy Conversion" demo came out during 1993, arguably the golden age of death metal. This demo exemplifies many characteristics of excellent old school death metal like gaining exposure through the old days of tape trading, having sinister album artwork to compliment sinister titles & lyrics, etc. Any death metal band that was prominent during the early '90s clearly had an influence on Apostasy to some degree. Fans of bands like Autopsy, Incantation and Abuse, who are known for their death metal with a doomy/sludgy twist, will enjoy this demo lasting approximately 25 minutes long.

When I say fans of death metal with a doomy/sludgy twist will enjoy this demo, I mean it. Apostasy really nailed the tempo change aspect throughout the 4 songs present. Their faster moments provide for a spectacular mosh pit, and their slower ends provide for a wall of people to headbang in unison. On top of tempo changes, Apostasy nailed the aspect of creating an atmosphere. The faster riffs are obviously more chaotic in nature and sound while the slower riffs are droning, capable of instilling this sense of apprehension, and are as thick as tar. The bands I recommended as being similar to Apostasy and their similar counterparts have historically utilized tempo changes in their music. In many cases, those tempo changes contributed to creating an atmosphere. I firmly believe that it's a necessity for a metal band to have a sufficient atmosphere in their music for it to sound good, and Apostasy lived up to that standard.

Rhythm guitarist Jason Pizzolato and lead guitarist Matt Richard did a phenomenal job writing the songs on Unholy Conversion. I would like to give props to Matt Richard for laying down the bass tracks since Apostasy was most likely out of a bassist at the time of this demo being recorded. Along with laying down bass tracks, he also shredded some killer guitar solos during the songs "Seance" and "Esoteric Misery." On the topic of the guitar work, I was surprised to learn from Jason Pizzolato that the guitars were tuned to E standard during the recording sessions. That completely blew my mind to the point where I initially thought he was joking. The songs on this demo are heavy, and I'm talking heavy. There was a brief moment towards the end of "Eat Their Young" where it sounded like one of the guitarists quickly detuned their low E string down to B. I don't know if the guitar was manually detuned or if it was pitch shifted using another method, but that only lasted for 1 short riff. E standard is not a tuning commonly used in death metal, so I respect the bands who can make use of it and still retain the expected amount of heaviness and brutality for a band that bares the title of being "death metal."

Jeremy Grannan's vocal style on this demo was a throaty growl packed with brutish grit. A growl of that caliber always compliments death metal of any fashion. Old school death metal, death/doom metal, you name it. Returning to the atmosphere of Apostasy's music, the growls solidify that apprehensive state. I really think of the bellowing growls of John McEntee when I think of Jeremy Grannan. I think it's very clear at this point that a staple characteristic of Apostasy that really makes them comparable to Incantation and Co is their use of tempo changes. You could think of planets caving in on themselves while millions cry out in horror as the growls are belted over slow paced riffs, and then you could think of the adrenaline rush from thrashing a corpse into microscopic pieces as the growls are belted over faster riffs. There are endless possibilities of the things you could envision and their corresponding moods as created through Grannan's vocal work in a death metal band. During any discussion of NOLA death metal vocalists, it would be a crime to not mention Jeremy Grannan.

What kind of a review would this be if I failed to bring up the drumming? Matt Brown is a beast behind the drums. Something I noticed about his drumming that I respect him for is how he utilized the blast beat in moderation. I feel there are too many death metal drummers who will blast beat their way through every single fast paced riff. That was certainly not the case for Matt Brown. He would throw in drum fills to spice up his playing and prevent it from becoming stale. He did the same thing with his cymbals. Even though sometimes hard to hear while the guitars and vocals were firing away, the snare and bass drums constantly managed to keep the momentum going. It's not uncommon for there to be a lot of pressure on the drummer of a band as the drums are a physically demanding instrument, especially in metal, and are the backbone of a band. However, I have no doubt that Brown was confident about his drumming during the recording sessions of Unholy Conversion.

The 2018 cassette and CD reissues of Unholy Conversion put out by Altar of Waste Records and marketed as an EP feature the 4 tracks originally found on the 1993 demo that were remastered in 2017 by John Stillings of the Steel Hook Prostheses fame. I can't speak much on the remastering job as I don't know if there are any cassette rips of the 1993 version publicly online as of right now to use for comparison purposes. I will say that the tracks on the CD version sound very clear. They do not seem to have any cassette hiss in them. I find that impressive as audio ripped from cassette tapes, especially old ones, tend to have some notable hiss at least once. Along with no cassette hiss, the audio doesn't display any signs of generational cassette audio degradation. I cannot imagine that it's a quick task to clean up audio ripped from an old cassette tape, so I feel it's appropriate to give lots of praise to John Stillings.

Anybody who is into bands such as Incantation, Autopsy, or Abuse should immediately check out Apostasy's 1993 demo, "Unholy Conversion." The same thing can be said for anybody who wants to explore the talented bands to have come from New Orleans or just wants to find a new band to jam to. If you ever have the chance to get a physical copy of Unholy Conversion, I strongly suggest you do. I got one of the 2018 CDs, and it does not disappoint. Favorite song: Seance.