Into Darkness

Bathym was a relatively short lived project featuring members of the, now legendary, Sathanas, as well as a member of Pittsburgh's Hideous Mangleus. The band formed in 1989 released three demos between then and 1990. In 1991 the band released their lone EP, Demonic Force, through the defunct Thrash Records as a 7”. Bathym eventually disbanded, with the members focusing on their respective projects, most notably Paul Tucker who is still fronting Sathanas to this date.

Into Darkness is the band's third demo, which was independently released on cassette in 1990. If you're familiar with Sathanas at all than you have a fairly decent idea what Bathym is going to sound like. The music merges old school death metal with galloping thrash riffs and blackened,garbled growls. The production is extremely raw, but the meaty guitar tone helps ease the issue. Into Darkness is stylistically cohesive, resting somewhere between jagged old school death metal, first wave black metal and lowbrow thrashing. The tracks are well constructed and are able to hold one's attention for the duration.

Bathym's affinity for galloping riffs is admirable, and it's something that, sadly, isn't carried through in Sathanas' music as much as it could be. The title track and “Palace of Belial” both summon the early Teutonic thrash scene at times but they band consistently falls back into either lowbrow chugging or jagged death metal riffing and blasting double bass runs. Bathym's music throws back to the style of Nunslaughter and Goatlord: that old school sound that meshed all of the extreme styles into one cohesive and hard as iron sound. Into Darkness isn't the greatest demo in the land, but it's cool to see another take on that old Central Pennsylvania sound.