Free from the Grave

Cryptic Hatred caught my eye with the combination of the obvious death metal demo cover art, and the horror drenched idea behind the aesthetic. Free From The Grave is the band's first demo, bringing that gory and zombified aesthetic to full effect with songs pumped heavily with undeath and rotting flesh. You've got everything you could expect to come alongside. Gross vocals that sound like they've been dragged through muddy swamps, degraded production that flattens everything to one layer, and basic ass riffs that are full of burrs with a grating feel. So naturally, this is everything that a death metalhead should want with a demo.

Except it's not. The foundation on paper is exactly what you'd want, but it's honestly just a half hour of poor man's Cannibal Corpse songs from the Barnes era. As threatening as the riffs themselves come off, it's damn near impossible to find any distinction between any of them. Though the rhythmic integrity may be there, it doesn't take you anywhere. The vocals certainly don't help this, as they're even more monotonous and make the disc grow stagnant after the third track.

But I'll give them this, they do nail their sound, and I was pretty sold at first. It's just that after those couple of tracks, it grows tiring and boring and you'll find yourself itching for more. Picture this like your playing field that has great soil for tasty fruits, but the seeds never sprout above the surface. Far worse things have happened, and there's nothing painfully bad. It's just.... not very good either.