...Somewhere Inside the Bowels of Endlessness...

This demo marks the point where Demilich start sounding like Demilich. Their previous demo sounded under-rehearsed, but the musicianship has improved dramatically here. The band has developed a more fluid style, presumably through rehearsing together and becoming more confident. They can therefore put their tricky musical ideas into practice. There are five songs, all of which would later appear on their full-length album ("Nespithe"). Their death metal revolution starts here, they would only take incremental steps from this moment on.

The tape begins with an ominous sounding intro. Demilich then pummel through five sinewy tracks of death metal weirdness. No-one had done anything like this before. There are fewer similarities with Carcass and grindcore than on the previous demo. This stuff sounds more like "Soulside Journey" and "Gardens of Grief", perhaps with some Voivod thrown in. Demilich never come across as aggressive or angry. There is a feeling of nonchalance here, like some all-seeing, amorphous Lovecraftian terror. There are almost no hooks. The tempo is relatively consistent, between mid-slow and mid-fast throughout. The lead guitar is rarely used for extensive soloing. Instead it is there to guide you through the otherworldly journey, snaking from one riff to the next in an unbroken thread. I wish modern 'technical death metal' bands would use this band as an influence more often.

The production is better than it was on the previous demo. Demilich got a clear, precise sound this time around, different to what many other Finnish bands were doing (i.e., drenching themselves in reverb). That said, the production here isn’t perfect for Demilich. It sounds brighter than you might want. The vocals are too high. It lacks the smoothness that they would achieve on "Nespithe". While they have nailed their playing and composition, they haven't quite nailed their production aesthetic here. This was presumably because Demilich sounded like no-one else and had no template to work from. Their gargling, plaintive vocal approach was unprecedented and must have been difficult to mix, being very different to standard death metal vocals.

This is the best Demilich demo. This is the one to listen to if you’re interested in the early history of the band. It has a more organic and natural sounding production than their next demo ("The Echo”). Still, "Nespithe" is much better and includes all these songs, so you’re better off listening to that instead.