Black Sermons

Branding its black and white cover with satanic imagery, this death metal demo from the early nineties offers a nice dip into the Swedish underground.

Desecrator's "Black Sermons" do feature the twin guitars of Oskar Dronjak, from Hammerfall fame, and of Anders Iwers, from the mighty Tiamat. Desecrator was thus bound to release some furious and true death metal sound.

The recording opens up with "Into the Abyss of Hell". This first track has an atmospheric intro with soft guitars and keyboard choruses before building up as a punchy melodic death metal song. The raspy dried-out vocals of Oscar Dronjak swipes the scene as the riffs start escalating. The vocal performance is effective throughout and does sound like a dehydrated Pelle Ohlin (Morbid / Mayhem). Don't get me wrong, Oscar's vocals are in good shape, but sometimes, as in the third track "Necrosis", it doesn't seem to be articulated enough to grasp fully all the lyrics.

The second track "The Invocator" is the most straightforward of the set. Starting after a mid-paced intro underlined with keyboards, the chainsaw twin guitars sizzle in the ears with relentless riffs, injecting speedy solos sporadically. "Necrosis" with its eight minutes long, was probably thought and composed as the tour de force. It offers some saturated riffs and catchy melodic interplays at a mid-paced speed before bursting out in some kind of Reign in Blood King/Hanneman demented guitar solos.

All in all, the production of this demo is really successful for an underground act. It has a powerful sound and the chainsaw guitars do occupy a large portion of the aural space together with the death growl singing. The voice is haunting and spectral; the lyrics of the "Black Sermons" are demonic and well-written for satanic entertainment. The drumming of Uffe is well positioned in the mix and does alternate faster and slower patterns without being repetitive.

But the true highlight of this demo is the sublime work of the dual guitars. In the competitive solos as well as in the superfast riffing, Iwers and Dronjak are spouting fire from their axes. And what a blistering death bliss! At times, some keyboard touches lay an atmospheric and freezing feeling upon the boiling turmoil.

Of course, it all ends too soon and too quickly. It's high time to add Desecrator to your cursed list of true death metal from the Swedish underground.