From Beyond

The first thing you will notice about this Desultory demo is that it shares a title with a Massacre album. Desultory actually got there first. This came out a year before Massacre's more famous "From Beyond". That is where the similarities end. Desultory's first demo is straight thrash metal with hoarse, throaty vocals. Anyone expecting the melody-infused death metal of their debut album ("Into Eternity") will be surprised by this one, which is unlike anything else the band recorded.

In truth, Desultory always had more of a thrash basis than their crusty Swedish death metal contemporaries. You could hear this in their riffing and song-writing. They tended to maintain a medium/fast pace. They never went for the tempo-shifting, warping, winding experiments of real death metal. As a result, no Desultory material is anywhere near as extreme as bands like Grave or Nihilist. Their first demo is the best indicator of the band's roots. This sounds like Teutonic thrash mixed with Bay Area thrash. Combine the clanking, primal sound of "Flag of Hate"-era Kreator, then add some Testament. I assume Alex Skolnick was an influence on Desultory because it would explain the melodies they would later aspire to. In terms of Swedish comparisons, I would add Merciless who recorded their debut album "The Awakening" a few months beforehand.

Klas Morberg's vocals are different to every other Desultory recording. They aren't particularly deathly on this demo, being more in the Petrozza/Angelripper vein (or maybe Rogga from Merciless). The guitar playing and drumming are solid, impressive for a band's first demo. This is a good indicator of the high overall quality of musicianship in Sweden at the time. The bass is too quiet in the mix but the production is passable otherwise. It doesn't benefit from the typical Sunlight crunch, and barely feels like a Skogsberg recording at all. The riffs are the generic semi-technical ones that were typical of late 80s Bay Area thrash, they stifle the space and leave little room for heaviness. Desultory don't take too many risks, the pace is steady throughout and there are some remnants of punk. The trademark Desultory melodies were still in their infancy at this point. The best song might be "The Awakening" (another titular co-incidence?), which has some chunky, moshy bits that sound heavier than the other songs.

The problem with a demo like "From Beyond" nowadays is that it doesn't serve a purpose anymore. There is a strange lethargy to it. There are some nice riffs but nothing sticks, and the band show little emotional investment in any of it. The band trashed these four songs soon after and none of them ever appeared again. Desultory would improve massively by the time they recorded "Into Eternity". Their next two demos ("Death Unfolds" and "Visions") served as prototypes for that debut album. In some ways, this makes "From Beyond" the most interesting of the band's demos, but it isn't interesting enough to warrant a listen. What is the point of listening to this instead of "Flag of Hate" or the first Merciless album? Desultory would be perceptive enough to know that their future lay elsewhere.