Stepping on Angels... Before Dawn

This collection of early demos and live recordings gives the listener an insight into the early development of these death metal legends. Listening to the whole thing through one can see them grow from humble beginnings into the beast we find on “Dawn of Possession”. The first few tracks show Immolation as a much more thrashy affair, and if taken on their own they would be considered nothing special at all. One is reminded of the countless death metal acts in the late 1980s trying to make a name for themselves and many failing to do so. This is, however, a band trying to take extreme metal beyond the realms of Slayer and Celtic Frost yet one that has not developed a truly unique sound as yet. As with listening to early demos from say Atheist, they are interesting only in the present day context as it charts the development of a band going from the realm of thrash to primitive death metal and finally into something truly distinguished. All that makes the Immolation we know and love today is there only in the very simplest, most primitive form lost behind a bunch of kids emulating the music they love and having fun doing so.

And then we move onto early versions of tracks that found their way onto “Dawn of Possession” and the strength of passion to create something that truly stands out becomes clearer. The riffing is more complex and they connect up with each other in far less predictable ways, rhythms and tempo changes become far more engaging and we are also treated to Ross Dolan’s vocals for the first time. At this time his voice still needed some fine tuning but it serves to take the band beyond the Repulsion/Autopsy school of early, simpler death metal. Production wise there is still much to be desired, but as these are only demos one can let that slide; the songs are still very much listenable but it occasionally takes away from the power of this music. From listening to the live recordings one can tell that even in the early days Immolation had the desire to become truly great musicians and were willing to practice a lot to achieve this; the sound quality is very poor, but good enough to make this one fact out. There are also live covers of Autopsy and Sepultura to be found on the same track as the live version of “Dawn of Possession” for those interested in where Immolation’s early influences lay. These performances, along with the collection of demo as a whole, should serve to remind one how exciting extreme was in Europe and the US at this time if they do nothing else.

In short this should make an interesting companion to “Dawn of Possession” (as the album art may be suggesting), containing early versions of songs to be found on said album and charting the development of not only Immolation but also death metal itself; from kids trying to emulate the music they love into something truly elegant and unique.