Black Christmas

This demo was recorded 10 years ago. Gunner and his companions created their first half an hour of sonic terror.“Black Christmas” can be described as a low budget effort from the yong hungry band. Drums are programmed, guitars are dirty, screams are hidden deep within the mix, not much to say about the bass, it keeps up with the guitars. Some tracks are actually sound as if they were mixed or even recorded in different places (I suppose demo combines songs from different recording periods).

Let's get into the details of this mystical violence.
The compositions themselves are not complex, mostly straightforward. Such tracks as “Волчьи Хребты” and “Ненависть” are great examples of speed and brutality. Both songs represent the best songwriting on the demo. “Волчьи Хребты is pure "Dark Funeral oriented" black metal with black tremolo pluckings and deep death metal section in the middle. Guitar solo here is very chaotic and cryptic, mostly played at very high speed. “Ненависть” is mainly done in the same way: speed, dark atmosphere and chugging. The outro of this track will never get old within Lycanthropy's realm, truly catchy melodic guitar solo. Acoustic intro in “Панихида Рабов” with its slow-moving acoustic arrangements and Lucifugum’s cover “Sociopath” are also to be mentioned, last one has a very good sound production comparing to the rest of the songs while the first takes on a darker tone. "Тихий Омут", "Пробуждение" and "Голос Бездны" are ordinary ambient tracks: simple synth pads without vocal samples. "Ловец Снов" and "Вечная Тьма" are done in the same black/death formula but they lack the quality of the previously mentioned material. Both songs are too repetitive in their structure. No solos here, drum machine sounds too plastic (I suppose that different samples were used). As a direct result of all disadvantages each of these songs sound below the average.

There is one specific feature of “Black Christmas” demo: Gunner’s guitar dominates all the time combining nonstop tremolo picking and death metal hooks. Everything else is simply in the background of his poisonous licks. Yes, screams are okay, the man Satyrius sometimes shines on their debut demo, electronic drums are more or less good (except "Ловец Снов" and "Вечная Тьма") but this band is guitar driven. The guitar work of Gunner is not exceptional, but it works pretty good. The production is quite raw, to nowadays standards, poor. Nevertheless, I really enjoy the first Lycanthopy’s nail. Yes, sometimes guys are a bit out of tune and production sucks but the brutal nature of the material can’t be denied. Extremely fast black/death metal storm with quite good guitar solos, harsh screams and death metal vibe. Imagine as if Dark Funeral meets Entombed. Demo must appeal to all fans of Lycanthropy’s further material.