Promotape '94

This demo has everything you could expect from a German black metal band. The production is horrible, the vocals are horrible, the guitar riffs are boring and repedative. Anyone who loves black metal should highly appreciate a release like this. To tell you the truth, sometimes there isn't much of a difference between a demo and a real fully "produced" black metal album.

The demo opens up with a track filled with less than memoriable guitar riffs and drums that blast beat their way to oblivion. There really isn't a single thing special about this track except maybe the random growls that start off the song.

'God In Ruins (Your Blood Is Like An Ocean)' opens with a great black metal melody. You can really tell these guys are trying for the grim cold feel that black metal is known for but the distortion of the guitars just doesn't cut it. The music sounds great but the atmosphere doesn't fit at all. The drum work actually sounds decent. It isn't just mindless blast beats that black metal demos are known for. The only problem with the song is that it runs about 6 minutes too long. In the first 2 and a half minutes you've heard everything there is. You know that the vocalist can growl with no real purpose and the band can hold a decent beat together.

The further in you listen to this demo the less it sounds like black metal. With each song the guitar distortion becomes less and less raw and take on more of a computer type sound. It doesn't work well and actually becomes very annoying. It sounds more like your listening to a computer fan buzzing rather then a black metal band.

By the time the last song comes and goes I don't even think they have a guitar present anymore. The demo goes from the best to their worst and in that order. It's suprising they would actually release a collection of such shit to try and be signed to a record label. Of course that is unless releasing the worst shit possible was their goal.