Divine Blasphemy

I think this might be a contender for "most amateurish layout" out of all the albums in my physical collection. You pick up the CD case and it feels noticeably heavier, but then you open it up and discover that it doesn't feel heavy because it's got a thick, extensive booklet or anything, but because the two-sided cover is actually printed on a creased piece of posterboard. Classy, guys, very classy. Anyways, the physical presentation of the whole demo is pretty funny, but the music is actually a lot better than the hilariously DIY layout. Not that that'd be a particularly hard level of quality to achieve, but as far as bands go that only the members' grandmas are interested in, this is pretty good.

Myrmidon's style of black metal is pretty unarguably generic, but it works for what it is. This is surprisingly well-produced for a black metal demo - the tone and volume are stable, and the guitar tone is pretty bassy and easy on the ears while still allowing a reasonable amount of melody to shine through. This isn't too far off from the production standards of a black metal band that'd get signed to, say, some big label like Century Media, and if the band's music weren't so simple I'd say it could probably pass off as such. The band mostly stick to 3/4 time, playing fast, blast-driven riffs with momentous, acrobatic guitars that play melodies that tend to leap over the music in mechanically precise bounds. There's usually a lot of subtle dissonance that results from the two melodically separate guitar tracks mingling, which eventually starts feeling a bit predictable but oh well, I guess it's the norm for black metal bands. There's a bit more bass presence than your average demo-level BM band; you can usually clearly hear it bleating out under the guitars, though it's not creating its own lines of melody or anything. Vocally, Divine Blasphemy is pretty silly, seeing as the vocals are all mid-pitched, echoing black metal shrieks that are half-croaking, half-rasping, but they're pretty interesting to listen to and complement the music sufficiently (but then again, it's pretty generic, so it's not like it's fine-tuned to the point where some special vocal technique would be required).

Myrmidon sometimes drop their blasts for moments at a time in favor of stripped-down crash hits, and when they do the music gets pretty bouncy; and I find that these bouncy parts are probably the highlights of the whole demo for me (see the middle section of "Mystical Mooneye" and the almost death metal-like arpeggios near the end of "Somber Destiny"). The rest is decent, but not much else about it besides its occasionally bounciness grabs my attention or compels me to listen to it more than, say, once every six months. It's also worth noting that while the recording quality is unusually clear by black metal standards, the mix leaves a bit to be desired as the drums don't really mesh with the other instruments and just kind of exist in their own little world; a little added fuzziness wouldn't hurt them. All in all, you don't really need to hear this, but it's decent (especially considering it cost me maybe $2) and if these guys had gone on to make a full-length it'd probably be... well, generic and ultimately unremarkable just like this is, in all likelihood. Never mind.