Live Demo

Long before the moderately well-known Legion of the Damned did their death thrash stuff, there was a band called Occult. Eventually, the one just morphed into the other, along with a slight change in direction, which left some black metal roots behind, though Occult had been around for longer than most people realize – over a decade in fact. This demo is the group’s earliest recording and sounds like it in every way. Recorded at the Black Flame Festival in Holland in 1992, it shows the original incarnation of Occult, with what is probably a four-man line-up, though sadly not a very good soundman.

As live shows go, the soundman is the most important issue, but there are others we will get to in a moment. The general recording is of poor quality, causing a shaky effect to blur the tapes at some moments, as can be heard during the ominous introduction. It sounds like some score from a cult horror film and benefits from the uncertain delivery. For the rest of the show, Occult lean towards a black metal aesthetic with more deathly riffs, even some thrashy chugging mixing in with overt Satanic themes. The mix means that you get a basic choice of instrument: when you can hear the drums, you can barely hear the guitar, and during the vocals you pretty much have to listen just to them; also, the lead guitar drowns out almost every other instrument except the kick drum.

As for the performance, it’s difficult to say that we hear much of Occult, because out of nine songs, five of them are covers, which includes two being repeated for the encore. Totalling 30 minutes with some extended sections of “crowd banter” doesn’t leave much time for original material, nor does it sound amazing when we get it. ‘The Return of the Mystic Demon’ sort of moulds Celtic Frost riffs to a more uptempo style, then adds in blasting that obscures most of the music afterwards. Some headbanging rhythms suggest that this was played as much for fun as for serious Satanic worship. However, Sephiroth (the vocalist, and the only one with a pseudonym) sounds serious, roaring out his lyrics as if possessed and attacking the crowd conversations with the same fervour. That sometimes makes it intimidating to hear him howl, “Do you like the dark?” to the pundits, but asking them repeatedly whether or not they know Acheron’s tape is more than a little humorous, especially when he adds, “I can’t hear you!” to clarify their response. Several members of the crowd are howling back as well, so the atmosphere may have been special, or perhaps there was free booze.

I suggest you don’t listen to Live Demo unless you enjoy lo-fi recordings without many songs. It certainly captures a moment and may have some value for fans in that sense, but Occult’s earliest output mostly suggests that they hadn’t written enough songs and Sephiroth was a bit of a prick. However, if you play this and then one of Legion of the Damned’s albums, you’ll definitely give yourself a shock.