For the Love of Death...

Paramoure is a band I’ve only become aware of pretty recently, and though they vanished into oblivion, they didn’t do so without a trace. That trace – is a very striking demo of powerthrash which hit the streets in 1989, and unfortunately never lead on to anything else – a shame. This is caliber powerthrash with enough likeness to Blackstorm, Hexx, Deadly Blessing, Ra Pariah, Holy Terror and especially Firststrike. Though the sound is of typically low demo quality, it just oozes with spontaneous energy, destructive, nasty ambience and ballsy attitude. Aggression is a key word here – this isn’t really the operatic, soaringly majestic style power metal of Heir Apparent or Fifth Angel, but a much nastier, thrashier blend, with snarling vocals, tough thrashing headbanger riffs, and chaotic, spontaneous eruptions of violence.

Though there are some moments of rather beautiful melody (The intro section to Birthright), these are usually swiftly supplanted with menacing scowls, dark thrashing riffs and even darker themes. The majority of the album is heavy, fast, tough, nasty and spontaneous in nature – a real winning bunch of attributes there. ‘Hospitsal of the Unholy Cross’ is a menacing, dark thrash number with an aggressive shouted chorus, and shrill high pitched shrieks by Dave London. The band’s self titled track is a shred fest of Fatal Violenceesque variety and some sweet anthemic lyrics, while ‘Food For the Gods’ takes the thrashing to almost hardcore punk places at times, before the chaotic structure of this number rakes us with dazzling displays of fretwork and blastbeats, with some metal guitar melodies. Spontaneous and aggressive domination

A very solid offering, particularly for a demo. This band really gets things right for USPM fans – the songs have cool themes, the music is nasty and aggressive; riffs are tough, energey is present in droves, crazy vocal shrieks erupt out of nowhere. The sound is almost like Fatal Violence at times, and for those of you in the know – this is one of the most revered cult acts of powerthrash, and USPM in general. It’s rare that bands get so many aspects of a recording right, but this one, barring the production quality, has done almost everything. A solid, heavy demo offering that showed plenty of promise. All tracks here are solid, and not straight-forward. If you enjoy Fatal Violence, you should check out this dominator.

-DeathRiderDoom