The Verdict

Death!

Yes, Death!

Indeed ... Death, played a major role in influencing the band. Not only do the arrangements in the songs wake such memories -- come one, you cannot listen to The Day After The Verdict and not recognize it --, also the vocals wake memories on Chuck. Progressive death metal is offered on the first demo of the Serbian band Sculptor and they did a pretty good job here. Not only is the production powerful, also the songs are quite catchy and interesting, despite their complexity.

Well, the songs on this demo are heavily Death-influenced, rather Human or Spiritual Healing than later stuff from The Sound of Perseverance. The technical/progressive level is good, but the band did not overdo it. The first segment of Exile is pretty cool, with their solo-like guitar part in the background, also are the tempo switches are well executed ... they know what they are doing, there is little doubt about it. The problem is: Death. The legacy of this American band hangs like a burden over this demo and Sculptor do little to convince the listener otherwise. Even though the compositions do not simply sound like a rip-off or copy of what Chuck once has composed, the band from Serbia combines progressiveness with death metal in a neat way, the facets of Sculptor's art are still as such as they can be clearly identified. Accordingly and not very surprisingly the advice: get an identity. In the current state, these aforementioned references will pop-up again and again.

Note: The first track should be skipped, though. I found the mixture of folk and a birth-giving sample -- this is by no means a joke -- a little bit odd.