Vermin

I’m not really sure how long I’ve had this promo lying around, ‘cause somehow it’d wound up in a pile of old bills and whatnot. But to tell you the truth I’m almost sorry I found it. This is the debut demo by a one-man band. He entered some studio called Rottensound to record it, and the name of the studio couldn’t have been more fitting.

Why the hell would you release a demo like this? The production is absolutely abysmal. The guitar is just a screeching noise, basically, from which you can hear some riffs every now and then. The drum kit sounds like it consists of old dinner plates for cymbals, a cardboard box stuffed with old quilts for bass drum and an ordinary desk for snare. And this has been recorded in front of an old tape recorder on the floor of the rehearsalroom. Except for the vocals, which were recorded with a mic in the toilet room. That’s what it sounds like, I’m not kidding.

This also makes it incredibly difficult to judge the music presented, as it comes delivered in such horribly annoying sound. But from what I can decipher it sounds like a fairly potent mix of the American and European styled death metal. A few times I believe myself to be hearing some Morbid Angel influences, but still it carries with it a somehow typical French feel. The tempo changes are many, ranging from full-on blasts to slower and more haunting moments where I can’t help but to think of Unanimated. But throughout a track like "Enemy of the sun" I’m made certain of Nile to be a heavy influence. Vocally it’s mainly growls, but he throws in some back-up screams, adding a nice touch to it.

It really is too damn bad he settled for this horrified sound, ‘cause it really doesn’t do the music any justice. It sounds like he’s quite a competent musician with some great ideas, and the riffing you can hear for real is good, as well as some great guitarlines. I’m sure this could be pretty cool and powerful, but as it is now it’s almost excruciating to listen to. I’m not asking for the world’s biggest budget to record a demo, but you have to be able to do better than this; I’ve heard way better sound coming from low-fi rehearsalroom recordings. Apparently he’s gathered some live members to do gigs, and they’ve started writing new material for their next recording, and I certainly hope the next output will sound a hell of a lot better.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net