Demo 2

The first Towers Of Flesh And Blood demo was uniquely horrifying. It was some of the most soulless and dark music I'd heard come out of death metal in many years. The project's second, similarly title-less demo almost has a tiny shred of soul, but I think it might be accidental.

Where the first demo was machined out blackness that was at once psychedelic and almost industrial, this one goes in an almost more conventional route. There's still the band's lack of emotion, but now there's an actual aggression to fit the aggressive music. It's not passionate, but more a zombielike, dead-eyed frenzy. The atonal, Lovecraftian riffs of the first demo are still intact, but they're faster and more chaotic on this one, almost bordering on grind-influenced. The militaristic lurch of the drum machine is still ticking away, and the vocals are pushed further into the background than ever, leaving the guitar to do essentially all the talking.

Its speech, though, is unlike anything you've probably heard before. With digital production that reduces the tonal and melodic qualities of the instrument to zero, the riffs sound more like a bodiless, rhythmic, and pitch-shifting wave of sound that's never content to stay in one place. Brackish, dark riffs wind through the three alphabetically designated songs on this demo while extremely noisy, violent, Azagthoth-influenced solos shatter what order is present. Some lead guitar is present over the riffs outside of the solos, in this case used almost like keyboards, playing small four-note sequences of what sound like horror movie themes from another dimension. The package is much noisier and more inaccessible than the previous demo overall, and requires a more focused listen. In fact, while the previous one seemed to be designed to trance out to, this demo seems to be designed for close study and focus.

I don't think this has managed to beat the first demo, but then again, little will ever be able to when it comes to just how bizarre and catatonic the music on that tape was. The second demo of Towers Of Flesh And Blood, though, is still a worthwhile listen to those either already ensnared by the artist or those looking to investigate the project's unique style. You can hardly go wrong with music as interesting as this.