Excruciating Pain

Vital Remains' second demo is an exercise in classic death metal style executed to perfection and still relevant today, like any good work the years don't affect it and highlights the band's early genius.

This work would be the prequel to the debut album "Let Us Pray" which would be the absolute consolidation of the band's crafty and atmospheric style, while many of their contemporaries aimed to reach higher speed levels, Vital Remains prefers the emotional charge of their music without renouncing to the strength, it's a slower death metal but it doesn't even have traces of doom metal, it's just the way they fit the songs to the rhythm of punctual blastbeats together with careful riffs loaded with a mighty malevolent aura to emphasize the musical aspect of the band's theme.

Some may find it pretentious for a demo to include an intro and outro based on the same elements giving a cyclical impression that marks the demo listening experience as a journey, I see it as Vital Remains taking their music seriously, and if the intro can give the impression of that, they confirm it in the very first song, "Human Sacrifice" demonstrates a maturity in terms of songwriting that is quite incredible for mere teenagers, without stopping the machine for a single moment, the song progresses by boasting heavy riffs and guitar virtuosity going through different phases at higher or lower speed but always with the same intensity.

The highest point I find in the following track, "Resurrected" demonstrating not only a more than remarkable musical structure but also showing the very best level of all the members, from Jeff Gublin's impeccable vocals that adapted perfectly to the cold and macabre style of early Vital Remains to Paul Flynn's leads of clear Slayer's influence, with Ace Alonzo's eclectic drumming style and the huge Tony Lazaro (the king in this party) setting the tempos of a tricky Vital Remains that shows us the song closer to what would become their defining style in their earlier career, with lots of variations throughout the song, repetition of segments to foster the atmosphere and above all, the use of the flanger pedal that they have always used so situationally, this is my personal taste but how much I wish more bands would implement it, used in the right way it manages to create a hellish atmosphere.

Only for side A the demo would be worth it but side B is not far behind, the songs on this side although they follow the same patterns as the previous ones have to be developed in a faster way, which doesn't help the set up of that atmospheric character that is so important, but even though they are shorter they are perfect they way they are. The homonymous "Excruciating Pain" is the most outstanding of this side, not only for being the most furious and powerful with a crushing and effective chorus, but also because if you look closely the intro of the song is an early version of what would end up being the intro of the song "I am God" one of the best tracks of the band.

Don't let the cheesy cover fool you, this is a strong piece of classic death metal but far from sounding like a standard death metal band, this shows the creative ability of Vital Remains and their unique approach to performing their music, a style that to this day I haven't seen anyone else perform as well as them, and as if it was the easiest thing in the world they already conquered and mastered it. With their second demo, they were already better than most of the bands of their genre that existed and that were still to come, simply incredible.