Hauriam Oscula De Te

Mathew Joseph McNerney (a.k.a. Kvohst) has had an interesting musical career. It began in a death metal band called Vomitorium (long before Code, Hexvessel and a ton of other bands/projects). This band only made one demo under the Vomitorium moniker (before changing their name to The Tragedians). That demo, "Hauriam Oscula De Te", could be McNerney’s first ever studio recording. He appears on guitar and vocals here, and I presume he was the creative nexus due to aesthetic similarities with his later work (though there are three other people involved, so I cannot be sure).

This is a substantial recording for a debut demo. There are six songs, an instrumental, and a couple of throwaway interludes (almost 25 minutes in total). It displays an eccentric mix of death metal and doom with some gothic influences and avant-garde tendencies (maybe some black metal too). The songs differ stylistically from one another but there is a unifying motive behind them. “The Dreams of Unknown Kadath" is total death/doom (similar to the earliest Paradise Lost, Anathema and Tiamat recordings). "Memories of a Funeral...." is fast and chaotic, with almost grindcore-ish nastiness. “Rhapsody in Blasphemy” is my favourite, containing thorny and melodic riffs reminiscent of early At the Gates.

The production is ‘awful’ if judged by normal yardsticks (recorded on cheap equipment with limited studio nous), but it has an earthy, balanced sound (monstrous bass, harsh guitar, loud/screeched vocals). The band sound like they barely rehearsed together before entering the studio, and the guitars drop out of tune occasionally. None of this matters because the members have natural synergy and everything slots together, albeit accidentally. The drummer might slip out of sync with the rest of the band, but this tends to result in interesting mismatched rhythms (e.g., the unexpected, accidental chaos of "In the Autumn Sorrow").

The band’s potential is obvious. There is plenty of songwriting depth with oodles of experimental ideas. This demo is best appreciated for its frantic and oddball nature. The same abundance of eccentric creativity would finally bear fruit on the first Hexvessel album, many years later (in a different genre of music). Fans of harsh, chaotic and obscure death/doom need to check this demo out, and may also be interested in The Tragedians demo that followed (which further emphasised the gothic and avant-garde elements hinted at here).