Abattoir of Death

Of the insane number of bands out there that released a few demos before disappearing into obscurity, Warhammer is one of the more impressive ones. Abattoir of Death opens with a lead guitar playing a melody similar to the theme from Halloween, which opens the song fittingly titled "Halloween". While I do think that this melody goes on for too long, the song breaks into straightforward thrash metal about a minute in, which I have to say shocked me with its tightness and musical adequacy. The bass is loud and rumbly, the drums are tight, and the riffs are pure chaos. It actually reminds me of Sadus at some points, and this death/thrash sound is retained throughout the demo.

The lead guitars are amazing, and represent how solos should be written in thrash metal. The guitar tone is chunky and sharp, and despite the very rough sound (this is an 80s demo, after all), all of the sonorities are pretty discernible. Sadly, I have to say the first song overshadows the rest of the release, with its much longer runtime and overall more diversified song structure. However, the rest of the songs are very good examples of sludgy, grimy proto-death metal. The vocals are low and sound very gargled as opposed to grunts or screams, sounding very similar to early Sodom or even Carcass.

This demo is ridiculously heavy for 1985. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of content here that doesn't just rely on brutality. Carnal Lust takes a more bluesy, bass-prominent approach. Even near the end of the demo there are many riffs that sound like they belong on Repulsion's Horrified, years before that record saw the light of day, so I guess Abattoir of Death could've been seen as influential if it was bigger and possibly released on a label. This demo is very enjoyable, and one that I'm going to return to. It defies the expectation of a demo from a no-name band with generic artwork.