Internal Bleeding Demos

Last year, two of Internal Bleeding's early demos were re-released by Brutal Infection Records on cassette.  Internal Bleeding is one of the most important bands in the formation of slam death metal, being one of the earliest pioneers in the sound.  They also happen to be one of my favorite slam death metal bands (a genre that is something of a guilty pleasure for me), and so, I had to have them.

Now, technically I have already heard both of these demos.  The first release I picked up by Internal Bleeding was the Alien Breed compilation, which was a collection of the band's first three demos as well as a new song.  I should specify that I did not seek out that compilation.  Instead it was part of a grab bag that I bought from Century Media, which worked out quite well for me.  Internal Bleeding broke up a few years after the compilation was released, but has recently reunited and released new music, including an album just last year.  Unfortunately, I have yet to hear their new stuff to this point.

These two demos are absolute landmarks in the brutal death/slam genre.  And for damn good reason.  They laid the blueprints for how the sound would develop, blueprints that Internal Bleeding themselves expanded upon with their debut album Voracious Contempt and which other bands like Devourment took and made their own improvements.  By and large though, the two Internal Bleeding demos are the foundation upon which the slam death genre was built.

What is perhaps most impressive about these two demos is how fully-formed and professional the music sounds.  A lot of demos have terrible production values, and while I do not know how the demos sounded when they were first released (it is possible they were improved upon on Alien Breed), if they sounded like this, they were damn impressive.  Besides the production values, there is generally the sound.  Internal Bleeding, as founding member Chris Pervelis once told me on this blog, set about from the very beginning to focus on groove and hooks above all else.  That focus is obvious on these releases.

I am not sure which one of the two I would recommend above the other, they are equally good.  I suppose my recommendation would be to get them both at the same time.