Morbus Grave: Abomination (2019)

This is the third of the trio of death metal demos I picked up as a package deal from Redefining Darkness Records.

Morbus Grave is an Italian death metal band that has been the longest active of the three bands from this package.  They formed in 2012 and have released three demos and a split with Lurking Terror. 

After a short, eerie intro, this song kicks off into a fast-paced and energetic punky death metal song.  The band's sound seems rooted in the early Stockholm sound of groups like Dismember, Nihilist and Grave.  The first two songs are very fast, which makes it that much more shocking when the slowly grinding "The Horrible" comes on.  There are moments where that one picks up the pace, but it's general sound is much more in the vein of death/doom bands like Cianide than the aforementioned speed merchants. 

Morbus Grave is not the most interesting of the three bands from this short series, but they are decent enough.  They do not do anything new or groundbreaking, but it is highly competent old-school sounding death metal.  Nothing wrong with that.

Sculpted Horror: Festering Death (2018)

This is the second of a trio of new death metal demos from Redefining Darkness Records.

Technically, this is a reissue of Sculpted Horror's 2018 demo.  It contains an extra song "Bonewalker" which is an instrumental at the end of the release.  Sculpted Horror is an Athens, GA one-man death metal band that sounds Finnish. 

Sculpted Horror is clearly influenced heavily by groups like Demilich and Convulse.  The riffs are extremely murky and heavy with the kind of putrid, slimy sound that made the Finnish death metal scene so intriguing.  The vocals are also the kind of deep-throated croak utilized effectively by those groups.  This is a very quick four-song demo in which none of the songs last much longer than four minutes, just enough time to make some creepy, sepulchral noise and wrap up.  Let's just say that the release title is apt.

There are a number of very good one-man death metal bands, which seems like it would be a tough thing to pull off.  Sculpted Horror have done enough on this demo to make them one to watch.  This is a very impressive release.

Effigy: MCMXCII: Darkest Day (2019)

The next three posts will be a few demos from new death metal bands all released by Redefining Darkness Records.

Effigy is apparently not really a new band.  They formed initially in 1992 but did not release anything at the time.  The members went on to form the death metal band Abominant, who have released a number of albums and are still active, and Sarcoma, a short-lived thrash metal band.  This is their first demo.

The subject matter here is pretty dark.  Based on the title of the demo, it appears to be about World War II.  The music has a heart-wrenching solemnity that fits well with the subject matter.  Yes, this is unabashed death metal with an old school flair, but just because the music is heavy and punishing does not mean there is not some emotion underlying the whole thing.  The band's primary influence seems to be Death, and that band was masterful at conveying emotion through their brutality.  The same thing appears here.  Of particular note are the blazing leads and shredding solos present.

Hopefully Effigy will stick around this time, because this is an incredibly impressive demo.  It fits in well with the current death metal resurgence this year.