CDs/LPs - DEMOS - OLD STUFFS - FANZINES - GIGS
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OBLIVIATED (Can) Demo'07
This is a new band that changed moniker from "Sodomized corpse" to "Serpents spawn", and finally choose OBLIVIATED and released its first demo in 2007. The music is quite old styled Death thrash (Kinda like some very early Cannibal corpse (Demos/ 1st Lp), Necrophagia (1st Lp), Corpus rottus (?) with some mid placed stuffs...), with a touch of old Death grind like early Broken hope, few "evil" riffs à la old Morbid angel or some half melodic death/ black à la old God dethroned... Their myspace page shows some more modern influences, but I didn't especially hear it, the music of Obliviated sounds older... It might be because of the muddy 4-tracker recording, the not very neat playing or the kinda "amateurish" approach that makes it sound 80's? Maybe, because it doesn't musically seem to suck deep, but I didn't clearly detect everything... They need to inject more power and stress-urges inside, because it sounds quite flat.
Well I'm in front of a young demo band who plays in local bars and still has many things to improve... For ex: To develop compositions and increase their skills... You must burn the strings during infernal rehearsals!
http://www.myspace.com/obliviated666

OCCISOR (Chile) Ascension de la muerte Demo tape. 2020. INFERNAL OVERKILL Recs.
Chile strikes again! I'm familiar with a previous demo (Released in 2014) of this thrashing outfit from "San José de la Mariquina", back then they played quite raw old school thrash with blackened vocals... I have to say I can hear some changes and improvements with this newer recording: The music remains globally thrashing, but you can find a bigger influence of the blackened side at the level of the guitars, the riffs also sometimes sound more technical, and the production is of better facture. (I might add more ancient Scandinavian influences can be found in the riffing themes).
During the spiked listenings, I happened to think about old AURA NOIR, old AUDIOPAIN, early POSSESSED (Seven churches), perhaps old KEEP OF KALESSIN, or maybe a bit of old DISSECTION among others.
These four songs are quite well made and composed, to be honest this wasn't the most thrilling demo I experienced, but it remains a quite good effort. Fans of underground blackened thrash and black/ death might be interested in stuffing their rusty crucifix here.
https://occisorchile.bandcamp.com

OCCULT PANTHEON (Chile) The omega of the alpha Demo tape. 2016. SOUL REAPER Recs.
Occult Pantheon is a pretty cool new death metal band from Chile that strikes your tape player with this first demo.
The kind of death metal they choose to play is some kind of a dark mixture between traditional end 80's/ early 90's death and a more "bestial" black death metal.
For the more traditional approaches you can think about MORGOTH ("Cursed") for the mid-paced somewhat "doomy" riffings, or a bit of very early GRAVE (First album or demos... This said the production is different).
For the more bestial approaches, I'm not an expert of the genre, but very old ARCHGOAT (In the 90's when they had low DM vocals) wouldn't be misplaced, while very early IMPALED NAZARENE (Demos?) might not be totally wrong.
The production is rather natural, a bit filthy and obscure.
The vocals are a bit different from usual death metal bands, of course you find some regular morbid vocals, but it's also more varied as you can hear some exuberant voices à la old MAYHEM ("De mysteris..."), sung vocals in an old doom metal manner, or regular black metal screams...
During the listening, I also used to think about some very early SEPULTURA ("Morbid visions") or Chilean EXCORIATE (Well this isn't perhaps a surprise because the drummer used to play with them, and also in Demonic Rage or Profound Grave).
There are a couple of intros/ interludes with classical music, I have to say it was a bit too long... Even if it's not bad musically, it kinda diluted the morbidity.
"The omega of the alpha" is a pretty cool demo tape, traditional old death metal coming with more "bestial" influences and some difference sounding vocals.
I can't say I was thrilled on the altar of morbidity, but some MORGOTH alike moments are kinda cool and this isn't bad for a first recording.
https://soundcloud.com/occult-pantheon

OCEAN OF ZERO (Australia) The wake Demo tape. 2010. BLOODY OATH Recs.
Look what the cat dragged in... Another piece of plastic with two big holes and various other smaller cavities... I had no other choice than to introduce it in the player for the brutal rape begins! (Think about it, each time you listen to a tape, it's deflorated by a rapping machine and its erected pieces of iron or plastic!)
The OCEAN OF ZERO moniker reminds me some American brutal death or grindcore influenced bands who released demo around 2002... So it this the same genre? Did our cat forget the frolics through the park, or is there something edible to gnaw as angry hungry rats from Hungary?
Just put your fingers on the table, and listen while I randomly strike with the knife... The genre of this Australian band is located somewhere between regular Death metal from the beginning 90's and old school brutal death, but the playing is a bit more complicated than old school revisionism and contains more technical elements...
I hear quite a lot of similarities with early CRYPTOPSY (When they were good) minus the blasts and in a possibly more "evil" manner, while I also happen to think about DEFLESHED's first demos/ MCDs for the early brutal death that came with evil touches, but you can also hear the appearance of evil-mind patterns and chaotic leads à la early MORBID ANGEL (Before "Altars of madness"), a bit of midly brutal stuff à la old old DEICIDE, some regular US brutal death from 1998, a touch of early ANGEL CORPSE ("Hammer of gods"), and our malestromic shaker is quite full (Too many ingredients doesn't make good cocktails... Unless you like the taste of vomit).
This might not be "old school" in the meaning you expected, there's no AUTOPSY influence, not much of early DEATH neither much Swedish riffing; But it's quite fast, it sounds quite refreshing to listen and I guess some peoples will find it kicking.
I do not really enjoy of all their elements, some old Us brutal death riffs in the "Fast and groovy" manner sound a little "goofy" in my mind (Not the cookie monster, it’s not the same level) but globally the structuring of songs is quite compact and OOZ are quite catchy in the most epic technical moments.
This demo is very short, it contains 3 songs for about 10 minutes, but at least it shows this band can make something dynamic and not too generic... So let's cross our defleshed fingers and see what happens in the future.
(If you didn't notice, the first words of this review were stolen to the glam faggots POISON... Fuck you! We hate the pink!)
Email: bloodynoize(a)yahoo.com

ODIOSO DIOS (Argentina)/ DESTINO CRUEL (Argentina) "Abolicion resultadista" Split tape. 2013. PICANTES Recs/ SUCIO Recs/ ESKARAMUZA Recs.
 
ODIOSO DIOS: This is not the overproduced grindcore you can find in glossy magazines... Quite seriously underground but quite well composed grindcore/ Powerviolence with quite a lot of riffs/ tempos changes... There are a bunch of blast parts as well as slower Hc moments, the whole compacted in a right manner. Reminds me of early NYCTOPHOBIC (Eps and demos, before the albums), perhaps French DESECRATOR or early SUBLIME CADAVERIC DECOMPOSITION (Minus all the gore). Not bad. Short side with only a couple of songs, but quite efficient sounding.

DESTINO CRUEL: This band globally plays the same style, perhaps a bit more hardcore influenced? There are fewer tempos/ Riffs changes in the songs. The production is deeper in the underground, sounds like a live recording. This sounds like decent deep underground grind destined to big fans, but some slow HC moments are boring and the music has less impact than the side of ODIOSO DIOS.

https://odiosodios.bandcamp.com
https://destinocruel.bandcamp.com

OLDSKULL (Thailand) Oldskull of death MCD. 2016. INHUMAN ASSAULT Recs.
Could one seriously say a new skull is any good? It is far too fresh and bright to please the morbid needs, since only the old and macerated bones can reek of purulence and vicious stench... Hailz the old!
OLDSKULL is a new old school Death metal band from Thailand that counts previous members of SHAMBLES or ZYGOATSIS for example.
The death metal they choose to entwine their putrid skulls in is very old school and also quite simple sounding... No cheesy effects, no technical wankery, and also no rawer-than-raw necro-posing... It's old school the way we knew it 7 or 12 years ago, before it became more popular, and you can hear a cool warm sound or feel good atmospheres.
The music is located between the mid-paced and the fast, yet most is mid-paced or double-bass ridden.
During the deteriorating repugnant listening, you happen to view emanations from the old releases of (In no occult order): DEATH (Early), BAPHOMET, old OBITUARY, early SEPULTURA (When they were a good thrash/ death band, so an eternity ago), MORTA SKULD (First album only), old MORTEM (Peru), with a bit of ooold MORGOTH.
Except for a riff in the first song that sounds a bit too much like SIX FEET UNDER (It's some kind of groovy stuff), I didn't detect something bad sounding here... Perhaps it's a little too simple sometimes? It doesn't really matter.
This is a cool/ very cool maggot infested old school death metal with no fancy, that could please  fans of old atmosphere-fueled death metal who are there before all for the music and to rest under the pile of rotting corpses.
Web page: https://www.facebook.com/oldskullofdeath

ONE PER COFFIN (Usa) Demo CDr'06. SWAMP OF PUS Recs.
It's never too late to SHAKE MY COFFIN!!
Yeah, shake it hard and strong, until the blood escapes my necrotic pores! More violence!!
ONE PER COFFIN comes from Usa and plays some kind of death grind with a raw approach. While some blasts could remind of old CRYPTOPSY, there's definitely some US Brutal death influence, and the quite gory and disjoncted vocals reminds me of old EXHUMED! (And a bit of old EXIT 13 from "Ethos musick"). Sometimes we aren't so far from the technical grind hydro blast (Call it however you want). Add some nice riffs à la old SKELETON OF GOD, some heaviness à la old SKINLESS meets early DEEDS OF FLESH, and you have a nice artifacted coffin vision of the way the rusty door of your tomb will squeak.
It sounds quite extreme, and some riffs are quite fucked, but something lacks too really shake my coffin, and some songs do not sound so well structured to kill the begging listener... To conclude, I'd say it's not a bad demo, but it might get unnoticed in the massive flows of coffins that try to infest the crowded crematory house... The future will tell if ONE PER COFFIN will turn to really bloody coffin-shakers.
http://www.swampofpus.com

OOTHECA (Usa) Demo tape 2022. Self-released.
"An ootheca" is a type of egg made in big quantity by mollusks, mantises and cockroaches".
I hope the band members had your rotting body in mind when choosing this word!
Yurk. This is pretty cool old fashioned death metal/ grind à la old CARCASS (Symphonies) with a bit of strange 90's Finnish heaviness thrown in.
Fast grind moments, nice somewhat crazy leads, sudden breaks, semi vomiting vocals full of reverb... This is what you find in the middle of your cereals.
Hum, there's also a very slow doom part on the second song, sounds like DISEMBOWELMENT or something.
The production is quite "simple" but fits the criterias of the 90's/ early 00's.
Sometimes this band/ project might sound similar to very early PHOBIA (Usa) also, but the spirit is less grindcore, and you can feel something of old "technical" gore death metal here & there, perhaps like COPROPHILIA (Fin).
This sounds like a quite cool recording, two songs weren't long enough to reach a full erection, but this demo entertains the rotting carcass from the 90's... So keep an egg on their future infestations, which might be quite pullulating & crepitating.
https://oothecaslc.bandcamp.com

ORDEM MALIGNA (Bra) Automated universal dictatorship- Absolute demoniac oppression in 3666 Demo tape'03. IRON AVANTGARD Recs.
The strange intro reminds me the long teeth has gone; As neat as it might be in 2008, where has the ugliness gone?
ORDEM MALIGNA remembers a lot of SUFFOCATION on "Effigy of the forgotten", with possible hints of "Pierced from within" and fucked up zests of FALLEN CHRIST in the judeophrenic guitars. It uses various changes and variations on multibeats to make the quite technical guitars sound more ejaculating by moments (Some axelerations are nice for this): You find some blastasfuck, punching deathbeats, heaviness, but never any mosh or pseudo groovy... The goal is to be brutal as some kind of ugly, yet controlled, hungry bear.
Notice their song titles are quite cool, for exemple: "Mega Pazuzu's Manifestation In Hologram Form", "Asphyxiated By Nebulous Apparitions" or "Mechathronic Recrucifixion Of The Hebrew Human-God"... Apparently this is brutal death metal with an apocalyptic, futurist and demoniac state of mind (Who knows, cyber-goats might be better in bed than the so usual traditional goats... At least electronics rarely say no!)
ORDEM is quite good at emulating SUFFOCATION, but the songs are not on the same level of composition and I can't say it was really catchy, just quite interesting to listen. Some peoples will wonder "Why bother trying to emulate a Pentium 1 with a powerfull 386 while you could get an used P1 for 5 or 10 euros?"... Maybe because the old 386 might be in better conditions than a P1 that was too used and abused the last 10 years?
At least ORDEM MALIGNA has skills and some sense of the brutal song that might please your heads once in the right state of punch...
Hope their next recording will have a little better production to make their songs sound heavier... Not sure if they're still active.
Email: ordemmaligna@bol.com.br

OS (Hungary) Demo XXVII Tape. 2017. FUNERAL CHANTS Recs.
Here's a new cool Death metal/ Death doom band from Hungary that enters your cassette collection with this first demo. This is clearly old school metal.
Their songs sound like a more sober version of early AUTOPSY, with some death doom moments that could remember of mid old MORGOTH (Not so epic), with hints of the first VOMITORY album (When they were more old school) for faster parts.  In my humble decrepited hears, there are also riffs to be closer to the first DARKTHRONE album (When they were a Death metal band).
This is raw simple Death metal in the old way, the production follows this spirit, but the songs are built in a quite efficient manner (In this meaning it's not really retro, but this way there is no repetition boredom).
There are some cool AUTOPSY alike riffs, and some nice doomy atmospheres.
I don't know what the name of the band means, but it stands for "Bone" in French.
This is not an exceptionally rotting or bodily juicy demo, but it's a cool one and it's encouraging for what could come later from the depths. Fans of underground Death metal could swallow this morbid cassette without a problem.
https://osdeathworship.bandcamp.com

OSMOSIS (Spa) Deciduous altars of obscure liturgy MCD. 2016. ECLECTIC Productions.
When the worms dance, it can also be technical.
When the worms dance, it can avoid to be demonstrative.
When the ugly worms dance, it can remain in the dark and under the soil.

This Spanish band plays old school "brutal" death/ Death metal in a manner that aims to be quite adventurous, but remains in my 90's/ 00's comfort zone, with a bit of more "current" (But not too modern) approaches.
The playing isn't really based on brutality, even if blastbeats remain present: About half of the music is more based on semi "progressive" compositions that makes it a little "disconnected" (In a positive manner), while the other half tends to evolve towards an heavier DM or 90's brutal death.
You can feel the musician(s) listened to end 90's IMMOLATION, also perhaps SKELETON OF GOD, MORTAL DECAY and a variety of old Brutal death (That didn't totally lie towards the extreme), while some "black metal" approaches remind me of MAYHEM (Wolf's lair) or aren't that far from SUFFOCATION ("Souls to deny", think about the opening track). Some heaviness and dark moods aren't unlike MORBID ANGEL on "Gateways to annihilation", while some fastest moments could remind of Australian ALTARS (Less fucked) or perhaps mid old BLOODY SIGN.
Perhaps the "progressive" word I previously used can be misleading, to be more precise I could say the compositions are quite complex with a certain amount of changes at the level of riffs... The playing in itself isn't really progressive, but the music doesn't sound instantaneous either, and so could sound boring in the hears of those who need instantaneously catchy simple old death metal.
There are some nice, or even very nice feelings when the band approaches more black metal/ Depressive/ darker moods with quite cataclysmic arpeggios (A bit more of it could enhance the sufferance).
I appreciate the production, it remains quite dark and "warm", no plastic or clearness abuse here.
There are some interesting moments, some parts with more feelings, and the whole is pleasant to listen to... Now this globally remains destined to those like quite technical stuffs, even if the music isn't really.
Once the worms have developed, they can also turn into technical monstrosities of the horrible, and remain ugly and disgusting at the same time.
https://osmosis666.bandcamp.com

OVER POWER (Indonesia) Death becomes real MCD. 2022. GRINDER Recs.
If you have JavaScript problems, perhaps you should turn off your computer and have a look at what happens musically in the town of Kediri, located in East Java, Indonesia.
OVER POWER is a band that seems to be classified as grindcore sometimes, but my partly crepitating hears also detect a good dose of death grind, and maybe touches of black metal here & there.
This is often fast, blasting stuff, with a "punkish" edge on guitars sometimes, and nicely produced drums (That also happen to play the "Tchuka tchuka" death metal beat).
The seven songs somewhat sound like a mix of old ROTTEN SOUND, DR DOOM (The pre TEETHGRINDER band?), NASUM, a bit of old HATEWAVE (Demo), and maybe old MORTALIZED (Jap)...
The content sounds pretty nice, the production comes with a somewhat "HM-2" taste, but not as overdriven... Some blasting parts are nice, this is quite energetic sounding.
Then I feel some moments lack a bit of power of become a little too "punk" (Perhaps due to the guitar sound that can be less "full" by moments?) to really grind your hears to deafness. But globally this is a recording that might please those who like "quite classical but not really old school" grindcore/ deathgrind in the bottom-kicking manner.
BIG BUTTS DESERVE BIG BLASTS.
https://overpowergrind.bandcamp.com

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