Here we go with the third edition of Dave’s Demo Roundup! This time around, we take a look at a variety of different bands in various subgenres.
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Rome’s Deceptionist, play technical death metal on The Beginning, a four-song promotional CD given a digital release on Bandcamp. Consisting of very tight riffing and a range of tempos, Deceptionist firmly toe the line between technical and semi-progressive death metal with this well done assault. Most of the songs concentrate on the technical riffing backed up by gruff vocals, but a few moments of melody creep in with some well placed guitar soloing and a nice jazzy bass line or two. Although Deceptionist are not particularly original, they certainly know their way around their genre of choice.
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Here’s an EP from Finland’s Ghastly, released by Demonhood Productions. Playing old school death metal with a doom laden vibe, Ghastly display a great deal of potential. Although this two-song affair is a low quality recording with hollow drums, Ghastly play with tight musicianship and showcase some songwriting chops. Backed up by a powerful production, I've no doubt that Ghastly could sound like a freight train, but that ideal has not been reached on this recording. Regardless, this taster will leave you hungry for more.
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Florida’s Tetragrammaton play very powerful, doom laden black metal with a huge, dense production on this demo from 2013. A plodding, crushing pace and a gigantic sound to the guitars anchor the band’s approach with vocals somewhere in between a scream and a rasp. Two songs appear on this demo with the second track showing considerable variation with haunting, clean vocals, and a blastbeat or two making appearances. A subsequent EP on Dying Gods Records has since been released by Tetragrammaton.
