Dèigh - Nothingness [Track] (2013, Self-released)

Spain has its fair share of black metal bands, but hardly any have ever achieved any form of international success. From Madrid comes Dèigh, a musician focused on creating "abrasive black metal". Dèigh released a demo in 2012 entitled No Life Flickers, and Nothingness, I think, is supposed to be one of a few tracks featured on a new EP with the same name.

Whether the 5:40 minutes long track is supposed to be the entire EP or just one track from it is a little unclear at the time of writing. I'm pretty sure 5 and a half minutes doesn't quite qualify as an EP, and if you could at all justify calling it such it would be because the track itself could well be separated into two parts. The initial part of the song is ripe with distorted guitars and is by far the most active part of the track, whereas the latter part of Nothingness is dominated by clean guitars and crash cymbals.

There are several things worth talking about regarding Dèigh and Nothingness. I don't exactly know where the "abrasive" tag fits in, because all I hear is poorly written and sloppily executed bland as fuck black metal. Nothingness does not possess the atmosphere and feeling a slow track can produce. It does not have the energetic headbang-inducing riffs a mid-paced tempo can invoke. And it certainly doesn't have the abrasive aggravation that high-tempo black metal can cause. The track (or EP or whatever) is mostly low speed "metal" with a really simple 4/4 riff accompanied by horrific bedroom production. After a minute or so the track completely changes to an equally simple clean guitar melody, this time chaperoned by some of the worst programmed drums I've ever borne witness to. When the distorted guitars set in again the image of bedroom black metal is completed with endless crash cymbals ad nauseum and no sense of timing whatsoever. To be honest it sounds a lot like the guitars were recorded with little to no attention to the drum track.

Dèigh has so little attention to detail that it sounds like he didn't even listen to the song before uploading it online. I have no idea if the rest of his material is of equally inadequate quality, but listening to Nothingness doesn't make me want to find out. I have seldom seen such a blatant disregard for the final product, and the fuck-it-all change from one part of the song to the next and the way the track jsut stops at the end as well as the near-constant crash cymbal only empasize this notion. The only thing even remotely redeeming on the demo are the completely run of the mill raspy black metal vocals sporadically found on the track. 2/10 guitars.

If for some reason you want to torture yourself or test your faith in the future of metal you can find Dèigh - Nothingness on Bandcamp here

DÈIGH official Facebook

Listen, if you dare



Want something to soothe those broken ears of yours? Get the 100th Review Anniversary Compilation for free with 20 gruesome metal tracks right here

Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches - Conjuring Lamia [Demo] (2012, Self-released)

To briefly introduce the band Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches is a band that according to their own biography play dark hypnotic music with a touch of inspiration from black metal bands and mythology aswel as horror movies. At the time of writing the band has 17 likes on Facebook. Though Facebook is by no means an indicator of quality it was already here that I began having doubts if my time would be well spent listening to it. The pretentious picture of a masked man aswel as the mind-blowingly horrible "art" that resemble the demented drawings of a mentally challenged 3rd grader didn't help much in staving off this assumption.I can only guess that Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches, in spite of the very misleading band name, consists of a single person. While I have yet to actually describe the music on the Conjuring Lamia demo, let me tell you that I too would conceal my identity if I were the author of such horrid "music".

The demo consists of 4 relatively short songs ranging from just over 2 minutes to a little over 3 minutes in length. At 11 minutes of playtime total it seems excessive to actually call this a "demo" rather than just a small compilation of random material. And boy does it sound random. Most of the time the songs are comprised of parts that sound like they were composed for vastly different purposes and put together with complete abandon, and the lack of good flow seems to be a recurring theme with Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches. For the most part the demo is poorly executed and sometimes an instrument will completely fall out and then come back a note or two later, leading to a generally untight disposition.

I don't think I have ever heard a demo that sounds so inadequate or incomplete. Conjuring Lamia has next to no artistic merrit or musical value. What disturbs me the most is that someone made this. This didn't just turn up on its own, someone deliberately created this monstrosity. Someone somewhere on this god forsaken planet is proud of having made this. Every single element feels out of place, and the elements that sound ouf of place don't fit together either. Every attempt to find a redeeming quality was met with disappointment. One might even think the band was created as a joke, but most joke bands I've heard are way better. The only small thing I found that has any hint of quality behind it is that rather than relying on programmed instruments and sounds the Australian band has seemingly recorded every instrument by hand, and this does grant the demo a small pinch of authenticity, but unfortunately not nearly enough to outweigh the inadequacies of the rest of its parts combined. 2/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Serpentine Glamour
2. Conjuring Lamia
3. Three AM
4. Throttled by an Angel

LAMIA HYDE AND THE SOUTHERN WITCHES official Facebook
If you by chance want to check out the entire thing, the EP is available for download here

Don't believe me? Think I'm being harsh? Check out this video and tell me I'm wrong.

Tormentstorm - Up from the Grave [Demo] (2012, Self-released)

Metal has come a long way since the beginning. Though having most of its' direct roots in the late 60's it wasn't until the early 80's that the various branches of extreme metal began to take shape, and countless modern day bands seek back to these extreme metal roots of Hellhammer, Venom and others like them in an attempt to copy or just take inspiration from them. Tormentstorm from Oklahoma, USA, is a one man effort aimed at taking part in the enormous 80's revival of more recent years with his hitherto only demo "Up from the Grave".

Whether Up from the Grave is a reference to the blatant 80's revivalism or because the music on the demo sounds like it's being played by a rotting corpse I don't know, but one thing is for certain. Tormentstorm is a prime example of why most one man bands shouldn't be ONE man bands. Up from the Grave simply lacks varied input, and when every song just sounds the same to the extent that this demo does it becomes incredibly tedious to listen to. At times I wondered if Malice, the ruling power behind Tormentstorm, was just improvising or if it was in fact organized. There are times when the music sounds a bit out of rhythm and on Screams of Torment I was wondering if the bass was even in tune.

With the aesthetics of a chaotic 80's metal band I feel that the 5 songs on Up from the Grave would be better suited with a production that doesn't reek of bedroom, and even better if it was played more energetically and at a higher tempo than the doldrum speeds that Malice put forth on the demo. It simply lacks the epic riffs, revolutionizing ideas and brilliant atmosphere of the bands that he takes inspiration from.

I normally don't mind low sound quality in music, as long as it's not paired with untight playing and boring songwriting. However Tormentstorm truely is a storm of aural torment, and I find it very hard to enjoy or even listen to. I hope Malice's future works are more thoroughly worked through. 2/10 guitars. At least the drums seem real enough.

Tracklist:
1. Up from the Grave
2. Slaughtered for Pleasure
3. Merciless Torture
4. Infernal Sorceress
5. Screams of Torment
6. Out for Blood

TORMENTSTORM official reverbnation