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I cannot help but think I’ve heard this before. Or something very much like this before, anyway. It’s not that it’s very good or very bad, ‘cause it’s actually pretty good. It’s just that it ain’t the most original thing around. Not that that’s bad, I suppose either. I mean, some would say that Death Metal all sounds the same anyway, but I digress.... First off, the band gets points for a very Death Metal looking logo, that’s for certain. To address the CD itself, I will say that the production definitely indicates this to be a demo. Everything is pretty low in the mix except the snare drum at times. The music is akin to old Incantation with vocals very much like Broken Hope and Necrophagia. The latest name-drop is witnessed most poignantly in the high pitched “vokills” that accent the ultra-guttural Broken Hope-type vocals at several points throughout these songs. The highlight of the demo is the too wordily-titled third song: “Fornicated Below Churches of Unrelenting Profanation.” That could be an Incantation title owing to its length, but even John McEntee has more sense than to use so many long words. I’m just breakin’ balls here. Listening to this demo with more critical ears, it might appear that Incantation in fact is the band’s sole influence. The tempos in one song, #3 for short, go from a blur to a sludge-infested pace and back and forth, and it works very well. Like Incantation. This is a tight group of musicians that would be best served by some better production values. The music works rather well for what it is. What one can hear of it, that is.
All in all this is a great demo that will hopefully garner the band some attention from a label that can afford them the production that they require. Oh, there is a pair of live ‘bonus’ tracks tacked onto the end of the final song. My only comment is that this cannot be a soundboard recording. I bet this band works well in the live setting, though. If any of you have the chance to see and hear Reign of Terror, give the band some support. They deserve it if only for playing old school brutal Death Metal very capably. During the final song the sound cuts out quite a bit. This is very distracting, but what do you want from a demo?
| Tracklist |
| 1. Satanic Upheaval |
| 2. Nocturnal Enbludgeonment |
| 3. Fornicated Below Churches Of Unrelenting Profanation |
| 4. Sword Of Antichrist |
| 5. Immortal Cessation [Incantation Cover] |
| (6. Funeral Mask - live) |
| (7. Barbaric Onslaught - live) |
: N/A
| Buy other Reign Of Terror albums |
