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Deicide > Amon: Feasting the Beast > Reviews
Deicide - Amon: Feasting the Beast

A Decent Breakthrough - 70%

Petrus_Steele, June 27th, 2019
Written based on this version: 1993, CD, Roadrunner Records (US)

Amon: Festering the Beast is the compilation of the two demos the band released as, well… Amon. 1987’s Festering the Beast has quite the brutal album cover for its time. Meanwhile, 1989’s Sacrificial features twice the amount of songs (prelude track not included) and a newer version of Sacrificial Suicide. They reintroduced all the songs in their self-titled debut coupled with two more. This review is back-to-back written with the debut record’s review in mind.

Starting with the 1989 portion, Lunatic of God’s Creation involves a slick intro of drums blasting in, as well as Glen aggressively growling in like a maniac. The bass is clearly audible and the drums sound mighty fine. I like his vocals here more than the self-titled version. The guitars sound a bit annoying and repetitive, and given its structure, this song isn’t the most complex. Sacrificial Suicide sounds like thrash metal, which is not a bad thing. It’s got constant blast beats, and the song is pretty fast, especially the catchy choruses. The next two continue this pace, from one sounding vicious as the other gets sinister. All the instruments and vocals sound amazing and work as intended! To conclude this portion with Dead by Dawn, this one is definitely unprecedented in its time. A legendary song that remains brutal to this day!

As for the 1987 material, it’s so bad that I can’t express beyond its awfulness. The band’s first demo features the very first Sacrificial Suicide version. Opened by the title track prelude (which adds nothing, to be honest), you have some very catchy and brutal songs, but far from being any good in their current state. The next one sounds so atrocious, it can screech your ears, not to mention those whiny guitars. The compilation ends with Oblivious to Nothing (later changed to Oblivious to Evil). At least the drums sounded decent, but you can only get so much by appraising just one instrument.

I would expect the first demo’s nature to put its self-titled counterparts to the test, but they were not on a par with the newer versions, not even close. In fact, the newer versions exceeded all expectations - and not just by their rather improved production value. It appeared, back then, Deicide were portraying a satanic equivalence of Carcass’s goregrind, albeit more “death” than “grind”, of course. I reckon the tuning also must’ve been much lower. Speaking of production, between the second demo to the self-titled, they are so marginally different that I still can’t determine if the band tuned to E standard. Most of their songs suggest they tune/tuned to D# standard. Maybe that’s where they found their sweet spot.

So the first half of this release (except for Blaspherereion’s repetitiveness and not being an excellent song), I would’ve rated the second demo 85%. But with the horrible first demo combined, 70% sounds good enough in my book. I enjoyed this first half more than I used to - and I think it beats some of the debut record’s iterations, such as Lunatic of God’s Creation. I’d say all the songs between the two mentioned in this paragraph are the best.

Carnal clarifications for the completist - 65%

autothrall, April 19th, 2011

Similar to how Earache had scooped up Morbid Angel's earlier, unreleased demos through the Abominations of Desolation collection, so too would Roadrunner give their Floridian monstrosity Deicide such a treatment. Formerly known as Amon, Benton and the boys were asked to change their name due to its proximity to a King Diamond song title. This is a miserable excuse, really, even if the two shared labels. A fucking song title? Really? Nevertheless, they ended up benefiting from this alteration, because Deicide is indisputably a more provocative, controversial moniker and probably a factor in their considerable success. Amon: Feasting the Beast merely assembles the two demos the band recorded and released under their previous namesake, and offers them to the broader audience who likely never got to hear them unless they were involved in tape trading.

Well, I must say, both Feasting the Beast (1987) and Sacrificial (1989) were incontrovertibly brutal for the period in which they were released, rivaling their Florida peers like Death and Obituary with considerable ease. Most of the material here was re-recorded and released as the band's 1990 debut Deicide, with the one exception of the intro "Feasting the Beast", which is nothing more than some horrific ambient sampling. Feasting the Beast is naturally the more crude of the two old demos as Amon, and the reworked versions are unanimously superior, but I have to confess that Sacrificial sounds amazing. In fact, I like the versions here on this demo more than those put out the following year. The vocals have less rasping, and a more distinctly ominous feel, and the riffing sounds incredible through old standbys "Lunatic of God's Creation", "Sacrificial Suicide", "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned", "and "Blaspherereion".

Truly, it's no wonder that the band were quickly snatched up based on such a recording, and their place in history assured, their dynamic bludgeoning to scare the panties off numerous school teachers, clergymen and groupies alike in the ensuing years. So for that reason alone, and the chance to hear Deicide in their morning star glories, the fan might do well to at least check this out. That said, the earlier demo is not entirely appealing, and its flaws serve to counteract the strengths of Sacrificial. The pair might have been better suited as a bonus disc on the initial release of their sophomore Legion, rather than an independent product like this, but then that would have netted less profit for the label, so it makes sense in this format. At least it serves as a complete precursor to the Deicide name change, even if the only real value here is in exposure to some cleaner historical alternatives to the Deicide (1990) debut that everyone had no doubt already purchased. I bought it because at the time I had no clue what it was, but that was my own fault as I plunked paper route and dish washing profits down on anything I could find in the genre those days. For a fan package, this is not so offensive.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

An interesting piece of history - 70%

Reborn_Satanist, December 20th, 2009

Deicide always have been, and still are, a major name within death metal. Ever since their inception in 1987, they have consistently churned out top quality satanic aggression, aside from a brief rut around ‘Insineratehymn’. This, a collection of their two demos under the original moniker Amon, is therefore a prized insight into the band’s early days.

The first of these demos (in the order they are in the tracklisting), ‘Sacrificial’ from December 1989, contains six tracks, all of which are featured on the legendary self titled debut of June 1990. The cheapskate would argue that this makes this part of the compilation worthless, but these are sufficiently different from the album versions, at least in terms of production, to warrant the second purchase, if not for the history.

The performances on this demo are top notch, and the wonderfully muddy production, courtesy of the ubiquitous Scott Burns, is in my opinion what makes this recording superior to the versions featured on the debut. This is especially evident on ‘Sacrificial Suicide’ (possibly the best death metal song ever), which really benefits from the heavier bass, yet somehow clearer melodies that this production has given it.

The second, but earlier chronologically, of these demos, ‘Feasting The Beast’ from 1987, just weeks after the formation of the group, features yet another version of ‘Sacrificial Suicide’, along with three non-album tracks. One of these is a pointless intro, making an already scant four-track demo even moreso. The other two songs, however, show the primal aggression of death metal during its formative years – the first of these, ‘Day Of Darkness’, begins with a Slayer-esque rolling riff, also showing lots of Slayer influence as the song proceeds, in between the blastbeats. Unfortunately, the concluding solo seems out of place, and could really do with omission. The latter of the two tracks, on the other hand, is a mid pace rumble, which bears too much similarity to ‘Sacrificial Suicide’ to be separated by just two minutes of high-intensity blasting.

On both of these demos, but particularly ‘Feasting The Beast’, Glen Benton’s trademark vocals are present, but in a more primitive form, proving even more unintelligible than usual, and generally adding a grim murkiness to these recordings. The production is similarly primitive, and again, this could add or take from the music depending on your viewpoint – in my personal opinion, it improves the ‘Sacrificial’ demo, as it really adds an ominous crunch to it, but regrettably detracts from ‘Feasting The Beast’, as despite being clearer than you would expect, being recorded on 8 tracks in a garage, it really is too murky to distinguish some of the subtleties that are there (obviously, the only point of comparison for this is ‘Sacrificial Suicide’, but I believe that given Deicide’s generally high level of composition, that this would extend to the rest of the demo as well).

On the whole, this is a vital piece of history, and whilst it is not a brilliant recording per se, the latter demo much detracting from the overall quality, it is hugely interesting for anyone interested in the creation of the death metal sound.

Deicide's Demos - 67%

DawnoftheShred, June 9th, 2007

Due to popular demand, early death metal legends Deicide put their two demo recordings as Amon on a compilation and released it to the hapless public. The first six tracks are taken straight from the band's second demo, Sacrificial. These songs were recorded in a studio and sound very similar to the album versions. Notable differences? Well Benton's vocals aren't layered nearly as much as they are on the band's self-titled album, resulting in a much clearer delivery, though admittedly less evil. The guitar tone is also a bit clearer, a bit more reminiscent of late 80's thrash than a typical early death metal album. But since the songs are pretty much the same as the album versions, this demo is for the true Deicide fan or those that dislike the muddiness of the studio album only.

The last four tracks are taken from the band's first demo, Feasting the Beast. These, though inferior in quality, are the more interesting of the two sets of tracks. After an evil intro, the band blasts through three quick primitive versions of future album songs. The guitars are actually much heavier (and fuzzier) on here, but Benton's vocals are far different, sounding like subhuman uttering rather than his trademark roar. These vocals diminish these tracks for me, but some may find these early tracks superior to the ones that would follow.

Since I prefer the album version of these songs, this compilation is pretty much useless to me. But for fans of the band looking to hear them in their infancy with heavier production, you may wish to check this one out.

The four final tracks are the one that worth this - 81%

Estigia666, February 12th, 2003

Well, yes, here you got it, the demo tracks of the death metal beast Deicide when they were previously known as Amon. This release is divided into two parts: the Sacrificial Suicide demo, and the Feasting the Beast demo, so for all the morons who keep asking "Is there a misprint in the track listing? Why is Sacrificial Suicide named two times here?" i reply "No, is not a fuck up, the song was recorded twice in two entirely different demos".

Now, let us comment on the first demo. Production wise, it isn't too different from Deicide's debut. Interpretation wise, it isn't too different either. The songs are almost identical to the versions that ended up on the first LP. There are six songs in total. Nothing too spectacular.

Now, for the second demo. Like i mentioned in the title of this review, THESE are the ones that are worth the price of adquisition. The Feasting the Beast demo starts with one fucking piece of evil ambience track, with some screams and beast sounds. Then the first proper song kicks out, and comes as a real surprise for those who expected something similar to the first demo. This isn't similar at all! What you're hearing here is the most raw, primitive, animal sounding material Deicide has ever made in its career. Emphasis on the "animal" part. This isn't just death metal anymore, it's black/death played in the finest fashion! This sounds like four enraged demons picking up instruments and recording a demo of the most brutal shit they could figure out to do, all under vocals that resemblance a combination of pig, dog and elephant barf vomiting over an overdrived mic. Yes, is really that cool!!!!! Fuck all the new Deicide material, this is by far the Beast in its prime. If it wasn't such a fucking short demo, i would give it a 93% easily. Buy it or die, cunts!!