Omen of Masochism

To be honest this death metal album embodies how death metal should sound. Death metal is supposed to be barbaric sounding, ugly music, and the sound this album gives off is truly hideous (in a good way). The audio equipment this EP was recorded with sounds like the evil and hate that the band played with could not be contained in the recording studio.

Enough about the production we must get into the music. The guitars on this album play really heavy riffs with lots of reverb and echo-like sound that give off images of some demons playing death metal in a cave/dungeon. The solos played on this album are far different than anything the likes of Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel would play. The solos played on this album are highly technical oozing with melody and virtuosity. There's no whammy bar abuse or excessive dive bomb usage it's straight guitar shredding with harmonic/melodic minor scales and dual synced harmonies to create a pleasing listening experience from the ugly barbaric death metal played before that (in the form of riffs). Honestly the solo for Demented Omen of Masochism is one of the best death metal solos I've ever heard. That solo utilizes melody and chord progression rather than just pure speed run through akin to Slayer. The vocals by Chris Gamble sound possessed. He sings using multiple voices; high shrieks, low growls, with lots of echo. He can one moment belt out a very high shriek than the next below out some guttural growls all within seconds of each other. He displays some very impressive range on this album which really helps invoke a cave like, dungeon atmosphere to the record. He never keeps the vocal styles and patterns monotonous instead he switches up his vocal style frequently to keep the flow of the music entertaining. Metal now at days cannot replicate this horrific sound and atmosphere that this album does because production values have drastically increased and the sound is highly mechanized.

The drummer plays multiple patterns; he goes from classic snare thrash hits in the beginning of Demented Omen of Masochism, then some pretty pummeling blast beats. His style of drumming reminds me highly of Craig Smilowski's of early Immolation. Being very original, and adding his own unique flair to the music at hand. Sure, not as focused on free form jazz as Smilowski was and not as experimental with drumming patterns but he keeps his style interesting and sticks with it. The only complaint I have about the drum sound is the double bass drum is not very audible, but it's the very murky production that is to be accounted for that, not the drummer Ken Masteller himself as he did a great job on this album.

Overall, this short EP is great if you want some hideous, evil, dungeon sounding death metal. Think of Morbid Angel but more evil and honestly you should listen to this short EP because it's only 8 minutes long and chock full of grimy morbid death metal. If you're tired of more mechanized, sterile production come over to the dungeon and jam out to some dark, grim death metal from the crypt. Highlight sections include the solos of Demented Omen of Masochism and Morbidious Pathology which are simply amazing.

This is the better of Goreaphobia’s two demos. It has only two tracks but they are both so incredibly awesome that I see why they had to shut their project down. After releasing something this good it is often very hard to go on producing things of the same quality. This seemed to be their idea as well, for thy went into a long, putrid torpor after this recording. The sound on this is still dungeon death metal, but somewhat more polished. There are more blast beats on this recording, and the sound progressed just enough to keep the band interesting, but not too much, so that it sounds like a different band altogether. There are no stops or any sort of tinkering in this form of vile death metal, they still know that the most important thing n this music is the brutal, non-stop, heavy ass riffage! And they do deliver that, plenty of it in this 8 minute demo. If you feel like your death metal collection is complete, and you like old school American shit, then you need to get this, sadly now only available through a reissue or for download. Either way, this is most worth getting, for some very unique and driving riffs are present on this short masterpiece of brutal old school death metal.