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Nunslaughter > Demoslaughter > Reviews
Nunslaughter - Demoslaughter

Nunslaughter- Demoslaughter - 80%

dyingseraph84, April 8th, 2009

Before i begin my review here i just wanna point out how fucking cool the packaging on this is! It's awesome, the artwork, the chrome finish logo, and the liner notes are great nunslaughter really hit the nail on the head with this one. O and the case itself takes me back to the late 80's and 90's when a double cd actually came as a double cd, none of this digipack or two cds stuffed into one bullshit!

Now while the packaging kicks serious ass, were here to discuss some music right? Preferibly the ugly, hatefull, and blasphemous death metal that nunslaughter so expertly delivers. As you can tell by the title this is all the early demo stuff, alot of the songs you may recognize from various splits, ep's, and full lengths over the years, i'm going to break this down demo by demo to keep it organized.

Demo 1 Ritual Of Darkness (1987)

This first demo from nunslaughter showcases youthful energy and conviction quite well even if the sound is rough. Oh and by rough i mean it sounds like it was recorded in a garage, everything is muffled and you can hear the tape dragging over the music. But once you get by that, your treated to some awesome early death metal. It sounds like sodom mixed with possessed, and autopsy in one. Thrashing one minute then plodding around the next, all the songs are great even though the performances are sloppy. The vocals are a kind of mid ranged rasp akin to david vincents voice on morbid angels altars of madness. I like the interplay between the fast and mid-paced/slow parts, the riffs move chromatically up and down the fretboard, actually now that i think about it, this sounds alot like a more thrashy incantation! Good stuff!

Demo 2 The Rotting Christ(1989)

This is the worst sounding thing i have ever heard. Seriously, imagine if you were at a nunslaughter show and you had your ear pressed firmly against the speaker monitor while all the knobs that control volume, tone, and balance are cranked up to ten and the band played as sloppy as possible. Thats what this sounds like, its almost unlistenable you cannot make out 1 riff until the music slows down. There are only two new songs on this demo and three re-recorded from ritual of darkness so its the same stuff musically speaking just with terrible sound. The vocals are so much more guttural on this demo then the first one. Even though i bash this demo for the sound quality, something positive must be said about it. The agression is pushed to the maximum, its almost as if the band got drunk out of their minds and just bashed the crap out of there instruments.

Demo 3 impale the soul of christ..... on the inverted cross of death (1991)

This is my favorite out of them all because the songs just seemed more together than on previous demos. For the first time don of the dead plays bass and sings on a demo. The sound quality here is actually clear, what i like about this is that you can hear where certain parts of other songs are formed, take for instance the song Burning Away, it sounds alot like Raid The Convent from the album Goat. This is also where the old school thrash influence came to the forefront, bands like exodus, destruction, razor, and even infernal majesty's influence can be heard all over these songs. The drumming isn't always exact, and some times the guitarist misses a couple of notes but thats whats great about this stuff, the sloppier it sounds, the better it is! The vocals are raspy, from here on out don of the dead takes over the vocal department so you know what to expect, a more mid range rasp then all out guttural assault.

Demo 4 The Guts Of Christ (1993)

Alot of these songs can be found on the album Goat. I think this is the demo that has the darkest, and most sinister sound to it. The drums sound great, and i love the crunch of the guitars on this. Here the riffs flow out of the speakers like a river, they seem to be influenced by hellhammer, and venom alot on this demo. Don's vocals sound alot angrier on this demo then on impale..., actually the whole band seems to be in top gear here. I think they nailed the whole venom welcome to hell sound down here. If you like death/black metal played the old way, then this will be your favorite demo.

Demo 5 Face Of Evil (1995)

Jim Sadist makes his first apperance behind the kit on this demo and i reallly feel that he is an underrated drummer. I think he pushes nunslaughter's sound over the edge, it seems like he knows the perfect fills, and beats to play over the riffs. Face of Evil also speeds the music up alot from the last demo, the demo has a rough sound to it but is clear enough so that no one instrument drowns out another one. The music is the same old sodom, hellhammer, and death rolled into one, without solos of course! So basically its a barage of riffs and tremolo picked madness! O, there are alot of samples from different horror movies put on this demo to help aid in that evil atmosphere, not that they needed it this sounds preatty dark as is just check out that agonizing scream that opens up to defile!

Demo 6 Evil Speaks (1998)

So here we have the final demo on the first disc and it resembles Face of Evil alot. The music is played faster, actually i think this is probally the heaviest sounding demo on here. Again the music is old school death metal mixed with thrash and black metal, fast tremolo picked lines alternate with chromatic descending riffs that sound very close to how celtic frost handled things on morbid tales. Also there are samples being used here too, and don of the dead exhibits some deep guttural demonic sounding vocals towards the end of Poisoned Preist and Armies of the Dead, there is an apparant Master influence in the vocals sometimes don sounds exactly like paul speckman. The production sounds like a clearer version of ritual of darkness, basically without the tape lag over everything. All in all an excellent way to end the first disc!

Disc 2

Disc two is full of b sides, rarities and the much coveted Death Sentence 1985 demo. Up until that said demo most of the material is rehersal stuff from the demos listed above, just without vocals, so i will refer you to my review of each respective demo, there is no point in going over every song set because it sounds the same just without vocals. The only exception being the rough mix of The Rotting Christ demo tapes, here the levels are pulled back some and you can hear riffs being played it does not sound like noise at all. It is still rough but at least you can make out whats going on, again no vocals to be found on those tapes.

The Death Sentence demo is pre nunslaughter material and differs alot from what the band would churn out 2 years later with the Ritual of Darkness demo. Death Sentence was basically just a thrash band, sounding alot like overkill, razor, and master now i know master was preatty much death metal but some of these riffs would not sound out of place on there self titled debut. The vocals sound like a mox of don doty from dark angel and mille from kreator, unbalanced and out of range at times but he fits the style, even if it is a mediocre performance. The band plays very basic music and the songs are not strong at all. I guess if you had to pick one of the best would be Sentenced to Death, but thats not saying much. The sound quality is horrid and yeah i'm aware that it is a demo but i just can't get by it. This demo did nothing for me, basically the great thing that came from death sentence was..well, nunslaughter!

So this is a great cd for all the die hards! If your a nunslaughter nut like i am then you'll relish in this collection of buried gems!