Demonstrating the Fist

One of the most hilarious death/grind releases from our good friends from Copremesis. This is NYC death/grind, possibly the best example of it nowadays, along with Biolich. This release sounds like shit to be sure, it is just a step above a rehearsal demo, but better in sound quality to be sure. However, the riffs are crazy, and there is a solo, which immediately differentiates it from 75% of all death/grind, or even new school death metal in general. The vocals are real good, and the high-pitched shriek I can only congratulate on whichever idiot did that one, because it is truly menacing and ear shattering. All in all the tracks are fun, the intros are intentionally annoying as fuck, being cut out of the ‘Fist Of The Northstar’ anime, and are thus entirely in Japanese. The last track is somewhat of a surprise after 45 minutes of a 10 second sound loop, they unleash something that few people in modern death metal would dare to, but I will not say what, let it be a surprise to those who will later on get a copy of it. The music itself is similar to Pustulated, with whom they have a superb split out, and also reminds of hyper blasting bands, such as Lapidate, Screaming Afterbirth, Foetopsy, except they have some weird twists and the song structures are much more in the ether. Altogether it does not disappoint, although it is a bit short for all of the intros on it.

Psychotic, shit vomiting, misanthropic, brutal death metal. At least that's what Copremesis aim for, and while I admire the band's lofty standards that they have set for themselves, I can't help but be disappointed with this demo. Sure it has all the trademarks of a good brutal slab of death metal, relentless grunts, burps, and inhaled vocals, over the top blasting and double bass drumming, heavy enough breakdowns and chugging guitars, and most importantly funny soundbite intros to each song, but this demo just doesn't do anything for me. Maybe I'm disappointed because I have seen this local New York City act open up some awesome shows, and honestly they are one of the few decent local acts around. This demo just doesn't come off as anything more than semi-humorous brutality.

The sound quality of the demo is decent enough as far as demos go, I'd personally like to hear a little bit more low end, but I've heard worse production jobs. The real killer here is the songwriting; each song is basically the same. Slightly different riffs, but the structure hardly varies, the breakdowns are carbon copied from track to track, the blasting is incessant and grating, and if it wasn't for the sound clips before each song, I wouldn't be able to tell one track from the other. Some people might say that this is the problem with brutal death metal in general, but I actually love bands like Devourment and Gorgasm, bands that have a relentless brutal attitude but also know how to mix it up and present different ideas so the record never gets stale. If these guys want a chance to be something more than a generic local death metal band, they need to step up in the songwriting department and show a little more creativity.

Originally written for www.metaljudgment.com (c) 2004