The Cumplete Demography 1994-2005

Lividity is one of those bands that produced a number of good records, but didn’t really run me over until several efforts into the game. And to be perfectly honest I don’t think I’ve even heard a single demo track, so what better way to catch up then to hear The cumplete demography.

It starts with two tracks from Promo ‘94, back when Lividity was a one-man band, something I didn’t even know about. And boy is it a crude recording. The programmed drums sound horrible, in particular the intro of Altar pieces which sounds like hip hop beats. The riffing’s quite crude as well, and only briefly displays the power we later associate the band with. Even the vocals sound rough, like a kid attempting to growl for the first time. So it’s safe to say this isn’t the highlight of the album. The Ritual of mortal impalement demo from 95 sees the addition of a live drummer, who also takes over the vocal handling - a great improvement in both departments. The music moves up a notch, shortening the tracks and displaying a little more quality in the riffing. Despite the murky sound there are some really cool songs to be heard here, already establishing the typical Lividity sound of catchy and brutal death metal that still retains a sense of melody. There are also two unreleased tracks from the same recording session, and I can kind of understand why at least one of them was left out in the demo release.

Up next are some rehearsal tracks, and for the first time on the record we get to hear them as a full band. All tracks are from the Ritual of mortal impalement demo, so we’ve heard the songs before, but there’s definitely a difference now that they’ve got a complete line-up. The following three tracks from the Terrorism split 7” are quite different from the remainder of the material, as they’re between two and twenty seconds long and sounds more like a typical grindcore/goregrind act than a death metal one. But they definitely pull it off.

The three tracks from the Profanity split 7” were apparently recorded during the The age of clitoral decay session, but left unmastered. Can’t understand why the hell they did that, the sound is horrible, but I guess it was a mistake. There are also some rehearsal tracks from the Used, abused and left for dead album, as well as a studio test recording from the very same. Of course there’s also a bunch of live songs, from four different gigs, with varying sound quality, but all pretty decent.

The album is what it is; a compilation of demos, rehearsals and live stuff. The quality of both tracks and recordings vary greatly, which is always the case with such releases. The cumplete demography is not bad, but it doesn’t really kick your ass either. It’s more of a display of the band’s development, and with a few bonus treats. Complete with photos, flyers, liner notes and artwork from all of their artists.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net