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Demilich > The Four Instructive Tales ...of Decomposition > Reviews
Demilich - The Four Instructive Tales ...of Decomposition

Independent Finnish Organism - 90%

Hames_Jetfield, December 11th, 2021

The history of the great Demilich is not limited to their full-length album, after which the band split-up. You can see the uniqueness of this band by their demos, specifically the content of "The Four Instructive Tales...Of Decomposition". Why exactly on the second demo? Well, because - mostly - this material was not repeated on "Nespithe" (as opposed to the next two demos). Besides, "The Four..." simply shows the earliest, nice style of the Finns.

Apparently it's only 4 songs, but to be honest, they contain everything that is most captivating in death metal from the country of "famous, indestructible phone". While the overall heaviness, intensity (especially with blasts) and a large dose of "evilness" are the things that the vast majority of them initially wanted, the atmosphere of this death metal and - especially in Demilich - inhuman vocals distinguish Finns very clearly from the rest of Europe/American friends. Exactly, vocals. Antti Boman shocked already at this period with a really low, "frogy" growl, the performance of which, even if slightly tinkered in the studio, even today makes a huge impression. Therefore these aspects, perfectly fit the overall, not overly varied death metal and the funerary atmosphere of the whole cd. Okay, it should be noted that in such "Two Independent Organisms - ﹥ One Suppurating Deformity" and "And The Slimy Flying Creatures Reproduce In Your Brains" the band, interestingly, went beyond the standard, concert rhythms adding a lot of technique and sudden changes of paces (and this is, as I suppose, an announcement of the direction on the next demos), but against the background of the rest of the components of the Demilich style of that time, these solutions seem to be a small addition.

"The Four Instructive Tales...Of Decomposition" is an announcement for the (too short) activity of this Finnish band and a clear show of the talent of Antti Boman's band. Because already at the times of demos, their vision of death metal was above the others. So much that I can devote a separate review to it.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/12/demilich-four-instructive-talesof.html

Not quite there yet... - 57%

robotniq, May 27th, 2020

These days, Demilich are rightly praised for their unique, eccentric death metal approach. "Nespithe" is an album which has generated increasing interest over time. As such, there is also interest in the demos that came before it, where the early Demilich sound can be found. The band's fame is relatively new. Demilich were obscure at the time. I used to read Terrorizer magazine in the mid-90s and I vaguely remember seeing a label advert featuring a few records (including "Nespithe"), but that was it. I knew no-one who listened to this band outside of tape-trading circles (which I was too young to be involved in). Despite this, Demilich did something simple to cement their legacy. They made their entire discography available online for free, in the early days of online file sharing. Abhorrence did something similar. In both cases it improved the chances of future generations discovering and circulating their music.

Thus, an obscure tape like "The Four Instructive Tales ...of Decomposition" has a bigger following than it should have. This is the band's first proper demo (aside from a one-song rehearsal demo which was recorded a few months prior). The music here is unmistakably Demilich; odd timings, shifting riffs, gurgling vocals, obscure song titles. This is very much a prototype version though. The band were still in thrall of "Symphonies of Sickness"-era Carcass and had yet to find their flow. The riffs slither around and make strange patterns, the drumming is relatively complex for a band at this stage of their career, but nothing really gels. You can hear the drummer 'snatching' at the rhythms sometimes. It lacks the focus of later Demilich because they lack the musical agility to bring their songs to life. This is surely due to inexperience and lack of time playing/rehearsing together. Their next demo, "...Somewhere Inside the Bowels of Endlessness..." would streamline their sound and fix these problems.

The production doesn’t help. There are many demos from this period which sound great because they have a dense sound (Crematory, Disgrace, etc). The production on this demo lacks the thickness and fogginess of those bands. The guitars don't sound bad on their own, but they are drowned out by the drums and vocals, both of which are too loud. The mix doesn't suit Demilich's relatively complex music and, being honest, the rehearsal demo ("Regurgitation in Blood") is better. That one sounds harder, heavier, and more disgusting. The band's potential is obvious on "The Four Instructive Tales ...of Decomposition", but this isn't music I would recommend beyond the historical interest.

A darkness in sound rare in death metal - 94%

bastardizedbread, January 11th, 2020

Demilich might just be my favourite death metal band of all time. There is barely anything i could find that i dislike about them honestly, anything i could ever hope to hear from an underground old school death metal band is in them. Stunningly dark atmosphere, compositions like no other and on top of it all originality that never takes compromises. Everything unique about this band on its own makes this band so memorable, the low tuned often complex guitar riffage on every single release, the atmosphere they create, Antti's fucking vocal, all come together on every release every time and especially here.

The first thing you hear or more rather feel is the atmosphere. The demo kicks off with "Embalmed Beauty Sleep", where the guitars roar to life into darkness and melancholy fueled by the unrelenting riffs, the punchy drums under everything else and Antti's vocals. And this goes through all the way. The atmosphere of this album is never lost. It always lurks under your skin while listening to this demo. I can't tell however what is the main thing fueling it. All the riffs, the production and Antti himself all equally dark sounding all mash together into a darkness in sound rare in death metal.

The dark sound they have here would be nothing without a musicality to match here. Demilich have always been known to be more technical than most death metal bands and especially of that era, however this is probably their least technical thing they have ever put out. Not to say the songs aren't impressive in terms of writing, but it is a lot closer to bands like Carcass than they were later. Maybe not their most original album, but wow it does not change much. The songs all being between 3-6 minutes long always seem to flow perfectly riff to riff, darkness to darkness and each one being as memorable as the last, and if the riffs weren't memorable the drumming probably was. Seriously, how precise the drums are on this are insane. No section, not even a single blast beat sounds chaotic and messy. I am absolutely sure it should sound messy at least once, but somehow it just doesn't happen. the precision on the drumming is incredible. I cannot find a single section where they went off-beat in this entire demo.

Antti's vocals really are the icing on the cake here. It might just be the loudest thing on the demo by a bit and they are so low it somehow manages to cut through the fucking bass, you know the instrument that was CREATED to bring low-end to the mix. You could say they're up there with brutal death metal standards, but honestly i can't think of a single band that has a vocalist that low in that genre either. How he pulls it off i have no clue.

Very minute flaws pull this album down from me giving this demo a 100% rating. The drumming isn't as interesting as it would end up becoming yet and the band was very young at this stage, which can be sometimes heard in some of the riffs feeling a little uninspired, but yet they don't hold this demo down from accomplishing death metal excellence.

Unbelievably dark - 95%

Mikhail95, June 7th, 2016

No words can describe the music presented here as it is so incredibly dark and morbid sounding. The guitars being down tuned to A make the riffs sound so completely alien and inhuman. The type of metal Demilich plays is like nothing you have ever heard before. Possessing some of the deepest vocals in history Antii Boman gives off such a rotten atmosphere of decay and decomposition with his vocals alone. To give you a description of what he sounds like here we go. He sounds like a frog singing tales about decomposition and HP Lovecraft tales. Pretty interesting, while he's singing he's backed by some alien sounding guitars and some very technical drumming. Is this better than Nesphite? That is the main question.Well depends who you ask. I personally find this more enjoyable because it's more straightforward and heavier; also this is probably more accessible than Nespithe. While the riffs here sound more doom laden and bludgeoning, the riffs on Nesphite are even more insane and twisted than here. You have your grind passages and these massive grooves which pull your head to the ground because of how heavy and crushing they are.

We must discuss the atmosphere this music conveys. The atmosphere gives of this very strong decaying and decomposing air to the record. There aren't many solos used on this record but when used they are excellent; heavy use of tremolo picking and scale runs. The bass while being hidden rears its ugly head when the solos appear, being very low tuned, and haunting sounding. The sound of this demo is excellent, no faults to be found. It sounds very raw but every note can be heard and has a great mood to it. The drums and guitars are very clear sounding, as well as Antii Boman's vocals being very audible as well.

Overall this is the best sounding demo I have ever heard. It has this cold mechanical sound perfect for the sound of decomposition. Maybe if modern bands put out demos this good we would pay attention to them more. There is a reason old school death metal is so revered by metal heads and one of the reasons is the focus on atmosphere. Sure these modern bands are far more technical but old school death metal had this charm about it that made it very exciting and attention grabbing. Right here is a great example of atmospheric, old school death metal that will grab in repeated listens. All in all an excellent demo by the mighty finish death metal machines Demilich.

A Product Of Sickness in Mind - 83%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, June 22nd, 2008

After the discovering of Funebre, I decided to jump into that genre of metal from Finland. So I tried to listen to some of the more important bands in gore death metal from that country that, just apparently, was famous only for groups like Azaghal and Impaled Nazarene. The beginning of the 90s was full of bands inspired to the musical examples coming from abroad and in this case from England with Carcass.

Here we can find the same coldness in terms of production and sounds. There’s sheer chirurgical coldness in operating riffs and hyper guttural growls. The stench of decomposition is high and almost intolerable. The first track is a mix of doom moments to blast beats parts but the main point is to play as rotten as possible. The lyric, they, are truly disgusting, being about decomposition and gore.

As I said before, the production is really sterile and cold, typical of the gore death metal in those years, but it’s never chaotic and I must admit that it’s better than in some demos of thrash metal in those years for example. What is really astonishing is the use of that kind of hyper guttural vocals. The guitars lines are very good and they are a mix of powerful, chainsaw distorted rhythmic ones with more obscure and dramatic lead part.

To me it’s impossible to choose the stand out tracks here because they are not done to be catchy or recognizable. The guitars draw landscapes of pure depravation that you can experience in beating and analysing a corpse in a gloom morgue. The stench fills your lungs and your throat begins to burn for the acid smell. The music is just the perfect output of their mental perversion. Now, are you brave enough and mostly, do you have a strong stomach?