Demo 2003

Curious about the infamous brutal death metal band's musical background, I decided to go all the way back to their two-song demo, released in 2003. I was actually expecting some shitty, Torsofuck-reminiscient slamfest that reeked of pubescent idiocy (see what I did there?), but this is a demo of surprising quality. Besides having a different logo, this incarnation of Guttural Secrete's work is on par with their brilliant EP and full-length in terms of quality.

Production is great for a demo; I have heard hundreds of demos lower in quality than this one, and Guttural Secrete aren't even playing a genre where production is important. Vocalist Blue Jensen has apparently always been a guttural master; although there are times where the vocals sound like amateurish clogged-sewer burps (the ones that sound musically atrocious, not the good kind of burps), the gutturals are still forcefully powerful and they are simply brutal. There also seem to be quite a few more normal death growls than Guttural Secrete's later works (and most brutal death metal bands in general as well), though they don't disrupt the band's overall brutality or sound. The screams present in the band's later songs, however, are absent, which is a bit disappointing.

The guitars are, in typical Guttural Secrete fashion, one of the highlights of the release. I can't possibly describe how little they have changed over Guttural Secrete's career. Sure, you take into account that the production isn't going to be as crystal-clear as it was when Guttural Secrete got a record label, but the groovy, heavy guitarwork is still prominent. As a matter of fact, the guitars may actually be heavier here than they are on any of Guttural Secrete's other works. There's a mix of grindcore and classic death metal as guitar influence, and there is also a more prevalent use of slams (though I promise that they aren't stupid in any way). Although "Battered, Butchered, Bagged and Buried" has catchier riffs, "Incestous Refiguration" has the more epic riffage, especially its intro riff which bleeds pure melodic brutality. The drumming is typical brutal death metal drumming, and the kit sounds like any other. It's on par with most death metal drumwork, but not astounding or anything.

There are a couple samples on this demo used in the two songs, and I am mostly indifferent to their existence. They neither help the songs nor harm them, and feel like a bit of non-annoying filler that most brutal death metal bands use anyway. But even if these samples were the worst I'd ever heard, they would still prevent me from declaring this to be a near-god-tier BDM demo. Download it and give it a listen; you won't regret it.