GODZILLA - "Victim" demo (France, 1996)

As promised a while ago, here's the very first 4-song demo tape by Godzilla, the early death metal incarnation of the band now known as Gojira. Already heavy on the ("Human"-era) Death influence. Not much to add to my other entry about the band, except my underground minute of fame was helping them lay out this demo cover at the time. The right chanel sound level is pretty low on the first two songs, my tape is like that and I'm way too technologically retarded to figure out how to fix it. Sorry.

GODZILLA - Victim demo (France, 1996)

DOOMSTONE - "Possessed Cemeteries" demo (USA, 1991)

I've always thought this Doomstone demo never got the recognition it deserved. Coming out right at the peak of the death metal explosion in 1991, it didn't meet many of the style criterias of the era: no Sunlight or Morrisound-like production, no super fast beats, no gore-drenched lyrics… And humorous stage names like Keeper Of The Brazilian Death Metal Albums (bass) or Cross-Turner Upside-Downer (drums) kept them from being lumped with the super serious Satanic panic to come (read: second wave black metal). Even though the vocals are deep and brutal as all hell, you can tell Doomstone's influences were firmly rooted in '80s (and even '70s) heavy metal culture. Not exactly surprising when you know the band shared two members with the excellent veteran death/thrash band Deceased. The first Doomstone album came out 3 years later but I had pretty much lost interest in death metal at that point so I can't even comment on that one. [Update: I got my hands on last year's vinyl reissue of the first Doomstone CD and I'm glad I did, it's every bit as excellent as the demo. Released by To The Death Records from Sweden. Get it!]

DOOMSTONE - Possessed Cemeteries demo (USA, 1991)

GODZILLA - "Possessed" demo (1997)

Some of you might have heard of the French metal band Gojira, who are well established in mainstream metal circles now. Not my thing at all, but they started out as a pretty good straight up death metal band. They released a couple of demos under the Godzilla monicker before changing it to Gojira (which is the Japanese name for Godzilla, as you may know). Being from the same area, I got to know and see them early on. I was mightily impressed, they were so young yet so tight and creative — especially coming from a rural area that was not exactly a fertile ground for metal. "Possessed" is their second demo tape and you can guess Morbid Angel and "Human"-era Death were major influences at the time. The drummer Mario was about 15 when this was recorded, was self taught and had only been playing for a couple of years. No wonder he's such a beast now.

I just saw on their Discogs page that this demo was reissued on CD a decade ago. Oh well. This is taken from the actual demo tape. I will most likely post the first demo in the future.

GODZILLA - Possessed demo (1997)

LAWLESS - "Nite Of The Wolf" demo (2012)

I never visited Oakland, CA but I have this (distorted?) vision of it is from Eric Miles Williamson novels: a dirty, dangerous, and stinky place. Lawless hail from there and are a pretty acurate soundtrack to this representation of the city. Sick, ugly death metal from the gutters, whose motto is as blunt as you can get: "We do what the fuck we want. Bow to None." If this isn't enough to make you want to check them out, you may be reading the wrong blog. Featuring members of Acephalix and Vastum.

LAWLESS - Nite Of The Wolf demo (2012)

NEKROFILTH - "Filling My Blood With Poison..." demo (2008)

I can't really hang with Nekrofilth's piss-drenched atmosphere — too much fecal matter and sexual perversion for my own good, although I expect GG Allin fans to be all over this. The music, on the other hand, rips. This three-piece from Cleveland, Ohio has a couple of recordings under its belt. If you ask me, this is not exactly their strongest release. If you're new to the band, I'd suggest you check out the Worship Destruction 12" and split LP with Nun Slaughter first (both of which were originally issued as demos I believe?), two releases reminding me heavily of proto death metal gods Slaughter (Canada) with some Repulsion thrown in for good measure. If the GBH cover song isn't indicative enough, Filling My Blood With Poison is probably their punkest recording. This is a 2013 limited reprint on Home Taping Cruelties from Germany. Dog knows what the weirdos behind the label drenched the cover in (goat blood? puke?…), but I'm not sure I wanna know: this shit smells like hell. Thankfully this digital rip will save me from pulling it out too often and getting sick from the stench.

NEKROFILTH - Filling My Blood With Poison... demo (2008)

INCARNIS - "Castigation" demo #2 (1992)

Kängnäve — The Return Of Laziness and Evil

Phew! It took a long time but I finally entered the 21st century digital age. Got the right cable, hooked up the stereo to the computer, and figured out how to use Audacity. Ladies and gents, time to dust and digitize the old cassette collection! I'll start with Incarnis, an early '90s demo-only death metal band from Virginia Beach, VA, USA who I used to write to (just noticed my name in the thanks list!) This is their second tape, recorded back in May 1992. Too bad this band never made it to vinyl, they were good. Not sure why or how this survived my cassette purge of the '90s, but I'm glad it did.

Every upload on here will be ripped at 320 kbps from my own collection. If you happen to be a (former) band member and want a link/post removed, just get in touch and I'll comply.

INCARNIS - Castigation demo #2 (1992)