Beyond - Relentless Abomination Vortex Demo

While browsing the Dark Descent Records webshop during my purchase of the Timeghoul reissue (a necessary purchase for anyone who has a cursory interest in death metal) I happened to snatch up this demo from Germany's Beyond. Relentless Abomination Vortex is a dusty mix of death metal predominately influenced by the less technical Dutch artists such as Asphyx, the melodic twistedness of the Swedes, German thrash and sprinkled, rather dripping, with an arcane atmosphere. It would be hard to delineate this demo to any single influence as elements of death metal, thrash and even hints of doom are all available for consumption. This relatively new demo released in 2011, is just another example of the modern death metal genre's desire to return to the roots of the genre, get back to the ugliness and the slime-covered personalization that really was such a hallmark of the genre in the early 90's.

The songs are written by vocalist, guitarist Cadavarous Odour and are genuinely pretty fast and urgent, almost as if everyone else is trying to keep up with each other but definitely not sloppy. The tempo really dictates the energy on the demo. Cadavarous' vocals are somewhere between a bellow and a high growl, somewhere between a lion and a hyena, which I imagine to have a relatively high pitched barking. The second set of guitars is provided by Cenotaph and the classily named Vomitlord handles bass. Drums on the album were sessioned out to A.P, a nameless formless entity of unknown origin, probably just some kid from around the block who they strong armed into doing the drums. The drums are awesome though, maybe they should hire him as a full-time member. D-Beats and slower plodding riffs are abundant and the whole thing sounds like a faster version of Coffins.

Three tracks, Pointless Prayers, Whirlwinds of Chaotic Carnage and Appearance from Beyond are the contents of the demo. I thought that final track, Appearance from Beyond, was the highlight due to the mixture of tempos, the archaic sounding lead near the end of the track and the quickness of some of the d-beat drumming. Pointless Prayers starts out the demo with some typical ambient crap that leads into the track greater, which follows in the band's style appropriately and without fault. The track starts out with a thrashy riff but the song is mostly a death metal affair. The song is obsessed with reaping the benefits of the verse riff which deserves to be harvested. It's a simple four note evil thing that is particularly catchy. Second track is more obscure in it's construction but holds nicely as a second track. It's less gripping and memorable than Pointless Prayers or Appearance...

Overall, a cool demo, nothing to gawk about really but nothing to tear apart to shreds. It's a demo that would be better suited to a death metal fanatics collection for sure but I would wager that anyone into the more weird sounding side of metal would take a liking to the thing. The guitars have a strange, twangy and reverbed production that really sets them apart. Like they were recorded in a hospital surgical ward or in the empty recesses of an abandoned sewage treatment plant. It's a cool three song demo to pick up for fans of Coffins or possibly Autopsy.