Valkyrian Music

Blasphmachine
Slavation (demo)
Released 10th August 2015
Death Metal/ Black Metal
Released via Dunkelheit Produktionen

‘Salvation’ is the latest demo from the Malaysian death metal band Blasphmachine. Like all their previous releases, it is strictly limited to 300 copies of the CD version, fifty hand numbered cassettes and digital downloads.

Temple of Desolation starts off with a deceptively slow ambient intro before the guitars and drums blast their way through. The pace of the music and the guttural growls makes me think of Cannibal Corpse, however Blasphmachine’s signature sound has that raw brutality which is a rarity in death metal these days.

Whilst most of the tracks on here tend to be rather short and fast, Commandments caught my attention due to the variations in both pace and the vocal style. Unlike its predecessors, this song is a bit slower at times and the guttural vocals have been replaced by rasping snarls akin that of early Morbid Angel. The same death metal style is present in ‘Leviathan’, only this time the drums sound even more aggressive and brutal. Last but not least is the most primitive and ferocious track on here, a cover of Black Witchery’s ‘Into Damnation Eternal‘ which comes complete with ultra-fast blast beat drums and raw guitar riffs.

In summary this is a decent-sounding death metal demo. I need to emphasize the term “demo” here, because the production quality is not the greatest. Whilst I appreciate the raw brutality of the music, there were times when I actually struggled to hear the guitars amidst the incessant barrage of pummeling drums and growling.

3/5
Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 26th July 2015 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Black Witchery, Cannibal Corpse, Death Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.