SYMBTOMY - Demo #1
August 18, 2021, 2 years ago
(Independent)
This band—which features members in the UK and Czechia—absolutely lay down old-school Swedish-style death metal on this debut three-song release. Calling it Demo #1 really undermines the fact that this is a fantastic EP, these three songs moving along at a brisk, chainsaw-buzzing pace, opener “The Sounds Of Perverse Thoughts” announcing loud and proud and fast that these guys love no-frills DM and have the appropriate guitar pedals to prove it. Like classic Entombed, there are some dark melodies here, and the band lay those down with authority as well.
The whole EP is pure authority, really, the band getting members of Revel In Flesh, Wombbath, and others to guest here, but they don't need 'em: they're doing just fine on their own. Check the glorious solo on “The Taste Of Human Trophy” that leads into a battle stomp for the ages, or the skill they display with slow atmosphere and economic death brutality on closer “...And The Knife Cut Surgically”. I love this, and I look forward to the debut full-length, set to drop later this year.
