Although those of us who remember the days of using snail-mail to send and receive letters, flyers, printed zines, tapes and what have you, might long for those almost gone-by days, but the truth is, for us, reviewers, the digital age made it so much easier to deal with the bands and their releases. Obviously, you can hardly boast of your collection of digital files as some can with the physical releases, but I do review stuff to promote artists and to help them spread the word about their existence and their work. Just to let you know that we, in the Rubber Axe webzine, don‘t follow the attitude of some reviewers asking for physical releases only.
And today I‘m gonna talk about precisely that – a digitally available (Bandcamp) demo entitled „Back Alley Demo“ from Abortion Survivor I received through one of members (thanks, Sam!).
It contains 3 tracks and funny thing is – although we‘re dealing with brutal death metal here, it doesn‘t even sound extreme. Now, to avoid misunderstanding, what I mean by this last statement is simply the fact that even BDM can be – and is, as this demo confirms – melodic.
First thing to notice is quite discernible vokill. Definitely a plus and with the accompanied musick firmly rooted in US OSDM (well, no surprise, these guys hail from Philadelphia, USA), if you like this style, you won‘t be wrong of making a note about this band.
First song is also my favourite – EATR. If you wonder what the hell that means (as I did), the abbreviation stands fro Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, e. g. some weird combat robot US Army works on, fueled by organic stuff. Officially trees and plants, be we know Soylent Green, right? But the song is a fucking killer from the beginning to end. Technically inclined listeners might argue about simple riffs and drumwork, but I think when done right, the simplicity just adds to overall brutality and for me, it works. Why would I dislike this? This is definitely a house party song for your buddies to headbang all night long. Just wait till my hair grows long enough again! 🙂
Second song, „Murderous Rampage“, cleverly starts with a spoken introduction well crafted into the song itself, and musically it follows in the same vein as the opening track, but the riff in EATR was better. This is not a bad song, not at all, but guys can do better and they show their potential in the third, and the last, track.
And that one is called „Riddled with STDs“, starting with a nice phone call to Planned Parenthood, after which we can enjoy the longest track of the demo.
Now the track is different from the first two, the dominant riff is more like a solo through the majority of the track, so we‘re not drowned in same style. And the song is more varied, which adds to the length of the track. No complains here.
The only negative thing I say about it is as follows – the length of the demo is short. Way too short, as I like it. A lot.
Well, I guess I‘ll need to wait till guys will release their debut full-length later this year. I am sure it will be worth the wait.
Have a listen at: https://abortionsurvivor.bandcamp.com/releases
