Astaroth - Demos 93-95-98

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When a band ends its activities without releasing an official album, some fans could think that it’s not fair. To many bands, it’s a reality, but not to all bands. There’s a set of bands that didn’t release an album or EP when in activity because they weren’t as good as they could think, or even didn’t deserve such a thing. And the USA long gone trio ASTAROTH is one of those that never had an album released when they were active between 1991 and 1995, because what we hear on this compilation of demos called “Demos 93-95-98” (don’t ask why 1998 if the band ended on 1995) is not worthy of being released.

It’s not a matter of if they were good or not in those days when Death Metal was taking the underground by assault. They played a common and conventional form of the traditional way of the genre, but without anything different from what DEATH, DEICIDE, OBITUARY and others did. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s in the middle of many other bands of the same time that weren’t to be different. Yes, they’re in the mean way between the good and the bad bands. The production of this compilation preserved the sound aspects of those years, so you’ll have differences between some tracks in comparison with others due the gaps of time between each Demo Tape.

On the songs, they really aren’t different from many names from those years, although on the final tracks is heard that they evolved, but still being nothing special in relation with many other names from those days. There are five tracks that are incidental themes or intros, so there are 15 songs. Some of them are worthy of some attention, as “Eyes of Black”, “Extinction”, “Undead Matrimony”, “Overcast”, “Everlasting Decay”, “Lost State of Dreams”, “Scriptures”, “Swallow Your Soul” and “Bloodied Wings of Destiny” (these last two ones are really good songs), but they’re just another Death Metal band, nothing special at all.

If you’re a Death Metal maniac and have a historical interest on the genre, “Demos 93-95-98” can be a fine choice, but if you’re up to something new and fresh, you won’t find it here.

Originality: 5
Songwriting: 6
Memorability: 5
Production: 5