Upon the Altar – Demo 2020

If horrifically evil sounding cavernous Death Metal is your thing, then you’ll want to check out this two track debut offering from Polish band Upon the Altar. Over thirteen short minutes, Upon the Altar demonstrate why you’ll be enjoying their sickness over the new few years! Opening track ‘Hapax Legamenon’ has the darkest of intros, creeping menacing synth tones and bowel rumbling incantations put me in mind of some grim 80’s horror, before reverb drench riffs right out of the Mortician playbook hook up savagely with the crushing press of spiteful drum tones, and the lingering roar from the bass, and all the while vocal work with the stench of decomposing flesh about it sounds out its fetid, decaying growls. The impressive creativity when it comes to the pace and style of this demo leaves  you with a constant unease, straddling the fence between anticipation and trepidation. Closing track, suitably entitled ‘Expire’ has all of the subtlety of a cudgel to the back of the head, opting for long passages of crushing hostility but leaving room for lurking slower break sections filled to the brim with demonic growled out pouring’s of bile, and to add a touch of Gothic flavour, a tolling of a solitary church bell and the dire piercing tones from a piano that see the demo close with an un-hurried nod to some of the truly repugnant classic horrors films of old. (Marksson)