Aftermath | ‘SS Deity’
Another local demo this time from Belfast boys Aftermath who collectively clock in at about 18 years of age. Its good to see a demo from a young band who absolutely are not trying to sound like the Deftones and Korn so full marks on that one. Unfortunately though, this being a first demo, the inexperience does tend to show.
The music is basically a straight fusion of the standard Metallica and Slayer repertoire that we all learn as nascent guitarists, showing influence especially from “Ride the Lightening” and on some occasions “Seasons…”. A good beefy guitar sound is attained, if very rounded, which is nice and bass heavy. Overall the production is pretty killer for a first demo, with particular attention seemingly having been paid to the drums which benefit from impressive clarity.
The problem here however is just the naivety and I guess thats not really the band’s fault per se. The music itself is well composed with an emphasis on the hook, but close listening does unfortunately reveal many playing inconsistencies most notably in the interlocking of guitar and drums, and at times it seems as if a lazy Sabbthy vibe has taken over (start of the “Seventh Seal”). The band’s bio on their website states that they consider themselves death metal but this is a patent untruth and will remain so until they realise that the craft they currently ply is almost entirely removed from it. Having said this there is a large thrash element to their songs with some nice agressive drumming, but blastbeat city this is certainly not trying to be.
My main gripe about the cd was the vocals which are confused and underdeveloped. A sort of faux shouty depth is used throughout whereas either plain singing or death growls would have made it a very good listen. If I could offer advice to the band I would say that time invested in developing a good growl (if indeed they want to be DM, as they claim) or a more straightforward vocal attack (such as their heroes) will reap massive rewards, because overall the musical performance is relatively solid. Just a note however - pitch shifting vocals is for pussys. Repeat after me: “I will Never Pitch Shift My Vocals Again. I am Metal.Fuck the Weak”.
Crashing on though, it sounds like these songs will be great live alright, and indeed they do bear well after repeated listening on cd. Nice dynamic is used on basically all the tracks, with pleasant bass & drum breakdowns and clean guitars to add atmosphere. Now we all know this is a first demo so I shant be too harsh.
Basically time spent in practice and on the gig circuit to tighten themsleves up will be of enormous benefit, as will much work in the vocal department. Apart from that the songs are solid if owing a little too much to the classics, but there are many a signed band guilty of this. Good work for some young’uns content to quietly knuckle down and put out a decent METAL demo as opposed to many a nu garage band here with a lot less to show.
Ciaran Tracey ::: 22/10/01