SLOW DEATH (DEMO BY MORTEM PRE ARCTURUS)

Arcturus, named Mortem in the case of this demo, have always been in the lead of whatever musical directions they took. Slow Death, their only release, is not an exception - Death Metal was a truly underground scene in the demo's year of release(1987), and surely the Norwegian Death Metal release wasn't that huge either at the time.

When approaching Slow Death, do not expect any hints at the musicians' future sound whatsoever. Hellhammer, known for his diverse, pleasant and exciting style for drummings, doesn't show his full potential on this demo, however, his drummings is as raw as classic Death Metal drumming can get. Steinar plays the guitar here, and it is hard to imagine that the man who wrote these very Slayeresque, even Motorheadish riifs would be known as a classically influenced keyboard player later. Marius, the bass player and the "singer", who would later take part in Arcturus's My Angel EP to leave the group permanently (which I don't regret, really), does some distorted extreme vocals here. As much as I try to hear what is said or even what the vocal lines are, I simply can not decipher a word. Well, with song titles like Mutilated Corpse you don't really expect an intellectual approach to lyrics, do you? Marius's screams are completely inhuman on this record and are much more brutal than those in the early Death and Possessed recordings. I am guessing it IS Marius doing the singing (definitely changed with a distorting device), although one could imagine that the group just recorded some noises in the lion cage of a local zoo. Okay, enough nonsense, riffs here are quite tasty by the Death Metal standards and show the group in the latest fashion of the scene in late 80's. No choruses and repetition though, their material fits the 11 minutes of the demo just well.

Basically, if you are a Progressive Music fan, -metal or not, do not even think about obtaining this album. If, on the other hand, you're a Death Metal fan extraordinary and have a full collection of Death's 2 hundred something demo's, this one will work for you. Classic Death Metal that hasn't quite developed by the time of its release.