REHEARSAL

"Rehearsal" is the 3rd demo by Swedish death metal act Therion. The demo was independently released on cassette tape in 1990. It´s the successor to the "Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness" demo from November 1989. It is an official release by Therion, although it was not as such sold to fans, but rather used to promote the band to labels, and it paid off as Therion would soon after be signed by House of Kicks Records for the release of the 1990 "Time Shall Tell" EP.

Like the title of the demo suggests, this is a recording of a rehearsal in the band´s practice fascilities, and the souns quality is exaxtly how you´d expect them to be under such circumstances. Lo-fi, raw, and completely without any form of polish. This is as live and authentic as they get. So it´s actually a bit amazing how much the band has gotten out of this recording. First of all it´s audible that they have honed their playing skills since the two rather amaturish 1989 demos. There is a wild and savage energy to the playing, but it´s pretty tight. As something new both tracks on the 2 track, 10:02 rehearsal demo feature blast beats (although only a few short bursts), and both are generally much faster paced than any of the material on the two preceding demo tapes.

To my ears this is actually a more listenable release than the two studio demos which preceded it, and it´s great to hear how well playing the band are in rehearsal mode. The two new tracks are also slightly more interesting than the material on the two 1989 demos, but still more interesting than actually great. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)