PROMO TAPE '91

"Promo tape '91" is a demo recording by French death metal act Supuration. The demo was independently released in August 1991. It´s one of the seminal recordings from the early part of Supuration´s discography (1990-1993) before they released their 1993 debut full-length studio album "The Cube". Supuration´s early years can be a bit confusing when looking at the number and types of minor releases they put out, but when it comes down to it, you really only need the 1990 "Sultry Obssession" EP and "Promo tape '91" to have the most important recordings from that period of the band´s career. Almost all other releases from that period feature tracks from one of those two releases.

So it´s now established that "Promo tape '91" is a seminal release in Supuration´s discography. But not only that...it´s also a high quality release showing the world the unique and sometimes progressive oriented death metal style of early Supuration. They would get increasingly more progressive from 1993 onwards, so the material on "Promo tape '91" is a chance to hear Supuration while they were still predominantly a death metal band toying with progressive songwriting ideas, rather than the other way around, which became the norm for them after 1993.

Featuring no less than eight tracks and a total playing time of 30:31 this could almost have been Supuration´s debut album if a label had opted to release it. Instead the promo tape was send to various labels shopping for a recording contract. The sound production is also of a high enough quality for this to be put out as a label release instead of a demo. I´ve heard much worse sound productions on official studio albums. So upon conclusion "Promo tape '91" is a high quality demo recording and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).