Customer Reviews

Horrors of Hell

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't expect to hear anything like Dechristianize. This release is an Vital Remains demo compilation.

The Black Mass (1991) 7"

Excruciating Pain (demo) (1990)

Reduced to Ashes (demo) (1989)

Yes it's worth the price. Sounds like a cross between Blasphemy and Sepultura(Morbid Visions). Some great riffs on these demos. Best songs are "Of Pure Unholyness", "Human Sacrifice", "Resurrected", "Excrutiating Pain".

This is for everybody, not just the die-hards. The music on this from the opening 1991 is accessible as V.R. gets and the earlier stuff wont scare anybody away either. A good compilation of a great act's humble beginnings. Of course they have grown into a monstrous entity, but you can still hear a bunch of musicians oozing creativity. With all the line-up changes people should enjoy every variation of the V.R. This music and the vision is way too good to nit-pick and give it 1 star, how dare you !!I gave 4 stars because the last section from '89/'88 does run out of steam. You got to love 1991 sessions.You need this if you have the others, worth a listen for all metalheads..

Early Vital Remains is one of my favourite bands, I consider "into Cold Darkness" one of the best Death Metal releases ever. I finally got around to this one and saw conflicting reviews, some saying great some absolutely rubishing this slab. I'm for the former. The first two songs are from their first album, which I also love, but they have obviously recorded these versions before. When I put the disc in the intro spun me out,(evil!) but the sound was crushing! The guitars sounding like slabs of meat getting pummelled as did the drums behind them. And if you've heard Jeff Gruslin's vocals before, this is right up there for his standard. Just for these two songs I would have paid happily. As it was, the two early demo's were a treat as I'd never heard any of these songs before. You could definitely hear the development from demo to demo and the songs weren't quite the length and depth of their later works, more basic Death Metal songs. The liner notes were also very interesting to read as I've found that there isn't a hell of a lot of info on this band anywhere. It's a mad buzz when you think that you've exhausted a band's catalogue only to find their unreleased earlier works. Once again, if someone whines about the production I will not acknowledge their existence.

I really dug Vital Remains' last album "Dechristianized" for its mix of precise brutality, melody, and clean production. I've listened to death metal since back in the day where only a few dudes knew anything about it. And this album - this collection of old (ancient-sounding BS) from Vital Remains beginnings - is an abomination to everything metal has accomplished in the last several years!!

The cheeseball dime-a-dozen riffs, ungodly horrible production (I can't imagine what the demos sounded like before they were "remastered"), sloppy playing, and hilarious "snarling vocals" add up to a hell of an experience. I guess if I was 11 years old and had never heard death metal, this could possibly be cool -- but it would have to be 1986. These guys seemed to be behind their time even in the early days, why would they want to show this to everyone with a 2006 release of such rubbish? Just my opinion, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way.