EUREKA, Eureka (1992, demo)

The skull:
This fella looks like he just did something he knows he shouldn’t have. His look tells us he feels guilty on one hand and kinda proud on the other. Of course, not having hands makes that merely an awkward figure of speech. Dude’ll just have to come to terms with his rash act while the rest of us turn away and go about our own business. He walks in the front door (or floats through the window?), averting his gaze from mom and the rolling pin. Chump’s gonna be grounded forever.

The music:
Man, this is rough. The prospect of a straight-up heavy metal demo from Sweden circa 1992 is an interesting one, but the actual thing isn’t as good as I’d imagined it to be. It’s speedy and chock full of energy, and all the playing is decent, but the riffs are weak and the shouted, drunken, just-barely-melodic vocals let it all down. It sounds like some of those lesser Oz albums (basically every Oz album except for the awesome Fire in the Brain), or what I imagine early uncirculated Rosicrucian demos might sound like…or rehearsal tapes by the first Swedish Tribulation, the thrashy one. This isn’t straight up thrash, and actually is a great example of the distinction between speed metal and thrash. All four songs just lay on the gas pedal and go for broke. It’s Raven-esque in its fastness, and I’ll bet these guys worship that first Jaguar album. Well, worshipped…who knows where they are now or how committed they still are to the sort of music that appears on this demo. All except drummer Tobias Gustafsson, who has made a name for himself playing in considerably more death-obsessed acts such as God Macabre, Torture Division, The Project Hate XCLMIRLXLKMRKKIIX (or whatever), and Vomitory. As for this stuff, it’s not very memorable, and grade school recess topics that give name to such songs as “Dogshit” and “Male Hooker” pretty much seal the deal: I’ve already forgotten about this demo.
— Friar Wagner