(We continue with our year-end Listmania series by presenting this list by NCS reader Fork Tongue.)
One part of music I love is wading through bullshit to find treasure. Whether it be digging through used CD’s and vinyl bins or sampling shit online, nothing quite matches that feeling of finding a bargain or finding the band you can attach yourself to as the guy who discovered them among your peers. Yea, I’m that guy.
In 2013 I found quite a few bands from whom I’ll be patiently awaiting more material. Now, I know this is “No Clean Singing”, but I’ve included a couple awesome clean singing demos in here. Let’s get to it. In no particular order…
Kêres – The Wanderer’s Path Demo XX
This is their third demo (according to Metal Archives) and I’m not sure how they haven’t landed something with one of the underground Black Metal labels like Fallen Empire. Regardless, I’m hoping past and future material becomes more readily available soon because Kêres are on par with any other good Black Metal band out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNCc-x2QbUE
Throaat – Puke On Your Grave
New York is home to a few of my favorite bands — Villains, Negative Plane, and now Throaat. Throaat play an amalgam of BlackDeathThrash n’ Roll and even have some keyboards involved at times. Somehow they even manage to make it all catchy as hell. Second press of the cassette is still available on their Bandcamp. Go support!
Panther – Speed Bitch Motor Fuck
As you can probably tell, Panther is Speed Metal, Punk n’ Roll. They remind me of a band like Midnight without quite all the songwriting chops. Lots of this kind of stuff is coming out lately, and I couldn’t be happier about that. Grab the live version of their demo on cassette over at their Bandcamp or download the studio version for free.
Sangus Legio – Vengeful Brutality
Black Thrash with a Crust Punk flavor from Rhode Island. I’ve seen these guys live with bigger acts a couple of times and they eat their lunch every time. Two free downloads over at their Bandcamp.
Cassettes are also available from Armageddon Shop if you want a physical copy.
Mold – Cremated Alive
Moldy, rotted, cobweb-covered old school Death Metal. Nothing new school about it. If I didn’t know better I’d think this was a long lost demo from years past. If anybody can find a physical copy somewhere, let me know in the comments because this shit kills.
Stone Dagger – The Siege of Jerusalem
This is just classic traditional Heavy Metal by Brendan Radigan, vocalist extraordinaire with metal bands like Magic Circle, Hardcore bands like The Rival Mob, Oi! bands like Battle Ruins, and about 75 other bands. Top quality song writing if you’re into this kind of stuff.
Possession – His Best Deceit
Possession is a band who reminds me a bunch of Brazilian cult favorites Sarcofago, especially the wild-eyed drum performance. This might be the most fully formed demo on my list despite the band only being together for a year or two. These guys are ready for a full-length right now. If BlackDeathThrash is your thing than check it out.
Bones – Demo 2013
Bones is a band in the same category of Mold, only slightly less…moldy. Just awesome old school Death Metal. It’s a great mix of Hellhammer and Autopsy. Just listen to “Curative Conversion”. Beautiful.
Ranger – Combat Metal
Ranger has received big buzz as of late so I’m assuming a lot of you have heard this one. If not get ready, because Exciter and Razor had a baby and it’s coming to eat your flesh. They also released an EP off the strength of the demo, and it’s great, so pick that up also.
Eternal Champion – The Last King of Pictdom
More clean singing for that ass. When I first heard Eternal Champion I could not stop listening. I’m generally not a fan of any genre with “epic” in the title but this is genuinely epic heavy metal. This might actually be my favorite demo this year.
Arnaut Pavle – Arnaut Pavle
So you’re sick of inconsequential Darkthrone releases with inside metal references? What’s that? You want old Darkthrone back? Well here you go.
Well, that’s it for me. Bandcamp has become a wonderful tool for metal. Whether for bands, fans like myself, or bloggers like the people here, it’s hard to imagine some of this stuff getting recognized without it. So keep your eyes peeled, you never know when you’ll stumble onto the next big thing.
17 Responses to “FORK TONGUE’S BEST DEMOS OF 2013”
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Happy listening!
Cant agree with you enough about Mold, Possession, Panther, Throaat and Ranger….those were all awesome demos for sure
I couldnt get into Eternal Champions though, it was solid enough, but it didnt set me on fire
Id also recommend Paysage d’Hiver, Old Skin, Malthusian, and Supremative
I’d second all these recs, definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already.
I couldn’t get into Paysage d’Hiver when I heard it. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood. Malthusian got cut from list but it’s really good. I’ll have to check out Old Skin and Supremative.
There are two Old Skins. I presume SurgicalBrute is talking about the one featured in this post — their stuff is hard to find, unfortunately.
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2013/10/31/shades-of-black-a-halloween-edition-black-altar-necrophagia-old-skin-the-chasm-gaped-and-sartegos/
Damn, Grand Union In The Depths is great. Gonna have to dig that up somehow.
“nothing quite matches that feeling of finding a bargain or finding the band you can attach yourself to as the guy who discovered them among your peers. Yea, I’m that guy.”
I know that feel.
Check out The Dengar Demo by Blister Unit – proper, brutal bass-focused grind.
<3
Good stuff.
great recommendations! i’m especially liking Bones, Mold and Sangus Legio!
Solid recs. The fact that I had heard a few of these before this post makes me feel kvlt.
Sangus Legio, Throaat, and Keres are all strong, but Stone Dagger takes the cake for me. Radigan’s got some PIPES.
Yea, Radigan can go. Check out Magic Circle if you haven’t. My album of the year.
Solid:Blood.
Huh?
Nice list. Bones and Ranger, both made my own EP/Demo list, and Possession and Panther both got some consideration as well.
I found I liked Panther and Ranger’s other releases of the year a little better, though… Panther’s Ride The Ice and Ranger’s Knights Of Darkness are both great in their own ways.
Yea Igrabbed the Ride The Ice cassette recently. I only chose Speed Bitch Motorfuck because Ride The Ice is essentially just a live version of the demo. For some reason I thought they were an NY band…Wisconsin I guess. I agree on Ranger, both of their releases made separate lists. Can’t wait for an LP.