Under the Church - Demo 2013

UNDER THE CHURCH - Demo cassette 2013

A while ago I was contacted by Erik Qvick – ex drummer of Swedish legendary death metal band Nirvana 2002 – who wanted to thank me for my review of his band’s compilation LP “Recordings 89-91”, which I wrote after getting a vinyl copy of this excellent release. And you know, this is always something truly amazing, when someone like Erik – whose music you’re a big fan – contacts you and thanks. Fuck, I guess it should rather be me, who should say THANKS here: all in all, Nirvana 2002 was such a cool band and I really liked that compilation LP. Back then Erik wrote something like that: “…I think you will be quite happy to know that we're working together again on new music, we are not called Nirvana 2002 anymore, this is a new band...BUT with the same members…”. WOW, I got interested right away. Obviously it would be easier for Erik and his friends to record and release something under the name Nirvana 2002, but instead they went for something completely new… respect! This way it means they won’t be vulturing on their old band, but start with something completely new (even if they’ll have to carry their past with them). Anyway, I almost forgot about everything, when one day I’ve found an info about band called Under the Church… and bang, it was the band, which Erik wrote me about few weeks earlier! I contacted him again and he wrote me that they just did a short demo, available on the bandcamp website and later they’ll release it on tape with a patch. I was very, very happy, I’ve listened to the music from bandcamp and was really blown away by it!!! I asked if I can buy a tape, but instead Erik sent me one, to review for my blog… and wow, just fuckin WOW!

First of all, I am very, very excited to have this demo in my collection… there were not many copies of it released and they all have spread very quickly, so it is so damn good to have one! What’s more, I must say that musically Under the Church is one of the best death metal bands, which I have listened to in the past few years! Yeah, I remember that there are so many great bands and releases with Swedish old school death metal, as this style – and old school death metal in general – became very popular and obviously I liked many, many records with this sort of music. But still, I think that not too many can rival Under the Church, so awesome is that music from this demo! These guys, even if they didn’t do any death metal at all for almost two decades, must have had this style in their blood or it infected them so much in their youth back in the early 90’s that now, when they write some new tunes it comes so easily and naturally for them that the music turns into something truly fuckin amazing and sounds so natural… And it is the same impression, which I had when listening to Death Breath’s album few years ago. You know, Nicke Andersson haven’t played death metal for years, doing his other band Hellacopters and suddenly he came up with such an awesome album like “Stinking Up the Night”… and here, with Under the Church, I have the same impression!

There’s only one thing, which I don’t like about this demo… it is so damn short, only about 10 minutes of music, while I would really want to hear some more! Everything else is just killer and essential! Even that artwork and the whole way, which the band did their demo – that drawing on the front cover may look primitive and almost like done by a child, plus they have used the old type writer here… but why not? This is demo cassette and the band did it in the same way like when they have been releasing the demo over 20 years ago. Good idea, don’t you think?

Under the Church offers three songs… and Death Breath is a good point of reference here, with the exception that I think that Under the Church is even more uncompromising and filthy, more obscure and damn straight forward. Also bands like Autopsy, Entombed, Maim, Morbus Chron, Nihilist and such come to my mind… But all three songs are just superb, with such an awesome riffs, some more harmonious parts here and there and with just a damn killer portion of energy, which fills my apartment, when I play this cassette and play it LOUD! The music is very catchy and it just makes you bang the head and is just flawless. I seriously think that these three songs are just perfect, I like everything about them and I can only be happy that I was honoured to get this tape. Now I cannot wait until Under the Church will do some more recordings. And I am also sure that the record labels will start the battle to sign them, if they obviously decide to record a full length album – something even the band is not so sure yet, as Under the Church was more like a fun band in the beginning, but the response is so good that you never know where will it end... All the best!

My favourite song is “Haunted by Demons”, which is slow, with great feeling of old, obscure horror movies… that opening riff sounds just damn creepy, what a killer tune! Just close your eyes or switch off the lights and you may really feel like something horrid is slowly approaching… something evil and unspeakable… something you cannot describe… run, you fool…

Final rate: 99/100