Disgrace - 1990

DISGRACE - 1990 (SVART Records LP 2014)

Another fantastic demo compilation is here, this time from Svart Records!! And it’s titled “1990”, which means that all stuff was originally recorded and unleashed back in 1990!!! Awesome! What band is it? It’s fuckin Disgrace, once a killer brutal death metal band from Finland. I like and hate this band. I like them because their death metal stuff is excellent. And I hate them for ending the death metal style so soon, only after the debut album, and fucking everything up with some punk rock shit that they started to play later on.

“1990” is nice LP that contains “Inside the Labyrinth of Depression” demo, “Debts of God” EP and “Beyond the Immortalized Existence” demo! Ain’t that a fantastic set of old school death metal? Hell yeah! It comes on 12” LP with an awful front artwork (haha). It’s awful, but also quite important, as this is what the band wanted to have on the cover for “Debts of God” EP originally. Well, I prefer what the label used in the final version haha! But surely these few existing copies of the 7”EP with the intended cover are rare as fuck. Now this 12”LP has this artwork again. The vinyl contains an insert sheet with the scans of demo booklets and EPs, few flyers, so it looks nice. But the music is even nicer. Or should I say nastier, as this is some seriously ugly and brutal death metal?

Disgrace were one of the best Finnish bands around and all three releases were in similar style. Which was abominable and morbid, fuckin harsh death metal with grindish influence, all in all very much in the vein of Carcass and some other Finnish acts like Abhorrence, Xysma and Funebre. Oh, you know that shit, right? You do, unless you’re a nerd, who recently found out that Kataklysm and Amon Amarth are the best and most brutal bands in the fuckin world. But damn, Disgrace is so awesome! “Inside the Labyrinth of Depression” is probably my favourite recording that they did, this demo is just amazing. I love the sound they had achieved and the songs like “The Chasm” or “Unity’s Interlude Dyes Blind Tomorrow” (blasting shit!) are total crushing fuckers. They have everything; there are some slow bits, quite many grinding blasting parts, sick vomits (Disgrace had three guys doing the vocals!) that will remind you Carcass of corpse… and damn, it all sounded just amazing and vile as hell. I like the riffs and the dynamics of this demo, with the variety of tempos, etc. For me this is among my top five favourite recordings from Finland EVER, yes!

Even if all three 1990 recordings from Disgrace are brilliant, this demo has a special place in my ranking and I cherish it the most. I have to say that the production is maybe one of the reasons why I like this demo the most. It really sounds fuckin sick and heavy! When compared to “Debts of Gods” EP, it is definitely heavier, while the EP sounds noisier. But it’s still damn good EP, don’t get me wrong. There are four fantastic songs, very much in the same vein as those from “Inside the Labirynth…” demo and this time I especially like “Deprive My Innermost Soul”, maybe because it’s slower and so massive sounding track!? Also “Incinerate” slays, fuckin Carcass worship!!!

Of corpse “Beyond the Immortalized Existence” demo is also really good, I am impressed that the debut demo had already such a good sound and the songwriting was not bad at all as well. “Deprive My Innermost” is the best song here while “Ingrained Reign” is the one I like least, as it’s almost as crazy as some of the stuff that Lubricant used to play.

Wowweeee, I have nothing more to add. This is a fuckin awesome demo / EP compilation, from one of the best death metal bands from Finland ever and this vinyl plays absolutely fantastic. All these recordings sound great, of course they have harsh, raw production, but damn it! This is the only way such music should sound on demos. I have to recommend this LP to all of you.

Standout tracks: “The Chasm”, “Deprive My Innermost Soul”, “Incinerate”

Final rate: 90/100