Slaughter - Into the Darkness

SLAUGHTER - Into the Darkness (THRASHING MADNESS CD 2016)

Thrashing Madness Productions takes another step on their journey into the depths of Polish metal underground, exhuming another old band from the grave... and bringing us Slaughter this time! I have to say that I've never been so much into their „Into the Darkness” demo, but it’s not because the music was shit. I don’t know what it was like really, because my copy on dubbed cassette was just very, very bad and it was basically unlistenable. I'm assuming that with the reissue of „Into the Darkness” demo on CD it means that you'll never hear this demo in better quality...If you're very sensitive on bad produced, noisy recordings, then I will not try to convince you to grab a copy of this CD. But if you like all those relics from the ancient extreme metal scene and you're not bothered if something sounds as bad as a rehearsal recording, then I am sure that Slaughter will be for you.

Yes, the sound quality can be the biggest problem for many listeners. But it isn't as terrible as you would fear. You can easily hear some killer riffs, there are definitely some really awesome and almost memorable tunes like "Bestial Death Metal" or "Czas apokalipsy", which surely will crush your head with some fantastic parts. With such killer songs it just doesn't matter if the sound quality is bad or the technical aspects of the whole demo, including band members' skills as musicians, were rather low. This demo has a feeling, which is fantastic. And that aggression of thrash / death is also great. These days such demos like „Into the Darkness” sound incredibly archaic, but again - who cares??? The only thing, which I don't like about it are some of the joke songs, which many Polish bands added to their demos like „Pankraction Mania” and „Gargamels Scream”. For me this is just a waste of time (luckily they're very short).

Oh, I suppose I should quickly write also few words about the history of Slaughter. It is well presented in nice, extended booklet for this CD. But let me just remind you that Slaughter was formed back in 1987 in Koszalin (North of Poland). „Into the Darkness” was the only recording they ever did, sadly. At some point the band recruited Piotr Kuziola aka Berial from Betrayer as vocalist / bassist and he probably made Slaughter sound so damn nasty and aggressive. But once he left to concentrate on Betrayer, Slaughter was basically dead. Anyway, after this CD edition we can hear the voice from the old crypt and „Into the Darkness” is here again; demo, which you could put aside to old Vader, Betrayer, Thanatos, Armagedon, Ghost, Merciless Death or Manslaughter demo recordings.

Standout tracks: “Czas apokalipsy”, “Assassin”, “Bestial Death Metal”

Final rate: 80/100