Archives of the Dead part XV: Armagedon – Czas przetrwania (demo 1989)

Archives of the Dead part XV: Armagedon – Czas przetrwania (demo 1989)

Armagedon used to belong to my favourite bands at the time, when I started to listen to death metal (so around early 1992). First I remember that I bought their “Dead Condemnation” demo, which was really awesome, but then in 1993 I was just hugely impressed by “Invisible Circle” cassette. It was one of my favourite albums and I considered Armagedon to be just as good as Vader, Pestilence, Death, Dismember or any other death metal band, which I was maniacally listening to and was a big fan of. Ha, these were old days, I was still a kid, but I never stopped liking this band and also nowadays they still are one of my favourite Polish troops of death. I know that “Invisible Circle” to many of you may sound just too archaic or even mediocre, but I don’t care – I love this album! It is funny, but for many years I thought that “Dead Condemnation” was Armagedon’s first demo. Of course I was wrong and before that they have recorded also two more materials… “Czas przetrwania” from 1989 was already their second recording (“Demo 1” was released in 1988). And since this demo is just damn difficult to get in original cassette copy I was happy that someone decided to exhume this demo and did an mp3 version of it. Finally I can listen to it and see what were the beginnings of Armagedon like!

“Czas przetrwania” is quite different musically from Armagedon’s future recordings, but on the other hand the music on this demo didn’t really surprise me, as I actually expected that it will sound like this. Why? Well, just because most of Polish death metal bands, which recorded their demos in the late 80’s, sounded pretty much the same and were playing similar sort of music, which was aggressive, harsh thrashing death metal. There are many similarities between early Vader, Thanatos, Dragon, Merciless Death, Manslaughter, Armagedon and so on and on. And obviously to many this music will today sound unbelievably archaic and outdated, but fuck… it has this unique charm and great feeling, killer atmosphere and playing, which nowadays is almost impossible to be repeated. And despite the fact that “Czas przetrwania” has very rough, primitive production and the music sounds so outdated, it still sounds just bloody awesome. I guess this is just that uniqueness, which the productions from the 80’s have. “Seven Churches” or “Darkness Descends” may sound old, almost prehistoric, but you still love these albums, for the killer songs but also for that feeling and atmosphere of the music. And the same I can say about “Czas przetrwania”. Sure, it may not be my favourite demo of all time, even among the Polish death bands there are some, which I like more. Ha, I obviously like “Dead Condemnation” more, not to mention “Invisible Circle”, but “Czas przetrwania” has some truly awesome riffs, I like that harshness of this demo, this totally old school way of mixing thrash and death metal, with totally vicious and furious riffs and screaming vocals. Don’t worry about the Polish lyrics – you barely understand a single word, so ruthless is the voice of Sławomir Maryniewski used to be. Hell yeah… “Czas obiecany” and “Przetrwanie” are bloody awesome songs that I cannot stop listening to them. Ufff… I’m really happy that I had a chance to finally listen to “Czas przetrwania”, even if it’s only an mp3. It is killer demo, in my opinion, but mind that it is also totally different to Armagedon, which you know from the next recordings.

Final rate: 80/100