Archives of the Dead part XIII: Acheron - Promo 1992

Archives of the Dead part XIII: Acheron - Promo 1992

Line up: Simon Dower (vocals), Tim Aldridge (guitars), Justin Warnes (bass), David Abbott (guitars), Craig Bailey (drums)

I am sure that everyone is familiar with the US death / black metal cult called Acheron. But I wonder how many of you know about an Australian Acheron? Not many, I suppose. But if I mention Abramelin, then some may have a better clue, as Abramelin released two decent albums back in the 90’s. Acheron is more or less a predecessor to Abramelin; they were spawned under this name back in 1988 and released a demo and 7”EP, finally they also recorded this Promo 1992 and then changed the name to Abramelin and released another demo. It is obvious that the American Acheron, who at the time already had „Rites of the Black Mass” released, forced this change of the moniker. Let’s be honest though – neither Abramelin and Acheron have ever got a huge fame. In my opinion they were just one of many decent, but relatively mediocre bands. And this demo proves me right, really.

Yes, it is solid and decent slab of classic death metal but nothing more, nothing less. Very typical music, very typical arrangements, harsh, not really impressive production… I guess there are too many of these “typical” and “good, but mediocre” things, which I can say about this Promo. Surprisingly though this recording was saved from perishing and I even enjoy listening to it now, over 20 years after its recording. I’m not blown away, but an enjoyment is there. I guess that the biggest problem with this demo is that the riffing is sometimes just dull and unimpressive, so… hmm, almost boring sometimes and it lacks that spark and powerful touch, which every death metal recording should have. But after some listens I can say that the whole “Promo 1992” is not so bad… a typical relict of the old days, which nowadays sounds archaic, but nice. Among all four songs especially “Final Biopsy” caught my attention, for its truly awesome slow, heavy, chunky opening theme, which later turns into some nice brutal, sometimes also fast death metal monster. “Human Abattoir” has also some really nice moments there, it is filled with brutality and thick, massive riffing.

All songs, which were recorded under the name Acheron has recently been exhumed and together with the entire Abramelin catalogue have been released on compilation CD/LP “Transgressing the Afterlife”, in case you wanted to check what was this “Promo 1992” and other Acheron recordings like. More so, two of the songs from this “Promo 1992” has later been re-recorded already under the Abramelin name on “Transgression from Acheron” EP and “Human Abattoir” was even on their debut self titled debut album from 1995. 

Final rate: 65/100