Archives of the Dead part XXV - Desolate - The Scourge of Sanity (Demo 1994)

Archives of the Dead part XXV - Desolate - The Scourge of Sanity (Demo 1994) 

Line up: Jerry Orne (bass), Jeremy Kibort (guitars, vocals), Eric Roy (drums), Todd Laskowski (guitars, vocals) 

Recorded at West Sound Studio, Londonderry 

Desolate were Massachusetts based US death metal band formed in 1991, which through the time of their short existence came out only with few demos but disbanded in 1995 before they even managed to record an album. Here I wanna write few words about their second demo, 1994’s “The Scourge of Sanity”. With four tracks, it truly brings an awesome and crushing dose of death metal that surprisingly seems to be more influenced by the European, mainly Swedish, acts rather than the more brutal and heavier American bands.  

Already the sound of “The Scourge of Sanity”, with the heavy fat guitar tone, can remind you the Swedish cults, but also some riffs or melodies can definitely bring you an impression that Desolate were heavily inspired by the Scandinavian death metal. It's very surprising, as I suppose there were not so many US bands with alike sound and style, at least back in the early 90's! It's great thing though, because the result on “The Scourge of Sanity” is simply delicious and I fuckin love this demo! One of the best aspects about it is that of course there's Swedish vibe to everything, but at the same time - especially in that killer song called "Grotesquely Chainsaw Remain" - Desolate sounds faster, more brutal and vicious than the usual Swedish act. Of course you will hear a lot of influence from Entombed, Dismember, Toxaemia, Crematory and so forth, together with a bit of Finnish stuff like Demigod... What I like is that the songs are rather lengthy, but Desolate had enough ideas and killer riffs to make them interesting and not boring. And more so, they diversified their music, so they could have sounded fast and brutal or more doomy and more melodic... Either way, the music always fuckin kills and each of these four songs is a delicious stuff for me. I am very impressed and also very happy that I discovered this this demo recently. 

I have also found out that both demos of Desolate were released on compilation CD by Pathos Productions titled “Sanity Obliterated”. Damn, I wanna have it in my collection, so today I'm starting the hunt for this CD. Great band and I hope that their other releases are as good as “The Scourge of Sanity”, because this demo is a fuckin killer for me. And more, the band reformed in 2012 and in 2015 they released the debut album "Imperator of Flames" (also Pathos Prods). Well, well, should I dare to find it also? 

Standout tracks: "Macabre", "Grotesquely Chainsaw Remain" 

Final rate: 85/100