Archives of the Dead part XXX - Apostasy - Accuser of Brethren (Demo 1993)

Archives of the Dead part XXX - Apostasy - Accuser of Brethren (Demo 1993) 

Line up: Bryan Boykin (drums), Chris Savini (guitars), Jody Hughes (bass), Ben Danburger (bass), Justin Aitken (guitars), Tony Blakk (vocals)  

Recorded at Audio Lab Studio, July 1993. 

That's a nice discovery, of American death metal band Apostasy and their only recording, which is "Accuser of Brethren" demo from 1993. Well, my knowledge about Apostasy is limited to what I can find in Metal Encyclopaedia, but I can see that this band involved an old Acheron guitarist, who played on such albums as "Hail Victory" and nowadays is a member of Druid Lord. At least that's something. I suppose Apostasy was rather shortly living band, formed in 1992, with a demo done in 1993... and they may have split up shortly afterwards, but who knows. What's worth to mention is that "Accuser of Brethren" is surprisingly solid and worthy death metal demo. I enjoy it a lot and keep coming back to it quite often. 

Death metal from the Florida, with strong satanic imagery... Hmm, how could they sound like? Well, there's definitely a bit of Vital Remains, Brutality, Baphomet, Morta Skuld, Disincarnate... But that's obvious Apostasy would have to sound alike to some other US bands. What's relevant is that they really had some killer riffs and fantastic songs, which in my opinion do not sound any weaker than songs from some well-known albums. Take such "Sacraments of Retribution" as an example, which probably is my favourite track here. What a brutal, yet very well arranged and performed death metal! Or "Suffer in Silence", which is just smashing opener. You'll find here crushing slower riffs, some more mid-tempo, faster parts, but also a lot of killer, sometimes more melodic leads, so the whole songwriting and performance is top notch. And more so, the production is also not bad at all, it's professional and just as heavy as death metal needs to be. No surprise, this demo was recorded with the dude, who also recorded such legendary bands as Winter, Acheron, Nocturnus, Eulogy, Diabolic. He certainly knew what he's doing. I like that the sound is harsh enough for a demo, but with that more professional, instead of primitive, feel. Every instrument sounds right, the guitar tone is awesome, drums sound also very well... And the vocals are just fantastic. Yeah, "Accuser of Brethren" is definitely an unknown Floridian death metal gem. The only piece of this demo, which I don't like is "Johnny Law Die", but that's 25 seconds out of 15 minutes, so I could live with it. 

Standout track: "Sacraments of Retribution" 

Verdict: 80/100