A classic within the Tech-Death scene. My favorite review about this album is a single sentence saying "I can almost smell the vocals".

Nespithe My friends that were into death metal: whoa thats like an anagram of “The Spine” Me: “The Penis”

It's unfortunate that these guys didn't get much respect until the internet became common. Much like Cynic, they were just way too ahead of their time. Wild and crazy music.

It makes me happy to see a reaction video to actual underground bands and not just surface level content. I love Demilich! Cheers!

I remember disliking Demilich so heavily I would just put it on for something to laugh at. Now the music laughs at me, as I ended up buying the box set, and plan to get a long sleeve eventually. They’re so complex and distinguished from basically every other band, it’s no wonder they’ve maintained relevance for all these years. Underground masterpiece.

"If you keep listening to the drums...." Indeed. That's what non-metalheads never get. People with an ear used to rock try to understand death and black metal from the guitar-centric point of view of rock. But in death metal it's drums what really make the songs. Drums are the containers within which the guitars can move. The drums put the order into the chaos. In fact, in live gigs the drums cause physical effects on your body. This is specially important in black metal, where the drums make every cell of your body vibrate. It almost feels solid, as if you can touch the music. Extreme metal is just so much more than "normal" rock. It can be felt with the body, listed too with your guts or with your brain. Or with everything in between. There are just so many layers of meaning. BTW, thank you for the analysis. Loved it.

This was super underground when it was released and became something of a cult classic; the kind of album that only those really into underground metal knew about. It's also the only album Demilich ever released. It ended up being a massive influence on what would become tech-death, but Demilich never got the attention of longer running bands like Suffocation or Cryptopsy. There was nothing like this in '93. There were key precursors in late-80s/early-90s Death, Suffocation, Atheist, and Cynic; but none of them were this twisted and angular with their riffs and structures as most early 90s DM, even the most progressive bands, were still hugely rooted in thrash. This whole album really sounded like it was some malformed beast that came from the pits of hell, especially given the ridiculously low guttural growls (still probably the lowest in the history of DM). I mean, this stuff still sounds wild in '22, almost 30 years later! Try to imagine someone trying to make sense of this in '93! I'm kinda glad I discovered them when I did because they were way ahead of their time. This probably would've sounded like complete chaos if I'd heard it early in my metal journey.

I’ve listened to them before, so I knew of that guttural growl, but can’t say I remember them being this good. Maybe I encountered them a bit too early in my career into extreme metal.

The CD booklet for the album specifically states the vocals aren't altered in any way. There's videos of him doing it with just a hand recorder. Also some vocals are altered in earlier demilich releases, where the difference is very clear.

Death didn't start Death Metal, they were one of a few. One can find elements of Death Metal as far back as 1984 becoming more and more concrete over the rest of the 80's. Beyond a doubt it was established by 1989

This album struck a chord with me from the first time I heard it. I deeply appreciate the labyrinthian structure of chaotic, disharmonic musical flurries that is occasionally broken up with a tidier, melodic section to bring you in to more familiar territory, before spitting you right back into the churning maelstrom. It's a treat every time, and I'm glad more people can appreciate it.

Possessed's Seven Churches released in 1985 is widely considered to be the first death metal album. By 1994 death is a well established genre, with many progressive and avant-garde bands. But in 1994 this was the most bizarre, confusing, weirdo death metal that world has ever heard. Unfortunately, it was largely unnoticed until early 2000s when the band decided to share their music for free on their site (which is maintained by a man with a peculiar sense of humor). Since then the band exploded in popularity. P.S. According to the burp man himself, the only effects used on vocals are reverb and delay. P.P.S. I once tried running while listening to Demilich. Don't do that.

One of my all time favorite bands, really cool to see you do a video on this one. Oh and live Anttis vocals sound pretty much the same, and he plays those wild riffs while "singing"

I love the initial "uhhh" start with a riff then discard lol

Ah Demilich, one of those bands that I never got into but certainly respect, because it feels like they are channeling magicks I simply am not meant to wield and invoking gods I am simply not meant to ponder. The vocals sit in that lovely pocket of space where I genuinely can’t even imagine the human making the sound, the melodies are angular and jagged, the rhythms are jittery and in the middle of an identity crisis and the production is raw and in your face. Where I usually find that black metal and doom metal, which is more my end of the “trve” metal spectrum, invoke megalophobia and cosmophobia, and kind of bring about lovecraftian images when interacting with the sound as a mythos, death metal like this always puts in me the fear of god in a much more old testament fashion, crafting images of hell and holy wars. Wild stuff, definitely not for me. Edit: I realise I’m being a bit cryptic, I think an easier way to put it is that Demilich’s sound is “hot”.

I love this album. Such unique grooves and harmonies. Few bands have mastered such a bizarre sound, Immolation is like a distant cousin to this. Other than that band there are no other bands that sound like them and I’m not talking about imitations…

Kinda Reminds me of cephalic carnage's music from the 90s and early 2000s. I need to check more of this out

Whoever recommended Demilich is awesome :D Great reaction as always. Also I seen a video many years ago where the vocalist does it on video, this is the only thing I could find kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oq2ggpiTldelo58.html

DEMILICH FUCKING ROCKS! Love them! So pitty they did only one album! Antiboman is genius!

Having seen them live you are correct, he leans right into the mic as his vocal style isn't very loud. One of the most unique vocalist in death metal and also it should be noted he's playing guitar as well

This album is definitely one of my top 10 death metal albums of all time, it’s like an eldritch being in music form , cool reaction 🤘

The vibe the songs give off combined with the album art is just god tier💯

The most incredible thing I find about them is that they weren't around for a long time until the mid 2010s and started playing live shows. They sound like they haven't missed a step in live performances. At least most of them.

Beautiful review.

those are interesting gutturals. it sounds like he is in his fry register [not to confused with 'fry scream'] or maybe a form of throat singing.im going be to checking out more from them

This sounds so alien it's awe-some. I had the same feeling (even stronger though) at my first listen of Cynic's "Focus" which is also a classic tech-death metal album from 1993. I tried other Florida death metal bands (that's actually a microgenre) but never felt the same effect. It's even more interesting since Cynic are from the Florida scene but Demilich are Finns. I can think of some explanations for it but it's still ever so intriguing. What's really interesting is the shift from sheer rhythmic brutality to very arhythmic, numbing experience. It'd be interesting to follow this evolution from album to album.

I've known about this record for a while. Definitely considered a classic. Spotify has recommended me some of their tracks and, this might be the first time I agree with you on vocals, Bryan, I really don't care for them, haha. I enjoyed the music though, maybe the vocals will grow on me. EDIT: Looking at the record, a lot of the track titles mention bowels and consumption which kind of fits the deep, gutteral, burpy? vocals in that sense. Also, the one instrumental track "Erecshyrinol" is an anagram for "no lyrics here" which is fun.

welcome to hell, and beauty. This is part of my top-5: Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness, At the Gates - Red in the Sky, incantation - onward to golgotha, immolation - here in after, demilich- THIS

HELL YEAH. one of my fave death metal bands ( if not my #1)

omg your patrons are the best

While prog or tech is a valid description, my favorite label for it is "avant garde death metal" for just how experimental it is

One of those albums whose status as influential is lost without the context. Not necessarily a band I *enjoy" listening to, but I do appreciate some of the bands this album influenced ( especially Chthe'illist, whose main songwriter is also the composer for First Fragment), and I do appreciate that the musical complexity is in service of an actual theme. It's intentional surrealism, and almost lovecraftian in feel. There were bands doing jazzier proggier stuff with death metal back at this point in time, like Death and Cynic and Atheist, and Pestilence, but all of these bands where far more openly jazzy in structure. This sort of keeps the prog elements under the hood and build an aura of unease on top. . It's also one of those bands that could justify you basing your reactions on more than one listen from time to time, this is way to overwheling to take in in a single listen.

The frogdemon vocal makes this band for me

For me is this record not only one of the best death metal records ever made but also one of the best if not the best tech-death metal album ever !!

7:15 I would say he is throat singing, not using vocal fry

Bryan looking like a Linkin Park member circa 2000, excellent xD

Such an interesting and progressive album. It reminds me of Atheist in the way it holds your attention with the anticipation of what's coming up next.

WOW... just WOW! Hadn't the faintest about this band. And they were contemporaries with Death!... My cautious entry into death/extreme metal was Opeth (well, for some reason I got into the much more brutal Meshuggah a bit before but that's a different story...) and it took some time to start enjoying rougher stuff that didn't have that progressive leaning and mellow parts/clean vocals to "excuse" the harsher stuff. The band name Death just sounded too much... "death"... So it took a while to discover how progressive and exciting they were. This is just as progressive and totally different/original! What a discovery! And so cohesive yet challenging (meaning: exciting me with surprises) What a week this has become! (After a - imo - pretty weak start of the week 😁)

The only vocalist I have ever heard similar to Demilich has been Thergothon, and thats it. Id swear there are none else who sound like this.

Should listen to the planet that once used to absorb flesh in order to achieve divinity and immortality (yes thats the whole name) that song has some pretty interesting thing's going on within

Wonderful song

You should see these guys live, masters of the guitar. I have this album, SICK.

I've liked Demilich for a while but never really dug too far into their lyrics. These really evoke the alzabo, from Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series. The alzabo is a predatory (possibly alien) species that absorbs the psyches of creatures after eating them (and consuming their brains in the process). It does this so that it can mimic their vocal patterns in order to lure more of their species, but a by-product of this ability is shown in the books to be that it can potentially become sentient by eating sentient creatures, and after absorbing their more advanced brains, uses their memories and knowledge to specifically target loved ones to be consumed. Eating the brain of the alzabo also allows one to inherit the memories of the creatures it has consumed, taking on elements of their personalities.

DEMILICH 🤘🏻🖤

Demilich é minha banda top um da minha lista. Simplesmente foda!

pls check perennial quest or without judgement by death

I don't think you've reacted to Atheist yet which is a must for early progressive/technical death metal...jazzier than this but excellent. The album Unquestionable Presence is one of the best! If i had to choose a song, An Incarnation's Dream.

Fun fact, the album title 'Nespithe' is an anagram of The Penis. I love Demilich. Their riffs always sound like they're being played backwards.

that facial reaction in the first listen is EXACTLY what this band is about. I don't necessarily agree with their politics, but the old school metal site ANUS said of this: "Somehow I think Frank Zappa, young and into extreme metal, would have come up with something like this" and "Demilich place the listener into a staring contest with the self's own concept of infinity." yep yep

Demilich is the band I'd play for people who don't know anything about metal but who are curious. Seriously. Because for me there was no acquired taste period for Demilich. I loved it from the very moment I heard it, have seen them live multiple times and they sound exactly like this, vocals included. Bought shirts, CD's, LP's...I LOVE Demilich. And I think it's the best choice for 9/10 DM bands to just tour off the one perfect album instead of making 4 albums that don't measure up to it like all the others do. Best band.

I'm like, Demilich... woot, you doing one of their songs? I see the song title, and it's short, on an album with so many songs with long names. hahaha Not my top pick from the album, but this album was so ahead of it's time.

"Tecno-Grind with original vocals"

👿🔱😈..i lov watching students of music taken out of there comfort zone musically.. The looks on their faces is priceless 😂... And watching them try to say something positive about what they Just heard so they dont offend people viewing their content is hilarious... Just say you hate it and dont be a WIMP...😂

Check out “Where Angels Go, Demons Follow” by Spawn of Possession and “Infecting Them with Falsehood” by Deeds of Flesh

Nice react, have always struggled distinguishing between Death and Black Metal. Did Death metal spawn from Black? Are you a fan of thrash / power metal? Would you consider reacting to all female J-metal band Lovebites? They are heavily influenced by 80s metal. Ty.

I love the music but I really struggle with the vocals. They’re in a pretty weird place in the mix too.

Demigod and Rippikoulu, similar early Finnish doomy DM. And of course the first four or five amorphis releases

Demilich have ALWAYS ruled. Proof you can be technical and also still be heavy and absolutely disgusting

I can say that i'm still not really liking the vocals but everything else is just amazing and way ahead of it's time proud to be Finnish

Mind blowing musicianship. Too bad they split up after just one album. Sounds like the deformed child of King Crimson and Death

Now that prog death alarms have been sound, you need to check out some Atheist and Cynic. Focus and Unquestionable Presence

the only manipulation done to the vocals was reverb, he really can make those sounds naturally

Vocals are not touched at all, this is how boman sounds when hes growling, only some reverb and a bit of master to make vocals sound equal to rest instruments

Regular Death Metal record in ohio 💀

I cant listen to that growl, I cant stand it. Is sad because the instrument is overall good.