Artist: Abhorration
Country: Norway
Label: Invictus Productions
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
With the release of ‘Demonolatry’ at the end of 2024, Abhorration’s name buzzed through the underground. And not without reason: the album was a highlight in Extreme Metal in general, but above all a breath of fresh air in the somewhat stale Death Metal scene of today. But before the release of that album, the band released a 4-track demo in 2021 and a promo tape in 2023 for their performance at that year’s Killtown Deathfest. Since many people missed that first demo tape and couldn’t attend the festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, Invictus Productions released both tapes on vinyl so that all those unfortunate souls could still get their hands on these treasures.
On the A-side is the ‘After Winter Comes War’ demo, the one that gave the first sign of life from these violent Norwegians. Although none of these four songs reappeared on the actual debut album that left us all speechless, they all had that potential. You can hear that the band is still a little less tight and that the production is a little less heavy, but apart from that, it’s basically just Abhorration as heard on ‘Demonolatry’. The slightly rawer approach actually adds much to the overall pre-1990s Death Metal character of the music. There are abvious nods to Slaughter, Possessed, Necrovore, Deceased, Nunslaughter and the likes, but just as with the album, even on these demo recordings, Abhorration feels mostly like a Morbid Angel on steroids.
When the promotional tape of the same name became available at Killtown Deathfest 2023, the ‘Demonolatry’ LP had not yet been released. So, caught up in that time, this was the first glimpse of what was to come. The three tracks on that cassette tape, here on side B, are the first three songs on ‘Demonolatry’, but in demo version. That does mean these songs might have the least added value, assuming you already own ‘Demonolatry’. But it’s still nice to hear how these songs developed into the final result. There aren’t any major changes to report, except on a production level, of course. The three songs sound a bit rawer here and, just like on the ‘After Winter Comes War’ demo, a little less in-your-face.
It should be clear that ‘Abhorrent Entities’ is well worth it for the first demo on the A-side alone. If you already own the ‘After Winter Comes War’ demo, then the need to own this LP is somewhat less, although in my opinion you can easily argue that anything with Abhorration on it is worth considering.
