Artist: Angelcorpse
Country: USA
Label: Osmose Productions
Formats: 10″ EP
Year: 2024
Angelcorpse’s ‘Goats to Azazael’ is a nothing short of a milestone in the wild and furious brand of Black/Death Metal. Not only did this mark the beginning of this iconic band and its indelible influence it left on the genre, it was also the beginning of a long and good relationship with the Osmose Productions label. It must have been shortly after its release in 1996 that a copy landed on the desk of Osmose Productions’ chef de mission Hervé and decided to sign the band, because even that same year the band was able to debut with ‘Hammer Of Gods’ – an unmistakable classic. With all this in mind, it is no surprise that eventually, almost 30 years later, the band and the label have once again joined forces to spotlight this demo one more time.
Perhaps even less surprising is the musical content of this demo. The band has never been known for its finesse or frivolities, with especially the first three albums, ‘Hammer Of Gods’ (1996), ‘Exterminate’ (1998) and ‘The Inexorable’ (1999), being absolute highlights of blistering and blazing Black/Death Metal, but ‘Goats To Azazael’ is quite a tad more unpolished. ‘Goats Of Azazael’ is a demo that comes with a matching sound: raw, harsh and with a catchy sort of youthful energy. No wonder Osmose Productions was quick to seal the deal.
This also means that if you’re listening to this demo now, all those years later, you have to accept that this is not quite as powerful as the albums in terms of sound quality or you have to be a seasoned connoisseur of demo and rehearsal recordings. If you think of yourself as having a trained ear and consider yourself ready to give this a shot, it will actually offer you a great insight in the early steps of Angelcorpse.
Basically all ingredients that earned them a legendary status, are already there, even this early on in their career. Around the same time of the reissue of this demo, Hell’s Headbangers Records re-released Impiety’s ‘Despondent Ecstacies’-demo, originally released in 1992. That specific demo also featured Angelcorpse riff-meister Gene Palubicki who already had a really recognizable musical fingerprint, but that clearly developed tremendously when he started Angelcorpse. The Death Metal riffs with a much sharper tonality, while still retaining a murderous sort of sawing texture to it, do sound as wild and ferocious as on any of the band’s later recordings. The same goes for Pete Helmkamp’s hellish vocals. Not to speak of Palubicki’s stormy and Slayer-inspired leads: unparalleled and genre-defining.
The four tracks on this demo would make their appearance on ‘Hammer Of Gods’ only about half a year later, but it is amazing to hear back those tracks in their earliest and pure form. As pointed out already, the frantic wildness and youthful energy on ‘Goats To Azazael’ is really making it a demo for the ages. And again: no wonder Osmose Productions was quick to seal the deal; and fortunately that collaboration has given us three timeless classics.
