Artist: Bestial Warlust
Country: Australia
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Formats: 12″ / Cassette / CD
Year: 2026
Although bands like Impaled Nazarene, Blasphemy and Beherit were already blending the ferocity and darkness of Black Metal with the blunt brutality of Death Metal around the turn of the 1990s, it was arguably Bestial Warlust who popularized the subgenre that we now refer to as War Metal. With two absolutely mandatory albums under their belts, these Aussies are ranked at the absolute peak of barbaric savagery in sonic form. Even after three decades, ‘Vengeance War ‘till Death’ and ‘Blood & Valour’ lost none of their impact and significance and are still considered to be part of your Extreme Metal starters pack.
Yet, other than those two albums, released in 1994 and 1995 respectively, Bestial Warlust has been a band mostly laying in dormant. Often said to be disbanded or on hold, but it seems nobody really knows what’s going on. But it is our luck that over the past decade Hells Headbangers Records has been busy bringing all the little material that is out there back to life. That crusade began in 2012 with the release of ‘Satan’s Fist’, a demo that had not been released until then and which in 2017 yielded a live album that had been recorded back in 1996. I’ve always wondered that both the band and label went digging deep into the archives and came up with unreleased stuff, but never seemed to have bothered to re-release the only “real” demo the band released in their rather short career.
That record is finally set straight now that Hells Headbangers Records is bringing back ‘Demo 1995’ on all three most relevant physical formats. The demo itself was released in between the two albums, the purpose of which remains unclear to me as the band was still tied to Modern Invasion Music, which released both album as well as this demo tape. But regardless of the reasons, this demo features five tracks, four of which also appear on the ‘Blood & Valour’ album that was released a couple of months later. So, people who were eager to hear something new might be a little disappointed, but those in the know always claimed that the versions of the songs on this demo were even better than how they ended up on ‘Blood & Valour’.
In a way, I can follow that train of thought. Although I think it is more of a matter of sentiment than actual reasoning, but music is all about experiencing and feeling, which makes listening back to such recordings so interesting. The main reason as why (not) to prefer these specific recordings might lie within the fact that this demo tape has a bit more of a rough edge. Not that anything Bestial Warlust has ever recorded ended up being polished, refined or otherwise sophisticated, but the slightly rawer edge on these versions do give the music a bit livelier energy. The wild intent of the songs remain intact, in fact, it is even more prominent here. The strong Punk/Thrash Metal connotation is also more evident, mainly because the songs do have a bit more of a stripped down character, allowing the songs to flow rather naturally.
Other than that, this is trademark Bestial Warlust. If you’re a fan of ‘Vengeance War ‘till Death’ and ‘Blood & Valour’ (and you should), you already know what to expect. This re-release has absolutely nothing new in store, but it will definitely put a grin on everyone’s face.
