Artist: Szmrdt
Country: Czechia
Label: Filth Junkies Records
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2026
It will come as no surprise that, even more than the artwork and the logo, it was the title of this debut demo tape that caught my attention. If we set aside the possibility of pretentious intentions for a moment, we might as well take this as a good joke. In any case, the musicians involved should lead us to believe that Szmrdt isn’t necessarily a joke; the quartet can also be found in bands such as Otras, Cancer Void, Black Light, Mörghuul and Bätlick, all highly regarded bands in the Czech Extreme Metal underground scene. With Szmrd, however, they’ve taken a completely different approach and immersed themselves fully in raw Bestial Blackened Death Metal.
But even without knowing the background of the individual band members, after listening to ‘Best Of’, you can easily pick out the Death Metal and, in particular, the Thrash Metal influenced elements. The straightforward, driving drumming and especially the gritty, crunchy guitar tone reveal a great deal about Szmrd’s background. At the same time, this means the band sounds a bit different from the average band in this genre.
In just under fifteen minutes, we’re treated to three tracks and an intro with the basics of Bestial/Black Death Metal, but handled in a completely different way. Although I’m not a purist by definition, I’ve always struggled with it when musicians suddenly start making music that’s completely different from what they normally do, without seemingly really delving into the music and its background. In almost all cases, such an approach quickly becomes soulless and utterly forgettable. Here, however, it yields a rather interesting result.
The overall sound is less chaotic and because of the choppy guitars it is also not as heavy as the random Bestial Black/Death Metal band. That doesn’t mean there isn’t enough ‘bite’, the bass-heavy approach and the crunchy, almost Swedish Death Metal-like guitar tone just gives it another flavour. But it is the raw and sound that pulls it firmly into the realm of bestial-whateveryouliketocallit-metal.
Whether this is meant as a parody or was an attempt to add a touch of humour to a scene awash with proto-corpsepaint, dark sunglasses, spikes, gas masks and bullet belts… I don’t know. In any case, it’s an excellent debut demo tape, released in a run of 50 copies via Filth Junkies Records. If you pick up a copy, it’ll fit right in next to your ‘Best Of Whitesnake’ album in your collection.
