BAPHOMET - (1989) Morbid Realities DEMO

BAPHOMET 

(1989) Morbid Realities 

DEMO

 

Hailing from tech death capital, New York, Baphomet is a hardly talked about death metal group; several demos and a full length under their name before changing to Banished. I found a few of these demos and decided to start with that, hearing their early career change and eventually maturing into full lengths. Morbid Realities is apparently their longest demo with 3 songs and an intro song made up of noises and sounds of people digging up a grave and then screaming.

Baphomet play low fi, shitty production quality (well this is a demo in 1989, but whatever), pummeling death metal. Inferno Invocation starts off somewhat at a slow and begrudging mid tempo death metal pace and moving nicely into a more frantic and upper tempo pace when the guitar solo comes in shredding moreso without structure than trying to have one. The production is terrible, but doesn't really hinder the overall impact, but I can only imagine how it would sound with a halfway decent job. One thing I always find annoying with shitty productions as in the mixing is done terribly and having one aspect (usually drums or vocals) way too high and preventing me from enjoying the music. Here, the drums are somewhat tame, keeping the heavy pace and blasting only in the faster tempo paces keeping a decent rhythm with double bass.

Sanguinary is keeps the mystically evil and ominous sound that opened up with the intro and makes it into a better song with great lead work and more chaotic vocals; the opening bass adds to the heavy evil. The vocals stick out as being primative death metal growls, something found in a lot of early death metal bands' demos, harsh yells and something akin to Possessed or Venom. Sanguinary sticks out for having the most memorable riffing and is the best found on this demo.

For some reason everytime I hear the beginning of Unexpected Internment with the slow and ever ominous guitars, I feel as if I'm watching that show with the scary host who wears the trenchcoat and speaks of people who have been kidnapped or gone missing and the even scarier theme song... Anyway, the song picks up speed and really starts to fucking slay, being the fastest parts and song here, taking in a lot of Possessed influence and having some great lead work; full of Kerry King type insanity and more heavy bludgeoning riffing. The vocals still reign overhead with a morbid harshness and looming havok. This is early death metal chaos and is full of classic death metal influence; something old schoolers shouldn't miss out on.

This is my first introduction to Baphomet and a good one at that, with a lot of classic death/black metal bands I find it interesting to go and listen to their early demos as my very first listen. Morbid Realities is one of Baphomet's forgotten early work and will surely make a worthy addition to any classic death metal fan's collection. There are complaints to be found, I stated earlier the low fi production doesn't exactly hinder the sound, but really doesn't help it either... I'd much prefer be listening to something a lot more clear, without that fuzz, and something where the vocals were a bit more distinguishable. The demo starts off rocky but ends off great, so keep that in mind.