Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.

THE DEMONSEEDS: KNEE DEEP IN HELL'S GRASP El Transpariente Gorillia Records No website, yer gonna have to write for info to Demonseeds 8491 w. Sunset Blvd. #404 Hollywood, CA. 90069-1911 and remember where you got the info!

So many folks & fans, when talkin' bout a band, hark back to the days when the group was rough and unpolished. While maturity and practice make a particular band sound better tonally, there is also something to be said for those halcyon rough and hungry days.

Such things may one day be said about THE DEMONSEEDS: KNEE DEEP IN HELL'S GRASP. While the band still sounds young enough to have near-lifted guitar riffs and a little too much solo compounded by repetitive uninspired riffs that lead to nowhere but another chorus or the eventual fade out, this band never the less has that Spark!

KNEE DEEP IN HELL'S GRASPis a very raw album from a Houston, Texas based, dead basic, 3 man combo consisting of Michael Haaga on Vocals and Guitar, Joseph Fazzio on Drums, and Craig Cazaubon on Bass.

Haaga also did the album art and wrote the lyrics, with Fazzio co-writing the music. The words are a notch above most Metal bands that have recording contracts and glossy tour dates. The music, while not very original, is proud, loud, and defiant. Haaga has a scratchy voice similar to Axle Rose, minus the nasal whine. Everything is done fast, yet not so fast that you would call it speed metal; instead the music has an almost Punk sense of urgency to it all. Danceable Metal? Yeah, kind of.

The album starts out with "Discorporate"

Life has got a price / costly mistakes / jealousy bends /
and your Cadillac friends / drown you in a pool of hate /
They want it all and they don't want to give it away.

And goes barrel rolling right into "Fail", "To The End" and on through "The True Demons" A fair amount of cultural awareness is present, but nothing preachy. True to new bands, a couple of songs fall flat like "Rifle". The song is too much like a million other half-assed bands out there trying to sound like someone else.

Then again, listen to the first AEROSMITH, OVERKILL, or KISS

Altogether though, THE DEMONSEEDS: KNEE DEEP IN HELL'S GRASP shows a lot of promise. Wove into the fabric of the music is a band that is stretching the limits of what they can do, a cacophonous jam of insanity waiting to break out from those first unsure steps. The album sounds like the rough cut beginnings of a future diamond band.

3 Perplex Skulls.

This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.

Return to Shadow Music