Microcosm - The Umbah Experience (1995)

This demo is a good candidate for "best demo ruined by terrible production". The music is technical/progressive death metal, very good for the mid-90's. It's not as technical as bands of the time like Gory Blister or Thy Nature, but it's more comparable to Disaffected, Droys or Rhadamantys. They mix some jazzier sections in with their more traditional death metal and have some nice guitar leads and some notable bass playing. Unfortunately, the production makes this close to unlistenable for me. There is virtually no midrange, similar to the sound that some black metal bands like. But while it sometimes can help a black metal band produce an eerie or mysterious sound, it doesn't work here as it makes a lot of the intricate sections very hard to hear. And it's a shame really, as this would have been a good demo otherwise. Unfortunately, the band never continued beyond this demo, so we'll never be able to hear what they could have done with decent production.

This demo is available from Umbah's website.