Black Mass of Absu - Demo (1995)

This is an interesting demo. It's described as "Atmospheric Black/Doom Metal", but it reminds me most of Portal's Seepia and Outre, which I've seen described as "Lovecraftian horror". I think that's about right. They don't really have guitar riffs, just a twisted jumble of guitars, drums, and screamed/growled vocals. BMoA are doing much the same thing, but include keyboards in their sound and are somewhat more coherent. Oh, and they did it eight years earlier. Obviously, the playing here isn't really an issue -- this is all about aesthetic and atmosphere. And the demo-style production really helps produce an evil sounding atmosphere. Although this isn't really the kind of thing I usually like, I did enjoy listening to it, though at almost 50 minutes, it is about 20 minutes too long.

The band is probably broken up by now, but you can find one of the songs from this demo ("Strangled By the Tail of Lucifer") at a MySpace fan page.