Cornucopia of Death - Demo (1990) and Nip It in the Bud (1991)

This is an interesting pair of demos. There are a number of really terrible aspects to them, and yet they have a few good qualities as well. First, the bad. The lyrics are probably the worst aspect. They're embarrassingly juvenile, featuring song titles like "Enema Nurse" (which the singer mispronounces as "emena") and "Suck My Floppy Disk", and references to "doo-doo" and "pee-pee". The singer is equally bad; his style is more talking than singing. And the guitar solos are terrible -- seemingly just scales as fast as the guitarists can play them mixed with blues licks. Most of the music is pretty standard thrash for the time: simple and repetitive, which constrasts oddly with the more punk style of the singer, lyrics, and guitar solos. And then, just when you have it pegged as worthless, the guitarists throw out some novel riffs with progressive touches and harmonized guitar parts. If they could concentrate on these parts and make a serious demo, it would have been pretty good, though not exceptional for 1991.

Nip It in the Bud is the better demo as the playing has improved and it seems a little more serious, though the production is a little rougher and too trebly. I'd like to know what the two guitarists (Joe Smith and Scott McEllhiney) went on to do. It wouldn't surprise me if they found other projects, as they weren't bad.