Artist: Agonised Deformity
Title: Demo 2011
Type: Demo 3 Track EP
Label: Self Released

Formed last year, Glasgow’s Agonised Deformity are not your average run of the mill brutal death metal troop. Yes the guitars are compacted and compressed, and they use a drum machine (with the usual associated tin-pan snare sound), but I am rather surprised by this self-released demo’s quality. I usually dismiss this genre, it’s not very inspiring, but Agonised Deformity manage to create music that is on the whole pinch harmonic free (save a couple of places – this really pisses me off in this genre!). Guitar riffs are rather cool; they even have an old school death metal sound to them, I am thinking somewhere between Malevolent Creation and Suffocation, so there is plenty of quality heritage.

‘Abattoir’ hits the ground running and contains a little bit of everything this genre has had to offer in past 20 odd years, the sound is good for a demo, you can clearly hear a drum machine in places, but I am not going to hold that against them. ‘Anatomical Catalogues of Disfigurement’ takes the medical dictionary in hand but suffers a loss of momentum in the mid-section, as well as having a different sound (recorded at different time periods perhaps?). The slow breakdown breaks up the arrangement and keeps the track interesting.

In fact, this demo is rather interesting. I especially find this pleasing after admittedly possessing negative thoughts judged only by first impressions purely based on the band name and style. Thus, Agonised Deformity have perplexed yours truly, their ability to rise above the usual driftwood in this genre with riffs cauterised together in such a fashion as we have on this demo, Agonised Deformity are a cut above the rest and they are a band to watch in the future.

http://www.myspace.com/agoniseddeformity

Paul Maddison

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