Disma - The Vault of Membros
Review: Members of Incantation and Funebrarum come together to make this tribute to both early New York phrasal death metal (Incantation, Havohej, Revenant, Goreaphobia) and Swedish death metal (Carnage, Nihilist). The result combines radically simplified American-style rhythm riffs with the melodic lead rhythm playing that distinguished the Scandinavian bands and allowed them to structure songs by melody.
Oddly, however, these songs are designed in layers that like herringbone gears distribute their energy at angles, finally bringing the dominant theme into combat against the remnants of energy bled off by the meshing of teeth. If it suggests an artistic theme, it is the death of clarity as it is overwhelmed by that which is not in focus -- the extraneous, the tangential, the details, the entropy -- as they take its place in a shifting of power.
1. Lost in the Burial Fog (6:14) 
2. Vault of Membros (6:04)
3. Chaos Apparition (4:36)
Riffs show familiarity with the riff lexicon of death metal and a preference for complementing Havohej-inspired phrasal extensions with arching melodic figures that bring to mind the more intense moments of early Swedish death metal. In contrast, vocals combine the Incantation guttural approach with a black metal background howl, commenting disinterested on both topic and rhythm as if trying to cast a more encompassing circle through their opposition to the rhythms of guitars and drums.
Although reading the future from tea leaves may be easier than interpreting the potential of a band with one demo, what is offered here is a unique take on the split between death metal and black metal: an ambient style of composition without losing the linear, cyclic and augmentative power of traditional death metal composition. While some riffs sound hasty and unsteady in choice of tone, and some songs repeat too much linearity before developing, this demo suggests a potential new voice for death metal.