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Sorcery is back! - 85%

ToDreamOfUr, April 7th, 2011

Sorcery, one of the overlooked pioneers of the Swedish death metal scene, released a classic of the genre in 1991 in the form of Bloodchilling Tales. However, like many other early Swedish death metal bands (and their brotherly Finnish counterparts) they would go on to disband well before their time. Sorcery makes a triumphant return with this demo though.

Master of the Chains hasn't changed too much since their old material, bar the utter crushing modern production. Those groovy, catchy riffs make a return, riffs that were in songs such as Lucifers' Legions, Dragons of the Burning Twilight and The Rite of Sacrifice (which is re-recorded here on the demo). The main riff on the title track is certainly going to get your head moving with it's overall heavy nature, combined with the modern production, it just makes Sorcery's music all together even heavier than in the early 90's. The production is clear, you can make out every riff clearly and easily, the drumming is easily heard without drowning out anything else and the vocals are loud and crushing, as they should be, all this achieved without it being too over-polished or crystal like many modern melodic death metal bands have. The satanic and general anti-Christian lyrics are also present here.

If you have any sort of experience with the Swedish death metal scene at all, then you aren't going to hear anything new here, but you are going to hear classic Swedish death metal reborn, and even heavier than before. It's a music that is supposed to sound brutally heavy, with that undescribable rotten sound, and that is exactly what this demo sounds like. The re-recording of the 1990's classic, The Rite of Sacrifice, is well done, but with one flaw. For some reason, the band saw fit to add these high-pitched screaming noises into a few sections of the song which just turn out annoying, but tolerable.

I've given this demo a solid 85% because I can't find anything wrong with it, bar the aforementioned high-pitched sounds, which can be blotted out. The two new songs are great, and a good taste of what (hopefully) is to come in the near future. This comes recommended to any who liked Bloodchilling Tales and dedicated fans of the classic Swedish death metal scene in general.