Herpes

Doomsday (Demo)

Nihilistic Holocaust 2010

The five song debut demo from these French death metallers shows a grimy reverence for all things old school.  Corrupted Flesh gets things underway with a bludgeoning of Stockholm styled death sewn together with early Death to form a putrid mixture of muddy gore.  Morbid Autopsy leads lurk in the foreground before the songs bursts with raging intensity until its final breath.  A pounding zombie of a beat pervades the early wanderings of Stench of Death, corpse-like vocals gurgle like a grave-beast rising from immortal slumber only to kill again.  Tumbling drums then announce a drunken banshee guitar solo as the track gallops towards its funeral march conclusion.  The title-track sounds like a brutalized meeting of Entombed and Unleashed after getting beaten about the hands and face by Chris Reifert.  Spinal Ashes lurches slowly about, like it is stricken with rigor mortis only to quicken its pulse and pace, as if sensing its living prey within its grasp.  Hungry riffs devour savaged flesh.  Frozen Funeral follows most of the album with bonesaw riffs and undead vocals.  However there are some synths that appear briefly for added eerie atmosphere not to mention the extended, jam-out guitar solos.  The production on Doomsday is a bit muddy and muffled at times but, hey, it's a demo!  If you worship all things ugly, brutal and morbid about old school death metal then Herpes will spread its disease ridden sores all over your body.