While Norway is infamous on just about every continent for spawning bucketloads of evil black metal acts such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Ulver and Dimmu Borgir, the Stavanger-area has until yet not seen much action in the way of home-grown metal groups making it onto the wider international arena. It may be a little optimistic to say that Deathfare will change all that, but the group certainly show potential in reaching wider acclaim beyond the local gig circuit.

Playing gruelling death metal spiked by occassional black/thrash influences, the members of the group all show themselves to be highly capable and creative musicians on this neat little 5-track demo. Inspired riffing on songs like “Fistful of Fuck” is combined with an understanding of the dynamics of putting together a solid death metal record that avoids growing tedious and boring to listeners within the first five minutes. And though the lyrics might not be brilliant - in my opinion, they seldom are in metal circles - Mikael Stokdal’s gruesomely exhilerating, larynx-ripping growled delivery negates this criticism; his growls are underpinned by a furiously beating battery and solid riffage to create just enough variation to avoid boredom. The band even go Opeth at one point, bringing in an acoustic guitar on “Unfaithfully Yours” to break up the inevitable monotony of traditional death metal, building up towards a beautifully crashing crescendo of blast beats, pounding, angry bass lines and heavy riffs.

A cleanly produced example of how death metal can and should be done, and likely to be adored by those who enjoy the genre more than I tend to do.

Year Released: 2004
Label: Self-Produced
Related Link: Deathfare Official Site
Date Reviewed: 2004-10-05
Author: Andreas