Demo:listen: Enucleator

Welcome to Demo:listen, your weekly peek into the future of underground metal. Whether it’s death, grind, black, doom, sludge, heavy, progressive, stoner, retro, post-, etc. we’re here to bring you the latest demos from the newest bands. On this week’s Demo:listen, we gouge out our own eyes to better appreciate Rhode Island’s Enucleator.

Hail, bestial darkness, our old friend. And what would you expect from a former member of Ampütator but relentless aural harm? We tracked down and got in touch with Justin Flynn, said ex-Ampütator, to find out how he went about forming a band so vicious as Enucleator. “The Witch King guys (Sean McQuade on bass, Ben Lopez on drums) live a town over from me,” explains Flynn. “I got in touch with them to see if they wanted to jam in this new project when I left my old band. Once we started playing we asked Mike (AKA “Barbarian”) from Haxen, Sangus, etc. if he wanted to join on vocals/lead guitar and everything worked out.”

Easy enough, right? But after you jam this first eponymous track, the above explanation will suddenly seem a little baffling. Because how is it that a band this extreme, this thoroughly punishing could’ve been assembled so casually by four men from the tiniest state in the US? Indeed, Enucleator hits more like some kind of shadowy international guild of metal mercenaries selected for their talents in the underground metal arts whose sole aim is to lay all other demos to waste.

Because Demo 2016 is just five songs, none of which exceed the five minute mark, you’ll have no problem listening to this over and over again. Except for the brain liquefying, but that’s all part of the fun. As for the overall theme of surgical eyeball removal (i.e. enucleation) and the opening Event Horizon sample, Flynn says: “I really liked the way the name Enucleator sounded. It’s hard to find a one word band name these days that hasn’t already been used. Around the time we were recording our demo, I had watched Event Horizon and thought the sample from the movie would fit the demo perfectly.”

Enucleator’s Demo 2016 remains available on tape, but who knows for how much longer? Lucky for you, we’re bringing you the scoop on this madness before most anyone else has heard about it. And if you’re some fancy modernist who’s too good for tapes you’ll find Demo 2016 available for “name your price” download on Enucleator’s Bandcamp. So what’re you waiting for?

You heard it here first on Demo:listen. Check this space next and every Friday for promising new metal.