Welcome to Demo:listen, your weekly peek into the future of underground extreme metal. Whether they’re death metal, black metal, doom, sludge, grind, thrash, crossover, heavy metal, speed, punk-metal, stoner metal, etc., we’re here to bring you the latest demos from the newest bands. This week’s Demo:listen belongs to New Mexico’s brand new demonic death-thrash horde, Superstition.
We received intelligence concerning Superstition a month ago, when they opened for Demo:listen alums Fetid and Mortiferum, and have anticipated their demo, Surging Throng of Evil’s Might ever since. Still, nothing could’ve prepared us for how hard this tape rips and pulls and impales. While most of their contemporaries explore crowded subterranean tombs, Superstition sound like hell’s minions unleashed upon the world.
K.M., guitarist, bassist, synth player and producer of Superstition, explains how Superstition came together. Speaking of himself, guitarist, vocalist L.S. and drummer D.M., he says, “We’re all fans of early death metal, primarily from the Americas, so when we decided to start a death metal band we felt that we had to pay tribute to the supremely evil, chaotic niche carved out by our domestic forebears . . . It’s fun to play in a more ‘classic’ metal fashion, which is more rhythmic and percussive; and of course writing evil lead work is exciting in its own way. Death metal tends to lend itself to an endless array of possibilities, giving us a lot of latitude to explore innumerable sonic planes of evil. We think that death and black metal shared the same detestable womb and we intend to probe that pivotal, temporal framework. ”
He goes on to explain how they settled for the more ominous than sinister name, Superstition.
“Superstition may be one of the last single word names appropriate to use in the realm of morbid metal. The moniker encompasses an almost folkloric sense of foreboding, ancient evil and the unbridled trickery our senses play on us in the dark. Superstition in itself is almost a pathology, an idiosyncratic sphere of attitude adopted to ward off evil, fend off the purveyors of black magic that peer from stygian corners. Although we aren’t an occult or ritually oriented band, the name denotes a primitive sense of ritualized fear we wish to inflict on the listener. WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR BONES SHAKE!”
Surging Throng of Evil’s Might sounds at once urgent and yet thoroughly composed. A recording in which not a moment does not draw blood or infect with poisonous curses. To call it inspired would deny the tape its essential malignity. Surging Throng of Evil’s Might sounds more possessed than inspired, and by legion forces. Exactly as its name omens.
“We started jamming in the summer of 2017 sometime. We spent a fair bit of time experimenting with different ideas and sounds before settling on the basic sonic template of what you hear on the demo. Once we figured out exactly what we wanted this to sound like the arrangements came together over the course of several months.
“Our writing process is collaborative, rarely if ever does anyone show up to rehearse with a full song ready to go. Everyone writes, and we all whittle away at ideas together to create deadly compositions we’re all happy with. We clash skulls and spit obscenities as breathing life into skeletal arrangements is never easy.”
On Surging Throng of Evil’s Might, demonic vocals, dipped in delay, bounce around like frenzied bats in a belfry where leaks a starry night through fissures in that ancient and profaned material. Riffs hound and chase with fiery and necrotic breath while leads lash out suddenly like infernal whipstrikes against damned flesh. But the sickest performance here comes from D.M., apparently necromanced from the shadows to murder a drum kit in the name of this demo.
KM confirms: “D.M. has been a friend and collaborator for years. He grew up playing drums but only recently got back behind the kit for this project.”
Although the other two are no slouches, and that’s just the point. For K.M. says Superstition aims for complete sovereignty.
“We recorded all instrumentation and vocals on the longest night of the year (2017) in an old adobe house atop the largest civil war battlefield in Western America. L.S. designed the artwork and logo. Our goal with this band is to be entirely self-sufficient in regards to the recording process all the way through the art/design phases of the release.”
It should be slap-in-the-face obvious that Superstition are inspired by the Californian and Floridian death metal bands of the late 80s, specifically Possessed, Morbid Angel, and Nocturnus, but Superstition find inspiration beyond the world of extreme metal, as well.
“We’re influenced by artists that have the sense and aptitude to create haunting, evil worlds for their music to exist within. Fabio Frizzi, Goblin, Coil, Klaus Shulze, Black Sabbath.”
Copies of Surging Throng of Evil’s Might are widely available, so spread the curse. So, hurry and catch up, because Superstition are already looking forward.
“We’re writing for an intended EP of more marrow-rattling chaos as well as planning a West Coast tour which we can’t announce the details of yet but it will surely crush the trembling flesh.”
