Pandemonium - Devilri (1992)

    Pandemonium's official full-length debut "The Ancient Catatonia" came out in 1994, but previously they had 2 demo tapes, among them "Devilri", that was preserved with way better sound quality compared to what was usual at other Eastern European bands from the early '90s. This probably have been rediscovered afterwards, therefore the demo had an extended re-release in 2014, that also included the band's self-titled demo, that reflected more how demo tapes used to sound back then, and also some poor quality live records of the "heroic age".

   "Devilri" was definitely a studio record, that didn't have a proper release back then, probably because the band had higher ambitions and wrote new songs meanwhile when the time and the opportunity finally came. "The Ancient Catatonia" was musically way more diverse, more melodic and the songs were as complex as death metal became in the mid '90s. In contrast on "Devilri" pretty basic themes could be heard, raw, old school death metal by a young band eager to take their part in the scene, that didn't represent the level and technical skills that the members had a few years later. However, "Devilri" was pretty enjoyable in its simple form. The band preferred middle tempo (that remained later on too), and this gave some death/doom-like impression somehow, since the guitar themes also didn't speed up. This might have been an unintentional step, that kinda predicted the late tendencies of mid '90s extreme metal in the region in some embrional form. It's enough to think about bands like Ascaris, Apophis, or Testimony. "And Pandemonium also took part in this tendency shortly after "Devilri".