From the musty underground of Italy comes Realms Of Hatred, the
debut demo from Thulsa Doom. No, they are not doom metal, but in fact a
super raw slab of death metal, served pretty rare, with little spice or
bite. By that I mean that there isn’t anything outside the ordinary
beyond the standards for old school death metal. This shan’t fool you
though, as it’s a profound and quick listen, with only four full tracks
and a few instrumental interludes. On the other hand, it is very much on
the extreme side, teetering into blackened territory a bit, and with
blast beats dumped all over the place, cranking up the intensity.
With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that there really isn’t
any melody, and the vocals are pretty incomprehensible. Coming from
someone who has a tougher time stomaching super extreme deliveries like
this, it isn’t guttural at all, and shows no sloppiness, thus appealing
to my ears. Ferocity is the key ingredient here, and this vocal style
along with the insane drumming techniques are what make the music match
the fitting name. It’s very hateful, it’s very filthy, and there isn’t a
ray of light present on this release. Even the instrumental tracks that
aren’t relying on heavy riffs have an oozing feel.
The speed infused riffing mixed with the insidious tones are quite
impressive, although I wouldn’t really say that they fall within the
technical realm. “Demon Conjurer” is easily my favorite track, as there
are many different guitar sections that hop around from slower and
dense, as well as incorporating fast and in depth guitar doodles like in
the beginning of the song. Almost all of the tracks do this, but that
one was pulled off the best. If this wasn’t easy enough to figure out, Realms Of Hatred
is pretty one sided, as it’s hard to put out a consistent piece with a
lot of variation for those who tackle this dose of death.
One thing that I can say is that despite being so raw, it’s actually
quite well crafted for a death metal demo. I went into this expecting
something like Morbid Angel’s Scream Forth Blasphemies, but the
quality was far better. Very much a demo worth checking out for fans of
Morbid Angel, Suffocation, and bands of that sort.