Review: Beheaded – El Valle de la Decision: The Two Demos History
From the Vault Review: Beheaded – El Valle de la Decision: The Two Demos History
If you’ve found yourself to be a big fan of Mexico’s most famous Christian death metal export, Lament, you may wish to check out the earliest beginnings of the band all the way back in 1994, when they were operating under the moniker of Beheaded. Luckily, Christian Metal Underground Records has you covered, and have unearthed two demo tapes of some of the earliest brutal death metal to exist in the Christian scene ever, and repackaged it as El Valle de la Decision: The Two Demos History.
Formed in 1993, the band would later change its name to Lament after the death of their drummer at the time, Arturo Guzman. Fans of the progressive, melodic death metal stylings of Lament will probably be shocked by the sound of Beheaded. For myself, I’ve always considered Beheaded to be a separate band, and indeed, the band has re-surfaced with new material just in the last few years and now exists alongside Lament.
With El Valle de la Decision: The Two Demos History, you get two demo tapes remastered on to one sweet little compilation. Oddly enough, this compilation begins with the three tracks that compose their self-titled 1995 demo first, before getting to their 1994 demo. What’s even more odd is that the 1995 demo sounds far more underproduced and demo-like than the first one from a year prior. In fact, the discrepancy between the two demos is very stark.
You’ll notice that both demos repeat the same three tracks, with the 1994 El Valle de la Decision demo adding a fourth entitled “From Pain to Hope,” a track which would later appear on Lament’s stunning debut, Tears of a Leper. That being noted, the approach to these tracks differs substantially.
So, to the 1995 Beheaded tracks first. By death metal standards, this is pretty rough stuff: tinny, static-y, and replete with tape hiss. But the music itself, despite the ultra-lo-fi quality of the production, is demonstrative of a step towards to what Lament would later be doing on Tears of a Leper – shredding riffs, melodic bass guitar-led passages, and a sense in which the music could take a very violent turn at any moment. The super guttural vocals of Marco Perez are definitely toned down here in comparison to the 1994 demo and his gurgling on Tears of a Leper. Again, it’s rough and it’s raw, but it’s a really neat glimpse into death metal history.
With the 1994 El Valle de la Decision demo, however, the band really shines. Keep in mind, this was ’94, and brutal death metal proper was only just getting its bearings in the form of releases by Crimson Thorn, Living Sacrifice, and on a far smaller scale, ultra-obscure acts like Faithful Witness and The Risen (as I’ve only recently discovered!). So, when you listen to this demo and hear those ridiculously deep growls, just bear that in mind. Where the songs sounded thin on the 1995 demo, here they are much fuller and louder. Songs are periodically punctured by piercing feedback, guitars are cutting and harsh yet loaded with bass guitar that comes to the forefront of the music, and the whole thing reeks of a garage-like production; to my mind, these are all great things. Marco Perez really is the star of the show here, and remains in my mind, one of the best brutal death metal vocalists the Christian scene has ever had. Nobody touches those bowel-churning growls.
While this compilation of early brutal death may not be to everyone’s tastes or interests, I think that if you’re a huge fan of death metal that goes beyond the mainline acts, this little remaster is worth your time. It’s a fascinating sneak peek into the earliest beginnings of a heavier style of death metal.
For Fans Of: Lament, Cenotaph (early), Crimson Thorn, The Chasm
About Author
