Uhuh! So Jacob Hansen owns a recording studio now? Is it the same guy behind Invocator and Maceration? if we’re talking about the same guy, he did a pretty decent job with this band at the recording console.

From a broad perspective there is nothing wrong with Dawn of Demise. The band plays solid, chunky brutal Death Metal with very deep vocals and an american imprint. Even when the songs speed up there is a sense of intrinsic staticness which the band probably looked after to make the whole sound even more granitic, think of a moderate version of late Deranged or mid Meshuggah (death metal version). My point however is that once you want to make everything as solid and as compressed as possible with constant palm muting chugs and so on, you could as well push through it to the end as Deranged does. Danish bands historically lacked “it” even when the crunch was pretty decent (except maybe, Infernal Torment?) and I am afraid we’re not far from that situation with this 3-track as well. Don’t misunderstand me – this is honest, well written stuff with a great emphasis on the groove, and it might be good stuff to hear at 4pm in some late night after show in any Germanic country, yet I believe the music fits the crispy recording and the heavily CGI-elaborated cover art: they’re neat but a little bit lacking of “sickness”. I can’t say I don’t like deep growls, power chords, or bloodstained knives, but all of this sounds a little bit polished for my tastes, and I just can’t force myself to like the mosh-pit grooves, although I know somebody else is looking for exactly this stuff.

Bear with me now: my number one rule for great Death Metal, is “if you can dance at it, it can’t be good”.