This is the first demo from this Black Metal act hailing from Italy. The first thing that is the most striking is the vocal work, demoniac BM screeches that seem to be reaching from the grave. Extremely effective in giving this a "haunted" sound, sure to scare the neighbours away. The second thing is more on the negative side: The band uses atmospheric/acoustic intros and outros a little bit too much for the length of this demo, and this feels really unbalanced, and takes too much away from the meat of the demo. Used with moderation, this kind of stuff will work fine in the context of a full-length album, however. As for the Black Metal itself, this is an heavy, mid to fast-paced onslaught of old school/early 90s Black Metal with very little frills, save maybe for a few hints of melody (that sometimes have a discreet folk/medieval sound) that creep in from behind the barrage of raw, low-fi sounding guitars and drums. Unfortunately the aforementioned acoustic stuff always seems to kill the mood of chaos and destruction by sometimes popping up at the worst possible moment - a bad sense of timing that I hope will be fixed once they get past the demo stage. But when it comes to the Black Metal parts, everyone should have this kind of raw stuff as part of a balanced BM diet. Cool little demo that is hopefully a sign of good things to come from Streben.
