Herpes - Doomsday

HERPES - Doomsday (NIHILISTIC HOLOCAUST - demo CDR 2010)

One of the very few currently active French death metal bands, which I know, is Herpes, but actually until recently I only knew their name, never having a chance to hear the actual music. But since Gabriel from Nihilistic Holocaust was so kind and sent me a copy of their debut demo “Doomsday” I quickly gave it few spins and I must say that I really liked this demo. And I dare to say to say that all those, who like their death metal obscure and morbid, will also like it. And more so, if your favourite drummer is Chris Reifert, a favourite vocalist is Christ Reifert and fave bands are Autopsy and Abscess then Herpes will be your thing!

Yeah, when I started to listen to “Doomsday” I was like: “OK, it really reminds me Abscess… and Autopsy! Yeah, “Shitfun”… a bit of the new Autopsy album… and Abscess… cool!”. Maybe those resemblances are sometimes too obvious, on the edge of plain copycat, but I don’t actually care much about that, as long as the music is fine and it gives me some pleasure – but luckily it is not the pleasure in the anus area, but I’m talking about my head / ears. Ears, because I listen to some cool gruesome, filthy as hell music, with brutal, nasty sound, troglodytic riffs and vocals, which have been vomited, rather than sang… and head, because I can easily bang my skull while listening to “Doomsday” and definitely will not regret a second spent on it.

There are five songs on “Doomsday” and along with Autopsy / Abscess I can hear some influence from Master, Repulsion and in “Frozen Funeral” I even have some resemblance to Entombed, just listen to that guitar lead at the end… it has similar feeling to those filthy, punky Entombed songs, which they started doing ever since the release of “Wolverine Blues”. The whole demo is mainly played in mid paced tempos, with occasional faster but also doomy parts… it definitely has slightly primitive and almost garage feeling, which I also like, so in the end I can say that Herpes did a nice job on “Doomsday”.

Final rate: 70/100