UMUR
"Abomination" is the first and sole demo recording by US, Tampa, Florida based thrash/speed metal act Abomination (not to be confused with the contemporary Paul Speckmann fronted Chicago, Illinois act of the same name). Abomination formed in 1986 and after releasing this demo they changed their name to Brutality and with the name change eventually also their thrash/speed metal style to death metal (although not immediately). The demo was released in 1987 and it was originally only distributed to a very limited number of friends of the band. It wasn´t until 2011 when Brutality released their "The Demos" compilation album, that the material from this demo was more widely available.
The demo features four tracks and a total playing time of 14:21 minutes, and opens with a teenage band member telling us that they are going to record this demo tape today. These guys are obviously very young, but they still manage to play a relatively beautiful acoustic guitar intro, before they venture into the eponymously titled thrash/speed metal anthem "Abomination", which sounds like something right off the first two Venom albums. It´s raw, primitive, and oddly charming. The band have a nice energetic playing style (and some murky gruff vocals), and the whole thing reeks authentic garage style rehearsal room atmosphere.
I find myself well entertained, and while the band don´t exactly produce anything you haven´t heard before (and better), they are actually quite well playing for their age, and the tracks are relatively well written too (although the instrumental "Jammer" isn´t really going anywhere). Their cover of Onslaught´s "Thermonuclear Devastation" is also delivered with great passion and intensity (including a lot of juvenile noise and screaming/shouting to introduce the song).
The sound quality is much better than what´d you´d expect from a demo recorded at a rehearsal space. Upon conclusion this is not necessarily of much interest to fans of Brutality, but as an individual isolated release, it´s a good quality demo, showing that these guys could play their instruments and write some pretty basic, but still intense and raw thrash/speed metal. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.