UMUR
"Fall" is the first demo cassette tape by Danish death/thrash metal act Agonize. The demo recorded and mixed at Borsing Recording in October 1991 and released later in the year. "Fall" is produced by Jacob Hansen and Agonize and is one of the early recordings to feature, the by now, prolific producer. Agonize formed in 1989 under the Alterator monicker, but changed their name in 1990. They only released this demo and a promo tape in 1993 before disbanding.
Listening to the music on "Fall", the Jacob Hansen link is further strengthened because the music on the 4 track, 17:58 minutes long demo tape is in many ways similar to the death/thrash metal on the early releases by Invocator (Jacob Hansen´s band at the time) also because Jacob Hansen delivers a couple of guest vocal appearances. It´s fast-paced, aggressive, and raw, and like early Invocator greatly influenced by Dark Angel. The vocals are semi-growling and definitely the weak link here, but the instrumental part of the music is delivered with great skill and conviction. The 4 tracks on the demo are very similar in style and sound and they soon become a bit one-dimensional to listen to. It´s not music with much sense for melody or catchy hooks, but instead focused almost solely on aggression and fast playing.
I hear a lot of promise on "Fall" and especially some of the riffs are of high quality. The semi-professional sound production is also a great asset, that brings the best out in the music. Unfortunately the vocals aren´t that interesting. They sound strained and a bit toneless and powerless and as a consequence of the tracks being rather one-dimensional in nature, the demo more or less sounds like it´s one long track playing. A 3 star (60%) rating is stil warranted though, as there are ultimately more positives than negatives about the release.