UMUR
"Crush the Cenotaph" is the third demo recording by Dutch death metal act Asphyx. The demo was independently released in July 1989. It´s the successor to the early 1989 "Enter the Domain" demo. Excluding guitarist Tony Brookhuis, this is the version of Asphyx which would record the shelved "Embrace the Death" album only a year down the line (an album which wouldn´t be released until 1996).
New lead vocalist/bassist Theo Loomans has a brutal growling delivery and while the music is sometimes almost painfully primitive and simple, Asphyx are now very close to finding their trademark old school death metal style with doom metal leanings. It´s not pretty or particularly well performed, and the demo features a lo-fi demo quality sound production (although much better sounding than the first couple of demos), but there´s some authentic brutal charm here, which you can only get by listening to the late 80s/early 90s most savage and raw sounding death metal demos. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.