UMUR
"At the Devil's Studio 1990" is in terms of chronology the fifth full-length studio album by Finnish black/death metal act Beherit. The album was released through Kvlt in June 2011, but it is in fact Beherit´s 1990 recorded debut album, which was originally shelved because of issues with their then label Turbo Music. Drummer Sodomatic Slaughter found the master tapes in 2010, and the band opted to release it.
Stylistically this is beastly, aggressive, and raw black/death metal with an emphasis on the black metal part of the band´s sound. It pretty much fits between the releases of Beherit´s June 1990 "Demonomancy" demo and their February 1991 "Dawn of Satan's Millennium" EP, and while I´m not sure, my guess would be, that it was recorded during that timeframe. It features some tracks which are exclusive to this release, but also re-recorded and re-arranged versions of some tracks from the "Demonomancy" demo and early versions of "Nocturnal Evil" and "Six Days with Sadistic Slayer", which would both be re-recorded an included on the "Down There..." demo from July 1991 when the band shortly changed their name to The Lord Diabolus.
The sound production is crude, noisy, and pretty lo-fi. It´s not a pretty sound and even fans of extreme metal may find it a hard listen. The material is also one-dimensional in nature. It´s hard to hear when one song stops and another starts. It´s one bit murky and chaotic sounding mix. The vocals are often drowned in the mix, and most of the tracks sound like they were recorded live in the studio.
So upon conclusion this isn´t the long lost forgotten gem that some Beherit fans probably wished for and while it´s similar in style to the two above mentioned early Beherit releases, I´d put both of them on anytime before this one. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.