UMUR
"Promo 1992" is the fifth (if you discount the July 1991 "Down There..." demo they did under The Lord Diabolus monicker, which they shortly worked under) demo recording by Finnish black/death metal act Beherit. The demo was independently released in July 1992. This was their last demo release before being signed and subsequently recording their debut full-length studio album "Drawing Down the Moon" (November 1993, Spinefarm Records).
"Promo 1992" signals a shift in Beherit´s sound from their early raw and savage sounding black/death metal style towards a heavier, slower, and more experimental extreme metal style. It´s dark and atmospheric music (keyboards are now used to create dark moods) and while there are still fast-paced tremolo picked blasting black/death metal parts, there are now a lot of blackened atmospheric doom metal parts too, which is something completely new in the band´s soundscape.
The demo features four tracks, which were all re-recorded and included on "Drawing Down the Moon", so these were a taste of what a label could expect from Beherit at this point. It´s an interesting release considering the style of music found on the previous Beherit releases, but it shows a band with a burning desire to evolve and play a more eclectic form of extreme metal. "Promo 1992" features a sound production where you can hear what´s going on when the band play slow and heavy, but not when they play fast-paced parts and it is overall a pretty lo-fi and murky sounding release. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.