UMUR
"Promises Impure" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Demented Ted. The album was released in February 1993 by Pavement Music. Demented Ted was a rather short-lived act (1991-1994) and for now "Promises Impure" is their only album release. After the split-up in 1994 Several of the members went on to form the equally short-lived industrial metal act Beyond, who only managed to release the 1995 "Reassemble" album before calling it quits too.
Listening to "Promises Impure" it´s a real shame that Demented Ted ended up being such a short-lived act. The music on the 8 track, 36:23 minutes long album is death metal with lots of technical US thrash metal influences. The first reference that comes to mind is "Stillborn (1993)" by Malevolent Creation. Not only because of a somewhat similar death metal style, but also because of the very distinct sounding Mark Pinske production. Those who know the production on "Stillborn" or maybe "Elements (1993)" by Atheist, which is also a Mark Pinske production, will recognise the description of a distorted, scratchy sounding and well...odd production. Given the fact that Mark Pinske was the chief recording engineer/live sound engineer for Frank Zappa in the years between 1980 and 1987, the odd ( or if I´m feeling nice...original) production isn´t that surprising. It´s definitely something I´ve had to get used to over the years though, that´s for sure.
The playing on the album is powerful and of a quite technical nature. I wouldn´t call this tech death metal as such, but let´s just say the playing here isn´t for newbies. The vocals are aggressive growls and rather enjoyable to my ears. While the tracks may sound a bit too much the same, I´ve found that it´s a matter of giving the album enough spins. Only then do the songs begin to stand out.
"Promises Impure" isn´t your average US death metal album and because of the rather odd production it might even be an aquired taste, but if you enjoy technically well played US death metal with brutal and at times pretty sophisticated thrash metal riffing, it´s definitely one of the more interesting releases I´ve heard in the style. For now a 3.5 star rating is deserved, but I might upgrade my rating to 4 stars in the future.