UMUR
"Winter 2014 demo" is the first demo release by US, New York City, New York based death/black metal act Dracaris. The demo was independently released in January 2014. Various sources call the release either a demo or an EP, but as the cover artwork says "Winter 2014 demo", I´ll refer to it as a demo.
That is also consistent with the quality of the material and the recording quality, which points in the direction that this is a demo. The sound production is as such of a decent quality, but it´s got a demo quality to it, that you don´t hear as much on professional studio recordings. The demo features 5 tracks and a full playing time of 21:30 minutes, so there´s plenty of time and material to get to know Dracaris and what they are about.
Stylistically Dracaris plays a blackened death metal style (mostly death metal oriented with nods towards black metal). It´s delivered with conviction and skill, but it´s not that original sounding, nor do many of the tracks stick out or leave a lasting impression after the demo is over. "Hexagon Sun" is the track which stands out the most to my ears. The rest is very standard for the genre.
The overall quality of "Winter 2014 demo" is as such decent, but Dracaris needs to work on the memorability of their songwriting, before I´ll call them promising. For now a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted for a pretty standard quality death/black metal release.