UMUR "...the Four Stages of Decomposition..." is a compilation album by Finnish death metal/goregrind act Festerday. The album was released through Svart Records in May 2015. Festerday formed in 1989 and disbanded in 1992 after recording three demos and appearing on a split with fellow countrymen Carnifex. None of their demos nor the split were widely distributed and only received limited press upon release. After reuniting in 2013 (some original members and a few new guys) the band struck a deal with Svart Records to compile and re-release all their demo mateial but in the process the label and the band also agreed that Festerday should re-record, rename, and re-arrange some of their older tracks. So "...the Four Stages of Decomposition..." is one part re-recordings and one part archival compilation release.

With a band name culled from a songtitle on Carcass "Reek of Putrefaction" (Earache Records, June 1988) album, you almost know what you´re gonna get before even putting on "...the Four Stages of Decomposition...", and you´re absolutely correct to assume that...because Festerday play a filthy, gore drenched, nasty, murky, and organic type of death metal/goregrind strongly influenced by early Carcass.

"...the Four Stages of Decomposition..." is divided into two parts (or two discs if you own a CD copy, or three LPs if you own the vinyl version). Disc 1 features the nine re-recorded tracks and has a total playing time of 35:36 minutes. Disc 2 features no less than twenty tracks. All material from the three demos Festerday recorded between 1991-1992, five tracks from an unreleased "Rehearsal '90" demo, and seven live tracks from the unreleased "Live '91" demo. Disc 2 has a total playing time of 67:03 minutes.

The re-recordings feature a brutal, raw, and detailed sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. You can hear every instrument and vocal part clearly in the mix, although they sound production is still filthy and murky enough to satisfy most old school death metal/goregrind fans. Renaming the re-recordings with songtitles like "Mouth-to-Mouth Vomiting" and "Romantic Regurgitation of Excrements" didn´t make the material any less vile and depraved compared to the originals. Most of the re-recordings are considerably longer than the early 90s originals.

Disc 2 features material from five different recording sessions and therefore needs a a few more words. Disc 2 opens with the three tracks from the 1991 "Demo I". The sound production is raw and brutal, but actually pretty well sounding for the time and the three tracks are a successful combination of death metal and goregrind. A good quality release that one. The two tracks from "Demo II" follow. These tracks were also recorded and released in 1991, and although they feature a slightly different sounding (but not less raw and brutal) production job, the music style is the same as on the first demo. The two tracks from "Demo II", were also released on the 1991 split with fellow countrymen Carnifex.

Disc 2 continues with the three tracks from the 1992 "Demo III", which was the last recording made by Festerday before disbanding. Festerday showcase a slightly more technical style of death metal here, although it´s still as old school brutal and raw as they come. It´s another quality demo release by Festerday, and by this stage it´s becoming increasingly odd, that Festerday weren´t able to sure a record contract. The five tracks from the unreleased "Rehearsal '90" demo follow, and here´s where you have to be a bit more of a hardcore fan to find the interest to listen. Considering that these are rehearsal demo recordings, they are actually decent enough, and I´ve certainly listened to much worse rehearsal demo productions than this one, but it´s still a pretty noisy and murky lo-fi sound quality. It´s about the same with the live recordings which close the compilation. Lo-fi, raw, and murky recordings, which only hardcore fans will probably enjoy.

So upon conclusion the re-recordings on Disc 1 and the material from the three studio demos from 1991/1992 are well worth the price of admission and that is around an hours worth of material, while the rehearsal demo part of the compilation along with the live recordings can be skipped if you aren´t a hardcore fan. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.