UMUR
"The Vicious Circle" is the debut demo cassette tape by Danish death metal act Konkhra. The demo was self-released in 1990. It´s one of the earliest death metal releases from Denmark, and Konkhra subsequently went on to become one of the major players on the Danish death metal scene of the 90s. The band is a three-piece on "The Vicious Circle" consisting of Anders Lundemark (Bass, Vocals), Jon Clausen (Drums, Vocals), Claus Vedel (Guitars, Vocals).
The music on the demo is technically well played death metal featuring a good portion of tempo changes. It´s actually very well played and very well produced considering the time of release. The growling vocals are pretty standard for the genre, and not that distinct sounding, but occasionally a more aggressive vocal type is used, which provides the vocal part of the music with some variation. While "The Vicious Circle" isn´t wildly original sounding, I can only point to a few clear references, but if I have to mention one it would be late 80s/early 90s Carcass.
The 4 tracks on the 15:07 minutes long demo are all well written, well performed, and considering that "The Vicious Circle" is a demo, very well produced. The guitar sound could have been a bit more powerful sounding, but other than that, the sound is pretty close to regular early 90s death metal studio album sound quality.
Konkhra was one of the most talked about death metal acts on the Danish scene in the early 90s, and subsequently developed into one of the most prolific Danish death metal acts, and listening to "The Vicious Circle" it´s obvious why that is. First of all it´s a quality demo release through and through, and secondly Konkhra had a sound that hinted at a future more original sound, although it remains at hints on this release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.