UMUR
"Decomposed" is the 2nd demo by US death metal act Rigor Mortis. The demo was recorded in July 1987. It features three tracks and a playing time of 9:33 minutes. All three tracks are available on the Immolation compilation album "Stepping on Angels... Before Dawn (1995)". Just a year down the line Rigor Mortis would change their name to Immolation. Half of the lineup on "Decomposed" were still part of the lineup that recorded "Dawn of Possession (1991)". The debut full-length studio album by Immolation.
The three tracks on the demo are in a thrash influenced early US death metal style. The most obvious influences are early Slayer and Possessed. The vocals are semi-growling and tip the stylistic scale of the music to death metal rather than thrash metal. The music is well played and relatively catchy, but it´s not exactly revolutionary heard with the ears of today. Back then this was a pretty new and fresh musical direction though and I assume people would have found this really raw back then.
The sound quality is raw and there´s no doubt this is a demo recording, but there is a certain primitive charm to the music because of the sound. Overall "Decomposed" is a pretty good quality US death metal demo from the formative years of the genre and I´d say a 3 star (60%) rating is fair.