UMUR
"Rebirth (demo II)" is the fourth demo recording by Dutch thrash/death metal act Thanatos. The demo was independently released in November 1986. At this point original guitarist/bassist Remco de Maaijer had left and original drummer only performs on two out of four tracks on the demo. I´m not sure about his absence from the two other tracks, where the drums are performed by Rob de Bruijn, but as he appears on the subsequent releases by Thanatos he wasn´t out of the band. André Scherpenberg has joined as the band´s new bassist.
As mentioned the demo features 4 tracks. "Rebirth" is a heavy opener, which is predominantly instrumental, and "Outward of the Inward" is a more regular track featuring more vocals. I´m getting a strong early Kreator influence from this particular track, and Thanatos are at this point more a brutal and aggressive thrash metal band than a death metal ditto. The third track is yet another re-recorded version of "Speed Kills", which is a track which had already appaered on the first and the second demos from Thanatos. It´s not a problem though as it´s a really good quality thrash metal track. "Reincarnation" closes the demo and it´s another good quality aggressive thrash metal song.
"Rebirth (demo II)" features the most well sounding and professional production job on a Thanatos release up until then, although it´s still pretty rough around the edges and presents the music in a raw and unpolished form. Upon conclusion I personally found the preceding September 1985 "Promo Demo" demo to feature a more unique and extreme sound and this demo a little less interersting, but there´s nothing wrong with the quality of the overall product and if you enjoy your thrash metal as savage and raw as possible this demo is definitely recommendable. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.