UMUR
"The Sign of the Pentagram" is the second demo release by Swedish death/black metal act Treblinka. The demo was independently released in March 1989. Treblinka formed in 1987, released two demos, and the "Severe Abominations" EP (released in July 1989 through the band´s own label Mould in Hell Records), before changing their name to Tiamat in 1989.
While Treblinka´s first demo "Crawling in Vomits" (November 1988) was recorded at Sunlight Studio (possibly the first death metal release recorded at the now famous recording studio), the band opted to record the material for "The Sign of the Pentagram" at Studio Z. Interestingly enough that has resulted in a darker, murkier, and more heavy sound compared to the relatively thin sounding production job on the first demo.
Stylistically Treblinka play a death/thrash/black metal hybrid style, which was quite unusual for the time and the scene they were part of (the Stockholm death metal scene), but they obviously went their own ways, and played the style of music they loved, instead of changing their sound to blend in with their contemporaries. It makes the material on "The Sign of the Pentagram" sound a bit old fashioned and slightly outdated though, and while there are certainly quality riffs and songwriting ideas found here, and the dark foul atmophere of the release is also a positive, "The Sign of the Pentagram" is not the most groundbreaking nor the most interesting extreme metal demo release from those days. Still a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.