UMUR
"Rule Number One" is the first and only demo cassette tape by the relatively short lived Danish, Odense based thrash metal act Eagles Preach. The demo was self-released in 1990. Eagles Preach were formed in 1989, released this demo tape and then disbanded. While the rest of the members of the lineup would fade into obscurity, guitarist Perle Hansen would soon join the more prolific Invocator as their new lead guitarist, playing on both the "Weave the Apocalypse (1993)" and the "Dying to Live (1995)" albums by that band.
The 4 tracks on the demo are in a very standard US influenced thrash metal style. The instrumental part of the music is as such well performed and the sound quality is decent for a demo too, but lead vocalist Carsten is the type of thrash metal singer, who sounds like he´s not sure he wants to be there. His vocals lack power and conviction, and his screams sound pretty terrible. He has a kind of singing/talking way of delivering his vocals and a very limited mid-range voice, that does absolutely nothing for the music. It´s not the worst I´ve ever heard, but it´s definitely not great either.
The material are decent but pretty standard for the genre, and as this is a 1990 demo tape, it´s hard not to think the music style sounds a bit dated. It´s pretty obvious why this demo tape never amounted to a label deal. At that point, this type of music was simply on the way to be out of fashion, and when the quality isn´t higher than the case is here, and the material aren´t particularly original sounding either, the odds were simply against Eagles Preach succeeding. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.