UMUR
"Divus de Mortuus" is the first demo recording by US, Texas based death metal act Necrovore. The demo was independently released in March 1987. Necrovore formed in 1986 and only released this demo before disbanding in 1988. The demo has been heavily bootlegged over the years, and a remastered version of the demo also exists.
Necrovore are interesting because they are one of the earliest US death metal acts which actually play death metal and not just brutal and aggressive thrash metal. They can best be described as sounding somewhat similar to contemporary Morbid Angel. The four tracks on the 17:37 minutes long demo are incredibly raw, brutal, fast-paced, and often chaotic sounding. Fast tremolo picking, blistering chromatic guitar solos, noisy energetic drumming, and some savage sounding aggressive vocals in front.
The songwriting is relatively one-dimensional and the four tracks aren´t easy to tell apart. It´s not exactly music featuring many hooks and it is pretty extreme for the time, which is of course the main reason why it´s such a fascinating release. Few 1987 releases other than the earliest releases by artists like Death and Morbid Angel, were anything but really brutal and aggressive thrash metal, but Necrovore can actually be counted among a select few who made pure death metal this early on. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.