UMUR
"Death from the Inside" is the first demo recording by US, Massachusetts based death/thrash metal act Retalliation. The demo was independently released in October 1995. It´s the only official release from Retalliation as they split-up shortly after its release. The demo is noteworthy for being recorded in the North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner, Massachusetts while all four members of the band were incarcerated for various crimes (some of them pretty heinous). It´s highly unusual for prisoners in American prisons to be able to play and record music, but the different States have different prison programs and the four members of the band were allowed to not only play music, but also record and release it. In addition the the six "regular" tracks, the track "Song 7" is a 15 minutes long interview with the band explaining how they recorded the demo.
Stylistically it´s pretty standard death/thrash where the instrumental part of the music is predominantly raw thrash metal while the vocals are either growling or raw snarling. I´d place the vocals between death- and thrash metal vocals. The band are relatively well playing...or the guitarist P.J. Fredricks is very well playing (both his riffs and lead guitar work are at times quite impressive) because especially the drums sound a little simple and clumsy. The vocals feature the right amount of savage aggression and had the sound production packed a little more punch, "Death from the Inside" could have been a more effective and sharp sounding release.
When that is said the four guys in the band obviously had limited recording ressources and I have to say that they got a lot out of little and all instruments and vocals are clearly heard in the mix. Upon conclusion "Death from the Inside" isn´t anything particularly exciting if you compare it to other contemporary death/thrash metal releases, but it´s of course a novelty release because of the circumstances under which it was recorded. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.