DEICIDE — Amon: Feasting the Beast (review)

DEICIDE — Amon: Feasting the Beast album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 1993 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2019-06-28
UMUR

"Amon: Feasting the Beast" is a compilation album by US, Florida based death metal act Deicide. The compilation was released through Roadrunner Records in 1993. It features the material from the band´s two demo tapes "Feasting the Beast (1987)" and "Sacrificial (1989)", which were both released under the Amon monicker before the band changed their name to Deicide. A name change which took place in late 1989 just prior to the recording of Deicide´s self-titled debut full-length studio album "Deicide (1990)".

The tracklist is in reverse order, which means that the four tracks from the "Feasting the Beast (1987)" demo appear last on "Amon: Feasting the Beast", while the six tracks off the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo open the compilation. All tracks on the compilation appear in re-recorded versions on "Deicide (1990)" (except "Feasting the Beast", which is a short intro to the 1987 demo). "Oblivious to Nothing" was retitled "Oblivious to Evil" on the album version though. "Sacrificial Suicide" is featured twice on "Amon: Feasting the Beast", as the track originally appeared on both demos.

The material from the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo are recorded in a professional recording studio and features a very well sounding production. The sound quality is actually not far from the sound quality of the recordings on "Deicide (1990)", and most of the demo tracks also sound more or less like they do on the debut album. There are small differences though. For example in how the guitars sound/are played and the lack of samples on "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned". The vocals are also presented in a more stripped down version and doesn´t feature as many effects as they do on "Deicide (1990)". Overall the quality of the material and the recordings are very high and this demo could well have been released as a regular studio release. Listening to "Sacrificial (1989)" it´s no wonder Roadrunner Records signed Deicide.

The material off the "Feasting the Beast (1987)" demo is a lot more raw and unpolished. Best heard when comparing the early version of "Sacrificial Suicide", to the well produced and powerful version of the track featured on the "Sacrificial (1989)" demo. Both "Day of Darkness" and "Oblivious to Nothing" are great tracks though and although quite bit more raw and unpolished than the later version of the track, "Sacrificial Suicide" is also a quality track in this version. It´s all very lo-fi and noisy and Glen Benton´s distinct sounding intelligible growling vocals are on an early stage of development at this point. It´s not the material from "Feasting the Beast (1987)", which makes "Amon: Feasting the Beast" worth the purchase.

"Amon: Feasting the Beast" is still overall a quality compilation album by Deicide though. You can argue that there aren´t any material here, that you don´t have access to on "Deicide (1990)", and that the demo versions in most cases are so close to their studio counterparts, that it makes the demo versions redundant (at least when it comes to the material from "Sacrificial (1989)"), but personally I still hear enough differences for "Amon: Feasting the Beast" to be a worthy purchase for fans of the band. The material from "Feasting the Beast (1987)" could have been more interesting with a better sound production, but as it is, it´s still an interesting documentation of how the band sounded very early on in their career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.