THERION — Paroxysmal Holocaust (review)

THERION — Paroxysmal Holocaust album cover Demo · 1989 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Paroxysmal Holocaust" is the first demo by Swedish death metal act Therion. The demo was independently released on cassette tape in April 1989. The first edition was limited to 600 copies. Therion formed under the Blitzkrieg monicker in 1987, changed to the Megatherion monicker shortly in 1988, before changing their name to the current one later in the same year.

"Paroxysmal Holocaust" features 3 tracks and a total playing time of 19:38 minutes. The band was given free studio time, and recorded the demo in March/April 1989 on an 8-tracks recorder at Sveastrand Studio. All members were in the late teens upon recording the material for "Paroxysmal Holocaust". It´s interesting to note that the lead vocals are performed by Matti Kärki (who came from a recently disbanded Dismember), who would soon after join Carnage (a band which also featured future Carcass and Arch Enemy guitarist Michael Amott) and sing on the seminal Swedish death metal album "Dark Recollections" (1990). When Carnage broke up in 1990 Kärki and a couple of his bandmates reformed Dismember. So in addition to band founder/guitarist Christofer Johnsson, who is also a very prolific musician on the Swedish scene, Kärki sprinkles a bit of underground stardust on "Paroxysmal Holocaust".

There isn´t much vanilla stardust in the air when it comes to the music though, as this is very raw, brutal, and lo-fi produced death metal. I´m surprised there aren´t more thrash metal influences on a death metal demo tape from April 1989, but "Paroxysmal Holocaust" is actually one of the more purely death metal oriented early releases by a death metal act. The tracks are relatively long (and generaly overstay their welcome) and quite anarchistic in structure, so they aren´t easy to follow and they aren´t particularly catchy. I found a few growling vocal hooks on "The Return", and the slow doomy pace of "Bells of Doom" also makes that one a little easier to listen to, but demo opener "Morbid Reality" is a bit of a structural mess, with many different sections and riffs, which appear to have been put together at random. In other words it´s audible that this is a very young band recording their first demo. Kärki doesn´t really sound like himself yet either. He has a more regular intelligible growling vocal style on this release, compared to his future tortured growling vocals style.

So while "Paroxysmal Holocaust" is an early example of Swedish death metal, it doesn´t feature that many sections or elements that you´d normally associate with Swedish death metal. Finding that identity and honing it was still a work in progress. As it is "Paroxysmal Holocaust" is more interesting than an actual great listening experience. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.
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