You've got to admire the enthusiasm. "Demolizione" is the first album by fresh-faced Italian Death Metallers RABHAS and it's practically overflowing with upstart energy. The opening moments of first-track-proper "Il Marcio" are ridiculously hyperactive and their vitality doesn't dip until the last song ends. The gruff, ranting vocals sound like they're being screamed by a half-naked wild man, the rhythm section is constantly trying to speed things up and even the slower parts are hammered home with caffeine-addled dementia.

Shame then that the rather thin production qualities almost ruin the entire project. Whether that was down to a low budget, a lack of access to better facilities or just an over-zealous determination to get "Demolizione" out into the world remains to be seen, but the fact remains that this is a very poor quality recording.

Case in point; the guitar work in "Allucinazione Marziale" should be a showstopper. There are maniacal riffs flying all over the place and a schizophrenic solo rounding it off, so in a live setting it could be incredible. On record though, the power isn't there and it's more like listening through the walls of your house, straining to hear the neighbours play an absolute blinder through a charity shop amplifier. What's worse is that this is about as good as it gets;  for the majority of the running time the axe just disappears into the rhythm section and isn't even audible at all.

That's not to say that RABHAS are a bad band of course and there's a certain manic charm about them which is really quite endearing. If this had been released twenty years ago they'd have probably shared stages with BRUJERIA but things have changed since then and we're left with a decent enough Death Metal album that's been damaged irrevocably by an overly muddy mix.<