I am sure many of you know of the oft joked about cliche of Black Metal that is "trve kvlt" and has terrible audio quality, as well as complex band member names that can be serious but can be borderline comical. Today, I get to present a band just like that, but not of their new material. Instead I get to present DEMONCY and their 1993 independently released demo "Faustian Dawn," which was only recently made available online (with some changes and edits). An old release for sure, with the online release sounding as if it was still released in 1993, but containing some great material nonetheless (and half composed of instrumentals that have the best quality and are also quite melodic and atmospheric). Without further ado, I will dive right in.

Opening with "Whispers of Undesired Destinies", the first of five instrumentals on the demo, as said before the track is quite atmospheric and melodic. It very well creates a sombering scene, in my mind one of a quiet fade from life and consciousness to nothingness and oblivion surrounded by spectres in a forest glade. It is very well made, though seemingly arbitrary. Following this is "Winter Bliss", the first song on the album if the instrumentals are disregarded. Right off the bat the audio quality sounds very much worse than necessary. I can understand it for artistic purposes and have artists I love who do it, but DEMONCY kind of over does it. I am also no fan of the vocals if I am completely honest. The way the vocals are done, which is much more raspy and are kind of whispered, combined with the low audio quality, make it seemingly impossible to understand the lyrics of a song completely. Even after listening to the song 3 times and pulling up lyrics, most of the song sounded indecipherable with only a line here and there sounding like what I read them to be. Despite this though, I do love the guitar riffs on the song. They aren't extravagant and technical, but they are well composed and the guitar progresses well throughout the song. Again though, I think the production quality bogs down the song, and that tt has great potential otherwise.

Following this is the longest song on the demo, "Satanic Psalms". It is a similar situation though. The vocals and audio quality really bring down the song in my eyes. The vocals here though are even harder to understand though, and sadly here the riffs and overall sound of the song doesn't make up for it like it did before in "Winter Bliss". Following this is another instrumental that creates another stark contrast, in the form of "Descending Clouds of Immortality". The audio quality suddenly jumps again to a better quality, and the instrumental seems random. It is very well done and atmospheric as before, this time invoking more a sense of meaningless with monk-esque throat vocals really helping here, but nothing leads into it and what follows is just a sudden shock. There is no connection really. However, individually it is good nonetheless. Following this is "Denial of Holy Paradise", which has the most easily understood vocals. However, the instruments sound even lower quality and the volume really lowered on all of them. It has some great riffs and great tunes, and the vocals here mesh with the rest of the song much better. They are still a bit raspier than seems necessary though, and I don't even mean that they should be cleaner. I love some good gutturals or shrieks, but it just sounds like louder whispers. Perhaps I mean the vocals could be better enunciated. Regardless, a good song lost in bad production quality.

Yet again comes another instrumental that is a shock in the sudden jump of audio quality but is still great in the atmosphere it creates, "Enchanted Woods of Forgotten Lore". Here it starts to feel a bit stale though, and kind of bleeds with the previous instrumentals. Their somewhat excessive use on the demo does not help I will admit. The last song I will mention is the final track and final instrumental, "Departures of the Dismal". While the final two instrumentals started to feel a bit stale, this one is starkly different. It is weirdly upbeat yet eerie, however it is also the track I love most. The reason being that it causes me to envision Faust, the folklore figure, alone in his final hours thinking of his pact with the devil and his impending death and due to the devil. This track very well creates this scene in my mind, and regardless of what others might envision I am sure that they will see what they see clearly. Very atmospheric and poetic, and as I said easily my favorite song on the demo even if it is an instrumental.

Overall, I really wanted to like the demo. I did really like it, but poor audio quality to the point of it spoiling the demo doesn't work well with the artistic use of poor audio quality. There are many other bands who use poorer audio that I still like or love, but DEMONCY overdoes it here. The clearer quality of the instrumentals and the very poor quality of the actual songs is just a bit much. The vocals I am also not a fan of for the aforementioned reasons. Regardless, this is a re-release of the original 1993 demo and if one can look past that or loves instrumentals that are atmospheric and are interspersed between songs with some great riffs, I highly recommend this. I will likely try picking up a couple of the songs. Keep in mind, this does not reflect their newer works. Overall though, great potential bogged down by poor quality.