FESTERDAY is an old school Death Metal act from Finland set to release their first album, "Iihtallan," on Jan. 4 of 2019. In October of this year, they released a sampler with two tracks from the new record on an EP called "Cadaveric Virginity."

The two songs are more Swedish-sounding than they are Finnish. I guess there aren't a ton of differences between the two but I always imagine Finnish Death Metal bands to sound like CONVULSE for some reason. Nevertheless, this EP shows some potential.

The riffs are nothing special, but they are effective for what they're worth. The execution, however, makes this material good. The drums especially aren't just blasting along. They add groove to the music, so they're doing what they should be doing. There are parts where blast-beats are used, but it's nice that that's not all I have to hear.

One thing that jumped out at me - and I guarantee it will jump out at anyone who listens to this EP - is what seems to be a bleep around 1:51 of "The Ones Who Strangle Stars and Suns." It happens twice - once at 1:51 and again near the end - and it's pretty aggravating because if I'm listening to a song, I don't want to hear a loud beep censoring something that, due to the nature of the vocals, I can't understand in the first place. The song ends with a vocal outro where the vocalist keeps growling after the instrumentals stopped, and it does not sound good.

These two tracks aren't bad. They have good riffs, but they don't contain anything new. It isn't exciting at all, and it sort of just goes through the motions. If you like Swedish Death Metal clones, then this is for you because as far as I'm concerned, it isn't bad according to Swedish Death Metal standards. However, if you're looking for something fresh, this is not for you.