SCABBARD has published again their initial demo, "Nonsense War", previously released in 1993. This band appeared during the large influx and formation of Death Metal. This was their first offering to the Metal community of the time and this reissue allows us to go back and see the formation of this band in the early 90s. Just like the majority of the Death Metal of the time, the sound is very raw and the use of low fi recording whether intended or because of the lack of the equipment easily accessible during the time is apparent. So let's take another trip to the past and see where SCABBARD began their Death Metal journey.

The first thing that I am met with when listening to "Nonsense War" is the low-fi quality of the album. In the recording you can hear the graininess of the quality with their choir track "Intro". It's almost like an old movie that I'm listening to. "Holy Demagogy" is a sludgy track that if the recording was better, I think would sound a lot better. Given the fact that the audio equipment was much less accessible during this period and that if you wanted a high quality sound you would have to use an actual recording studio, I can look past it and see the quality in their sound. The riffs in this track are well crafted and sound blended very well under the circumstances.

"Killer" is a bit crisper and you can hear the sounds clearer. The standalone bass riff is an interesting point in this track as well. The speed really amps up around mid-track The vocals are almost Black Metal in origin which is common if you go back and listen to these earlier bands. That mixture of Black and Thrash Metal helped create and define Death Metal as its own genre before they took it to their own path. "Evil Death" is full of slowed down Thrash riffs, giving this track a fuller weight.  It really speeds up mid-track and that signature Death Metal sound comes out.

"Poltergeist" is really interesting. The synth sound used is definitely odd but works to give the dark ambiance that I think the band was shooting for here. It gives the track a ghostly feel. It's a little off-putting at first but seems to grow on you as the synth is paired with a low bass riff. Unfortunately, the quality really hurts this track but again we have to think of the time period. The vocals are actually very well done. The deep gutturals break away from that Black Metal sound and keeps the track firmly rooted in Death Metal. This where I think SCABBARD found their own sound.

Taking into consideration that this is their demo from the early 90s, yes, the quality is very rough but that can actually be interesting to hear just from the nostalgia standpoint. We also have to realize that this is their first album so they were still trying to find their sound. There are many elements they were using in "Nonsense War" some of which were good, some were not.

In later albums they did solidify their own sound, but here it feels like they were grasping at a direction to go in. That's why you hear elements of Black, Thrash, and Death Metal all blended into this one album. If you want to take a trip back to the early days of Death Metal then go give this a listen.