Surtr-demo

self-produced
2010

This French doom act just formed last year, recorded this three song demo in December and released it this year. The demo was done as a duo, but since recording it they have hired a full time bass player. Tracks one and two are parts of a "World of doom" concept which I am guessing is multi-part song that the band hopes to record as a whole some day when they do a full length album. Track one is a lumbering affair with a number of parts fill together loosely and even roughly, but they work as a whole. It reminds me of early Saint Vitus. The structure isn't as important to them as the tones that they create. There is certainly enough variation going on to pull you along for the over nine minutes that this song lasts. Track two follows a similar train of thought with many pieces shoved into the equation. Although this time around they sound much tighter and more comfortable. It's slow and winding at times, but there are chunkier riffs crammed into this sucker. The pace marks it as doom, but there are at times a casual approach that reminds me of someone like Ogre. This song clocks in a close to eight minutes, but with all the changes you feel more like you getting fifteen minutes of music. Closing out the disc is a cover of Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". Now I have heard so many Sabbath covers ranging from good to bad to forgettable. "Electric Funeral" isn't very subtle and it also rather basic even by Sabbath standards. That being said, I think Surtr do a decent job with it primarily because they put their own sound into it and put their spin onto the song. However with this being a demo I really wish they would have done another original rather than a cover. I liked their originals and wanted to hear more of what they had to bring. The cover seemed a bit anti-climatic. This is a fine start and I look forward to seeing what this band does next.