TIMEGHOUL

Resurrected from the depths of tape-trading purgatory, the two demos that comprise this release represent the recorded output of TIMEGHOUL, one of the weirder and more esoteric death metal bands to emerge from the US scene of the early 90's. Fueled by isolation, Dungeons & Dragons, and (one assumes) copious amounts of weed and cheap beer, these thinking-man's hessians followed a twisted and torturous Muse. Their stock in trade was bludgeoning, thrashy death metal informed with epic doom, gothic madrigals, technical prog/thrash and an otherworldly lyrical view, all compressed by the constraints of a demo budget into a murky, oppressive atmosphere dank with the chill of forgotten crypts and fetid basements.

You can hear wisps of many influences here -- from the scraping doom/death of dISEMBOWELMENT to the pathos-drenched dissonant skronk of "Reason"-era ANACRUSIS, from the weirdo proto-prog DM steps of Jerseyites like REVENANT, RIPPING CORPSE and HUMAN REMAINS, to the haughty atmospheres of some of the European avant-garde death metal coming out of labels like Holy and Adipocere at the time. One could even argue some INCANTATION and IMMOLATION influence in the blast parts, powerful bursts of wall-of-mud sound that obliterate everything for miles. If I was a betting man, I'd wager there was some DEATH, CORONER, CELTIC FROST and D.B.C. tapes in a few of the band members' collections, too -- there just weren't a lot of guideposts back then to set such forward-thinking punters on this kind of a path.

All these disparate elements make for an unsettling, creepy vibe that almost dares you to hate it — each song is a convuluted journey, more a multi-part movement than a pop-structured tune. The first four songs, from 1991's "Tumultuous Travelings" demo, are a little more traditionally heavy, with lots of funereal dirge and brutal fast parts to please any death metal head. By 1993, on the "Panaramic Twilight" demo, they'd inhaled enough foul practice-room air to go completely around the bend, adding doom-laced sections with spooky a cappella chanting, cleaner and clearer soloing, and harrowing, panicky riffing over frenetic blast beats. And check out the guitar harmonies! Around the six-minute mark in "Boiling in the Hourglass", and again at the start of "Occurence on Mimas", there are TROUBLE-like sections that will give you goosebumps. What a trip!

Developing on the same timeline as DEATH's shift into progressive terrain, and paving the way for out-there space nutters like MITHRAS and BAL-SAGOTH, TIMEGHOUL were ahead of their time to a degree that renders them, at best, a dark and cherished cult secret even today. There isn't a spot anywhere on heavy metal's timeline where this band would be well-loved by more than a few, but for those who deliberately seek out such complex and fantastical fare, this is gonna be an all-time favorite. Cheers to Dark Descent for getting these demos out on CD for posterity and keeping TIMEGHOUL from swirling down the drain of memory and winding up lost to the ages.