Style: Sci-fi death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Only some of the best damn death metal to ever come out. I'll die on this hill.
Thoughts: How the living fuck did this band never get signed? Why did they give up so early on? Why were only two demo's ever created? Why? WHY?
Timeghoul is not just any death metal band. In 1992 and 1994 they released two demos that were so far ahead of their time, no one else would be making this kind of music for at least ten years. These guys were chaotic, atmospheric, and most importantly wrote amazing fucking riffs.
The two demo's that we have on this record vary pretty greatly in style. Side 1 is the entirety of Tumultuous Travelings. This is by far the more traditional of the two demos. The riffs are deep and meaty. The vocals are full and powerful.
The band mixes in a variety of tempos. Some play so fast it's hard to tell what the guitars are doing on the fret board, other times they are slow and doomy and incredibly ominous. As crazy as all this sounds the songs never sound like they are out of control and instead always make me wonder what is coming next. By the time the demo is over I'm putting the needle back down at the start of the record to play it all over again.
Where the band really comes into their own though is on Panaramic Twilight. Here we have two songs instead of four, we also have even more chaos than the earlier demo and the true shift towards all things sci-fi.
To the core of their sound the band has included sounds that are only found in old school science fiction movies, clean singing, and a bit more melody to weave everything together. Does that mean that it's less brutal than before? Hell to the fuck no. Despite all the extra elements the band is arguably more violent and visceral than they are on the first demo.
Of the two songs on here the epic Occurrence on Miasmas is the clear favorite for me. It seems to chronicle an alien race that finds earth eons after humans are extinct. The song is well over ten minutes long and uses that time to the fullest to tell it's story. It's one of my favorite death metal songs ever recorded.
It's been said in the anneals of history that only the good die young, and that seems to be the case with Timeghoul. Why they decided to disband so early on in their career I will never know. Who knows what they could have accomplished if they had kept going... or maybe they would have spoiled what they had. No one will ever know.
Written March 20th 2024
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