Every once in a while you come across an obscure demo from a little known band. You know the type. A CD, a cover, and a track list with no linear notes, no website, no line up, no nothing. Zanskar's demo is like that. The only thing I know about the band is that they call themselves a "Kashmiri NSBM" band. Now, the fact that there's a metal scene in Kashmir is indeed very promising. But after I gave the CD a spin, I realized that this was far from being NSBM. Sure, there are a few black metal-ish moments, but this is actually melodic death metal. The only full fledged black metal track here is 'Candle Light' and the others are full fledged melodeath. These guys must be musically clueless, right?

Not exactly, because they do a fine job of putting together a decent melodic death metal album. There are 9 tracks on this album, all are instrumentals and all are around 2 minutes long, with the exception of 'The Beginning'. One thing that I noticed was the great drum programming. The drums sound very human and non-mechanical (except for the cymbal smashing). The guitar tone is very beefy and doesn't sound "electronic" like many bedroom metal bands. However, it seems that Zanskar didn't pay much heed to the importance of smooth flowing riffs and tight compositions. A lot of the songs have a haphazard feel, as if they were put together in the space of 30 minutes. The riffs are very good, but there's no connection between riff #1 and riff #2 in song #7, if you understand what I mean.

There are some solid songs on this demo, though, and those songs are enough to give this album a 5.3 score. Those songs are 'Deployed', 'Believe', 'Melting Ice Caps' and 'Candle Light'.

Note to reader: I received this demo from Farhan Shahid of the band Comatose Cadaver. So if you're interested in getting the physical copy of this demo, you should contact him.

Reviewed by MegaHassan
01/03/2009 23:59