Getting into the subject, Baagak’s demo ‘Plague’ is 30 minutes long. While that’s quite a duration for a demo, it has been classified as such. Before listening to this one-man band, we see its genre defined as Raw Black Metal, but we find a hybrid between Raw Black and Death Metal. A two-minute introduction, like the calm before the storm, takes us into the domains created by A.M. The first track, ‘Burned in Effigy’, attacks, living up to its name and burning everything in its path. As mentioned, the music is a mix between Raw Black and Death Metal, with a fast, intense drum that changes rhythms at intervals. Some rhythmic dissonances of the guitars also emerge from the recording, giving the music a varied nuance. This is accompanied by a powerful voice that combines well with both styles. Sharpening my hearing, the voice reminds me of Pete Helmkamp from Angelcorpse. The second attack, ‘Extinction’, emerges from the demonic depths and the wails of the damned with one of the most memorable beginnings of the demo. Its fade-in rise features crushing riffs of corrosive Death Metal that turn into a blast beat interspersed with nuanced verses at medium rhythms. It then returns to the blast beats and later has a closing as epic as the beginning.
As an aside, we have to talk about something evident from the first minute of the demo: the saturation of the sound. This becomes more audible when the double bass drums attack, but I imagine that A.M., who was in charge of the mixing and mastering, said, “Fuck it, that’s how it should sound!”
Something else this album has are dark melodies and passages with slow and fast but melodic solos, like those that unfold on track 4, ‘Biida’oodoon’. I think it’s the track with the most variations of riffs—some melodic, others crushing, and some more characteristic of Canadian Black Metal, like those outlined in the past by their compatriots Forteresse. The track ‘Aakoziwin (Plague)’ presents rhythms full of melancholy and melodies, moving away from the Death Metal presented in the other tracks. I would say this is the genuinely Black Metal song on the demo, from its execution, depth, and composition. It presents the image of what has been created in the last decade in Canada, and it’s my favorite song, without a doubt. If we draw conclusions and add the track with which they closed the work in a great way, the demo is split in two. The first three songs are hybrids of the two styles we have already talked about, and that triumvirate was well-closed with ‘Extinction’. The second triumvirate honors Black Metal with elements of rawness, musical intensity, deep melodies, melancholy, speed, blast beats, and other memorable rhythms and riffs. Obviously, I prefer the final triumvirate without detracting from the other three songs.
