Recently, I got a package send with obscure underground Extreme Metal on vinyl. Shitangel’s ‘Demo XXX’ was among them and although I’d never heard of the band I was itching to give it a spin on my record player. I was anticipating a heavy audial beating of an unknown War Metal band as the needle dropped and the crackling silence sounded before the record had begun.
Nevertheless, once the needle had made its way through the tracks I was pleasantly surprised to assess Shitangel wasn’t a War Metal. Their sound does show some similarities though, owing to the very distorted guitars, drowned drums and overall chaos. However, there’s a noteworthy quality to the riffs and songwriting, that I find hard to detect in most War Metal. There’s a certain thrashy vibe to Shitangel’s Black Metal. That alone is evident from the very first riff on the demo, but will reoccur throughout the five songs. It would be wrong to place Shitangel fully under the Black Thrash Metal though, as I feel the band throws in a good number of slower sections which would’ve lend perfectly for Death Metal. But don’t worry, the songwriting is of strong enough to prevent the demo from becoming a totally mixed bag of sorts.
Productionwise, the five songs are presented in a very raw fashion. The guitars are mid-heavy and distorted beyond belief, giving it a very full powerful sound albeit in lack of punch. The drums are a little down in the mix but are played convincingly and varied. The vocals are a definite highlight for me, as they reflect the same madness of Maniac on Mayhem’s legendary EP ‘Deathcrush’! It’s been a good while since I’ve heard vocals so obnoxious and spiteful. The lyrics, however, are less special as they seem to deal with alcohol, fucking, satanism, the whole lot of generic bad-guy Uber Metal topics. These will suit the seasoned dirtbags among us, but I’ll say it is an ‘acquired taste’.
All things considered, the ‘Demo XXX’ got me excited to check out Shitangel’s LP ‘Shithead Metal’ from 2022 (Drakkar Productions). Until the day comes that I can get my hand on that one, I’m happy with this little teaser that is this demo.
