Russia’s Thanatomass’s demo ‘MMXV-MMXVI’ is less a tentative first step than a fully formed statement of intent; it is an opus that already reveals the band’s fixation on brutal Black/Death Metal as something corrosive, hypnotic, and deliberate.
Originally recorded between 2015 and 2016 and first issued on cassette in 2018 before being gloriously re-released on CD in 2020 and 12” in 2022, the material has since become recognized as the foundation of their identity: a laboratory notebook of ideas that would later be refined on their full-length.
What strikes immediately is the balance between chaos and control: the riffs are jagged and magnetic, short motifs that recur like sigils, constantly reoriented around a central pulse. The guitars scrape with a corroded edge, the bass hums like a dark current beneath, and the bestial snarled vocals are less narrative than incantatory, delivered with a smoky reverb that suggests cavernous space rather than grandeur.
The production is raw and cavernous but never careless, its abrasion sharpening the esoteric character rather than obscuring it. It couldn’t be more perfect if you asked me.
Each track feels like a stage in an obscure satanic/occult ritual. The Horned Deity with the Icy Rod is being called upon often in the songs.
The opener ‘M.M.M.’ sets the threshold with mantra-like cycles, while ‘House Of The Rising Lucifer’ stretches into seven minutes of mounting pressure, refusing obvious climaxes in favor of tightening repetition. ‘Morning Of The Magicians’ slows the pace into a processional march, toms echoing like ceremonial steps, before ‘Luzifers Hofgesind’ delivers a jagged, martial interlude.
The closing ‘Pharmakon Gnosis’ is the crown jewel or, as I call it, ‘Pièce de Résistance’, with its eleven-minute spiral of riffs that return altered, each cycle more venomous than the last, dissolving finally into smoke rather than ending cleanly.
The flaws on this demo are minor but worth noting: the bass is more felt than actually articulated, the vocals could benefit from greater variation, and the mastering leaves little headroom in the densest passages. Yet these rough edges are part of the charm, the sense of a band channeling something volatile and unrefined but already purposeful. Remember this is their first official demo.
‘MMXV-MMXVI’ is not simply a demo but a document of a group fluent in their own language from the start, wielding extremity as a tool rather than a gimmick, and laying down the blueprint for the more ceremonial Black Metal they would later perfect.
For the influences we head to the eternal gods of Black/Death Metal; I’d say early Vader, Pseudogod, Wrathprayer, a bit of Katharsis and Teitanblood maybe.
‘MMXV-MMXVI’ offers you 35 minutes of brutal Black/Death Metal at its highest peak. Or should I say: apex. The last track is a live rendition of ‘M.M.M.’ by the way.
