Lysurgery
Demo
6
Listening to demos is always a roll of the dice. You're always hoping to roll a lucky 7 and hear an undiscovered gem, but more often than not, you quickly realize why some bands stay under the radar. Under the microscope this week is Rhode Island's Lysurgery, with a 5-song demo. By the way, you can get it free at the band's website. By their own description, they play thrash/metalcore, and that is a fair description. The production is decent for a demo, although the guitars could be louder. Since this is a short album, I'll just go song-by-song: Consequence starts it off, and the song is short and sweet. After some intro samples and a haunting little riff, Lysurgery jump into some galloping death metal. Mix in a little solo and there you have it. This song is far too short, as they were going somewhere interesting with it, but anyway... Sever the Source of Ignorance is a longer, faster, more complete song that sees a little bit o' hardcore influence creep in. This song is also where I find my biggest complaint with the band: the clean singing. Now I don't mind mixing clean vox with growls, but the clean voice here sounds like Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction) crossed with the guy from Project 86 - this just doesn't work well. At Fault builds slowly from an acoustic beginning into a mid-paced headbanger. Chugging hardcore riffs are the order of the day, with the occasional melodic twist. Festering is the best song on the demo. The first 1:30 are pure Shadows Fall when they get acoustic and emotional. You can hear it in the excellent solo. Then, abruptly the death metal kicks in. The middle of the song is an Unearth-style interlude until the death returns. Another delicious solo greets the listener before it comes to a close. Do this every song! Falling Soon is more spastic than the rest, with quick transitions between mellow acoustic parts, crushing thrashy parts, and mid-paced death. With a little more attention to transition, this has the makings of a solid song. In general, this is an enjoyable demo, and I'd check them out if they played around here. There's definite potential here, but at the moment, they're a little rough around the edges.
