The idea and concept of a demo is something that’s incredibly easy to grasp onto should you apply even a little bit of thought to it. It’s a solid form for a band that’s literally just starting out to put their raw sound out there and hopefully find an enthusiastic audience. I’ve been an incredible winning streak with demos from death metal in recent times, and that streak only continues as Russia has produced Gosudar whose first demo is the type of stuff that feels immensely fresh and hits all the right cylinders at maximum power.

A lot of times, the death metal that we hear in the form of demos normally come firing in and out with one vile riff after another to produce a sound that’s as seething and filthy as it is entertaining and brimming with hooks that always command your attention. There’s nothing wrong with that approach at all, but it’s always fun to see a band try something else out, and Gosudar has done just that in just over nine minutes as this demo takes death metal into territories that the genre seldom goes be it in the form of a demo or full-length. It’s with a mere pair of tracks that this Russian act has managed to create a truly primeval sound that isn’t simple by any means and doesn’t rely purely on riffage to translate their power, but instead, it’s through an atmosphere woven in eldritch texts and a ruthless philosophy of the gore-drenched, impending doom coming for us all that Gosudar manages to bring their immense presence to life. All of that is hard to just conceptualize for any young band, much less execute in half-decent fashion, but it’s with a simple demo and between two songs that this group has somehow accomplished it without a hitch to make this mighty little cassette a creation of high power that isn’t to be underestimated.

The greatest of legacies can start with the most humbling of beginnings, and I can’t help but have a gut feeling that this little demo is only the start of a true gem of the underground as Gosudar has already proven their own salt here. So many bands can take albums to reach a point of excellence worth anything mentioning, but it’s with this little sampler that Gosudar has already proven themselves a worthy addition to an exclusive group in the vast underground to where they’re clearly destined for greatness of their own kind, and I’ll be damned before I let the name of Gosudar become forgotten in the deep recesses of the metal world.

This demo releases on February 8th via Rotted Life!

LISTEN to the demo on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Gosudar on Facebook here.