Xasthur

While the necessity of this release could certainly be debated, Hydra Head has decided to flood the market with yet another stopgap offering between full-lengths. Xasthur is not an act many sit on the fence over, and hearing these bare-bones demo recordings of two scrapped numbers from Subliminal Genocide will not change that. Sole member Malefic's torturously depressive vehicle for blackened misanthropy has, unsurprisingly, avoided changing its approach since genre-defining debut Nocturnal Poisoning hit ― still Xasthur's most fully realized release. However, fans of his post-Moribund output will find these songs to be sufficient, as they deviate very little from the sessions they are outtakes from. The second, unnamed track is the stronger of the two, featuring warped countermelodies, barely audible drum machines and disembodied shrieks, much like his other material, although delivered as effectively as we've come to expect from him. While somewhat pointless as a standalone release, 2005 Demo is a brief reminder that Malefic is still holding it down in whatever dank cellar he's sequestered himself in.