Another one I pulled out of the dollar bin, and fucking hell, is it ever terrible. Retrospectively I probably should have bought a soda instead, but I'm sure I will trade this away to some moron eventually. Anyway, it was sort of interesting to see what Akhenaten was up to with this project back then, so the purchase wasn't a total loss. Ubermensch - The first EP from 1995 is the worst of the three (and that's saying a lot), beginning with Die Totenmaske/Fuck Pig, which is basically very watered-down gutteral vocals and riffs that make this group look rather confused with what they're trying to do. There are few semblances of structure at all and the music seems to go all over the place with no predictability and zero direction (maybe it's improvised). The next three bands kick in with much of the same style, equivalent to growling while beating a trash can with a wooden spoon, and luckily this thing doesn't last too long so there's a short relapse period before the Deadnoise EP kicks in. Deadnoise - Six bands from 94' here, and this definitely has much more of a primitive and conventional American death metal sound to it, although it isn't much more exciting than the proceeding EP and the constant linear style is completely generic. Amazingly enough this is the best segment of the split and "Mental Atrocities" is almost mediocre. Everything still feels very broken but it is an improvement. Sarcophagus - Andrew Jay Harris (have to mention this one to Andy next time I talk to him) was playing pure and complete death metal at this period and it's impossible to determine by raw listening alone that this is the same man who created such great recordings as Judas Iscariot's The Cold Earth Slept Below and Of Great Eternity, not to mention that new Weltmacht release with Imperial of Krieg. Objectively this is entirely wretched and ugly with no more advanced qualities than the previous two EP's, but it's still remarkable to look into the past and see what Akhenaten has progressed from and come to accomplish. Not remarkable enough to pay for, but hey, it was a fucking dollar. Avoid this.

© 2001 hando