UMUR "Feasting the Beast" is the 1st demo cassette tape by US, Florida based death metal act Amon. The demo was self-released in August 1987. Amon were formed in 1987 and recorded two demos (including this one) before changing their name to Deicide. A name change which took place in late 1989 just prior to the recording of Deicide´s self-titled debut full-length studio album "Deicide (1990)". All material from the demo is available on the "Amon: Feasting the Beast (1993)" compilation by Deicide.

The material featured on the "Feasting the Beast" demo is pretty raw and unpolished death metal with brutal thrash metal leanings (I hear a nod or two towards Slayer). Both "Day of Darkness" and "Oblivious to Nothing" are great tracks, and "Sacrificial Suicide" is also a quality track. It´s all very lo-fi and noisy and Glen Benton´s distinct sounding intelligible growling vocals are on an early stage of development at this point. All three tracks from the demo would be re-recorded and appear on Deicide´s eponymously titled 1990 debut album ("Oblivious to Nothing" was retitled "Oblivious to Evil" though).

With a more clear and powerful sound production "Feasting the Beast" could have been a bit more interesting, but considering that the material was written and recorded in 1987, it´s interesting from a compositional point of view, as it´s very brutal and fast-paced for the time. This is not just brutal thrash metal (although there are thrash metal leanings) like most of the contemporary death metal releases actually were, but instead a genuine death metal release, which there aren´t that many of from 1987. A 3 star (60%) rating is warrented.