UMUR
Cemeteral Gardens is the first demo released by Polish death metal act Decapitated. Decapitated formed in 1996 and it took the young band a year before they recorded this first demo. Quite an incredible achivement when your birth certificates read 1981, 1983 and 1984.
While the four tracks and the short intro are not the highest quality death metal I´ve heard, the tracks are actually pretty good. Especially the ending title track display that Vogg´s signature razor sharp and brutal technical riffing style was already in the making this early on in their career. The musicianship is surprisingly good considering the band´s young age, and I bet that if you didn´t know it you would never have guessed that Decapitated were this young when they recorded Cemeteral Gardens. Sauron´s vocals are not that strong and it´s the only minus in the band´s sound to my ears.
The production is pretty good.
The original demo is probably really hard to get your hands on now, but Cemeteral Gardens is included on The First Damned (2000) compilation album which is more readily available. A 2.5 star rating is deserved.