UMUR "Season of Sorrows" is the second demo recording by Finnish death metal act Preprophecy. The demo was independently released in 1994. It´s the successor to the "A Tomb of Sanity" demo from June 1992.

So two years down the line from their US influenced first demo, and it´s obvious that Preprophecy were trying to find a new style to play. While the music still features brutal growling vocals and the occasional brutal death metal section, Preprophecy have generally lowered the pace of their music and have increased the atmospheric and melodic elements, making "Season of Sorrows" a pretty incoherrent release which is a bit unsure if it wants to be a brutal death metal demo or a heavy, atmospheric, and at times melodic death/doom metal release.

No one can accuse Preprophecy of stagnating...that´s for sure. If their new eclectic take on playing death metal works is another discussion though. To my ears it sounds confusing and like a band still trying to figure out a musical direction. It´s no wonder that after changing their name twice they ended up playing melodic death/heavy metal when they were ultimately called Cryhavoc.

"Season of Sorrows" features a decent sounding demo production, and upon conclusion it´s a relatively good quality sophomore demo release from Preprophecy. Although it´s a bit more evolved and it´s obvious that the band have honed their playing skills since the first demo, the eclectic songwriting isn´t a plus here and I´m left with a feeling that Preprophecy would have been better of playing a more straight death metal style. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.