UMUR "Swarming of the Maggots" is the first demo recording by Finnish grindcore/death metal act Xysma. The demo was independently released in April 1989 (originally on cassette tape). Xysma formed in 1988 under the Repulse monicker but later the same year after releasing the "On a Cartrip in Sweden" demo, they changed their name to Xysma. Xysma are one of the seminal extreme metal acts on the Finnish scene, and they were highly influential on (and part of) the burgeoning Finnish death metal scene.

"Swarming of the Maggots" doesn´t feature many death metal elements though, and it´s instead a blasting, noisy, and pretty extreme grindcore demo strongly influenced by contemporary Napalm Death and especially Carcass. The demo features 18 tracks and a total playing time of 17:05 minutes, so it´s almost self-explanatory that most of these tracks are very short.

The sound production is raw, lo-fi, and abrasive. Everything is turned to 11, except for the guitars, which are pretty much buried as a low distorted buzzing in a soundscape dominated by a loud distorted bass, busy animalistic and highly energetic drumming, and beastly extreme screaming/growling. None of the above is of course surprising today, when we learn of the Napalm Death/Carcass influences, but back then this must have been the most extreme release on the early Finnish extreme metal scene. Just look at the release date...

While Xysma do incorporate a few mid-paced heavy parts to some of their songs (again not completely unlike early Carcass), "Swarming of the Maggots" is a slightly one-dimensional affair. For what it is, it´s well performed, well composed, and although the sound production is far away from sounding anything like a professional recording, it´s still quite the suitable sound for material this extreme. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.