UMUR Released in November 1991 through Infest Records, this release is a split between the two Swedish death metal acts Excruciate and Epitaph. The split features all material from Excruciate´s second demo tape "Hymns of Mortality" from January 1991 (except closing track "Sabbath in the Mortuary") and all material from Epitaph´s first demo tape "Disorientation..." (July 1991). The split was originally released on 12" vinyl and limited to 3.000 copies.

While neither Excruciate nor Epitaph achieved much commercial success, and are seldom mentioned along with seminal Swedish death metal acts like Nihilist/Entombed, Dismember, Grave, and Unleashed, both bands were a part of the late 80s/early 90s Stockholm scene and made some waves in the underground demo tape trading community with their demos releases.

Excruciate play a deathgrind influenced brutal death metal style, which doesn´t sound inherently Swedish. It´s intense, featuring deep growling vocals, and some fast-paced grinding parts spiced up with heavier mid-paced death metal parts. "Hymns of Mortality" is definitely a demo worth a listen, but it´s not the most groundbreaking nor the most unique sounding Swedish demo release.

The material from the "Disorientation..." demo by Epitaph is slightly more interesting and also a bit more unique in sound. Epitaph started out in 1989 under the Dark Abbey monicker and played a vicious, grim, and aggressive style of death/thrash metal, but after changing their name to Epitaph in 1990 they started incorporating more death metal elements (like growling vocals and heavier brutal riffs and rhythms), which is the sound you hear on "Disorientation...". Epitaph still play a lot of sharp and brutal thrash metal riffs and rhythms, but in a death metal context.

Both demos are relatively well produced and both feature solid musicianship and decent songwriting ideas, so it´s a split release worth checking out for fans of the early Swedish demo death metal scene. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Disorientation..." is a demo release by Swedish death metal act Epitaph. The demo was independently released in July 1991. The material from this demo was released on a split with the material form Excruciate´s January 1991 "Hymns of Mortality" demo in November 1991 through Infest Records. Epitaph formed under the Dark Abbey monicker in 1989 and released a blistering and aggressive death/thrash metal demo in October 1990 titled "Blasphemy", but soon after changed their name to Epitaph. With the name change also came a change in music style to death metal.

So "Disorientation..." may be the band´s second demo release (although the first was under the Dark Abbey name), but the change of sound and style in some ways makes "Disorientation..." a debut release for Epitaph. And what a debut that is. Thankfully they haven´t forgotten their aggressive death/thrash roots, and in addition to heavy mid-paced death metal brutality and growling vocals, there are actually quite a few brutal, sharp, and intense thrash metal riffs featured on the 4 track, 12:26 minutes long demo. They are just presented here in a death metal context.

"Disorientation..." was recorded at Sunlight Studio in March 1991 and produced by Christofer Johnsson (Therion) and Epitaph, and engineered by Tomas Skogsberg, so quite a few prolific names were involved in the recording of the demo, and it shows. While it´s certainly a both raw and aggressive release, it´s also a very well sounding release perfectly showcasing Epitaph´s caustic death metal style. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.