UMUR "Wrecked" is the 2nd demo cassette tape by Danish death metal act Nations of Death. The demo was independently released in 1993. The band were formed in 1991 in Roskilde and they released their first demo tape "No One is Divine" later that same year. Nations of Death was a relatively short lived act and they only released "No One is Divine" and "Wrecked" before disbanding. Drummer Jesper Frost later played with prolific Danish death metal act Iniquity.

Stylistically the 4 track, 18:05 minutes long demo is firmly rooted in old school death metal, but of the technically well played kind. It´s not technical death metal as such though, but it´s obvious that Nations of Death are a very well playing band. "Wrecked" is also relatively well produced for a demo, so it´s in the songwriting department where Nations of Death don´t quite cut it. The basic quality of the songwriting is decent, and there´s nothing terrible or unlistenable on the demo. The issue here is that the 4 tracks sound very much alike, and that they feature almost nothing catchy or memorable. It´s enjoyable enough while it plays, but soon forgotten when it´s over.

The almost complete lack of anything melodic (which isn´t necessarily a problem in itself), and the monotone growling vocal delivery do not help on the memorability of the music. Although I realize my review comes off as rather negative, "Wrecked" actually is a decent quality death metal demo, and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong. It´s just a very standard quality death metal demo, that doesn´t display a band with a unique sound or a band with the ability to deliver that extra, which could have gotten them noticed by a label.

UMUR "No One is Divine" is the first demo cassette tape by Danish death metal act Nations of Death. The band was formed in 1991 in Roskilde and they released this demo tape later that same year. Nations of Death was a relatively short lived act and they only released "No One is Divine" and the "Wrecked" demo in 1993 before disbanding. Drummer Jesper Frost later played with prolific Danish death metal act Iniquity.

The Danish death metal scene was in full blossom in 1991 (a few years behind their Scandinavian brothers in Norway, Finland, and Sweden) and although Nations of Death was never signed for a label release, they were still pretty active in the Danish underground extreme metal scene. Listening to the quality of "No One is Divine" it´s actually a bit odd Nations of Death never got a recording contract, because we´re generally dealing with a high quality demo release.

Featuring 4 tracks and a full playing time of 28:49, the listener is given a good opportunity to learn what Nations of Death is about, which is of course the primary function of a demo. Stylistically the music is technically well played death metal (the drumming is especially impressive). Varied tempos, brutal riffs, and brutal yet intelligible growling vocals with a great aggressive edge to them. If I have to mention a minor issue, it would be that the tracks are too long for their own good. Two of them exceed 8 minutes in length, and the other two are around 6 minutes long, and while the music is generally both interesting and well played, there isn´t enough variation and changes in atmosphere to warrant such long song lengths. To my ears more conscise songwriting would have done the trick.

When that is said, "No One is Divine" is still a high quality demo from the early 90s Danish death metal scene. It´s very well produced (I dare say semi-professional), well played, and predominantly well written, so a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.