siLLy puPPy TOXIC TRACE is one of those mystery bands that formed, cranked out a couple releases that went nowhere and then quietly retreated into obscurity. This band from Pritzwalk, a small city in the former East Germany should not be confused with another German band of the same name from Singen.

This TOXIC TRACE only has two releases to its name, the first emerging with this EP titled FOR ETERNAL AND NOW from 1999. This short EP features seven tracks and adds up to about 22 minutes of playing time. Six are studio tracks with the final track mined from a live show in 1997. This band featured Matthias Dunze (bass), Holger Wendtlandt (drums), René Haber (keyboards), Stefan Schmidt (vocals) and Christian Maack (vocals).

This is old school death metal by the books and the band was clearly about ten years too late to the party. Sounding something like a mix of early Autopsy and a less talented Obituary, the riffs are solid and due to the melodic touches reminds a bit at times of early Amorphis with “Tales From The Thousand Lakes.” This is pretty much lo-fi demo quality so if you’re into those gritty DIY projects, this will scratch that itch.

For a quick death metal experience you could do worse than FOR ETERNAL AND NOW. The songs are varied enough to keep your interest and the old school death metal musicianship is decently performed. One of the more interesting aspects of TOXIC TRACE is that they used their native German language occasionally as in the track “Erinnerung” and i have to say that death metal sung in German is quite bizarre indeed!

This band is one of those true lost and forgotten examples of a band that arrived too late to the scene and never gained any traction. Death metal had already evolved to the progressive world of Gorguts and beyond by 1999 so this is really nothing to get overly excited about however it is a fine example of an underground death metal band from some far flung place in Germany having fun with their art form. Overall the quality of the music is about as adequate as the cover art. Competent but in many ways too generic for primetime.