XYSMA — Swarming of the Maggots (review)

XYSMA — Swarming of the Maggots album cover Demo · 1989 · Goregrind Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
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.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us