UMUR "Blasphemy" is the first demo release by Swedish death/thrash metal act Dark Abbey. The demo was independently released in October 1990. Dark Abbey formed in 1989 and only released the "Blasphemy" demo before changing their name to Epitaph in late 1990. They recorded one further demo (Disorientation... from July 1991) under the Epitaph monicker before being signed for the release of their debut full-length studio album "Seeming Salvation" (Thrash Records, November 1992).

"Blasphemy" features 4 tracks and a total playing time of 12:32 minutes all spend delivering the most caustic, aggressive, and fast-paced death/thrash you can imagine. This is an extremely raw and intense release, which at its core may be thrash metal, but often borders death metal in brutality, darkness, and atmosphere. Dark Abbey are a well playing trio, who execute their quite intricate and for the style relatively complex tracks with great skill and conviction. I´m actually quite surprised to hear such a young band deliver fast-paced and pretty technical music on this level.

The demo was recorded at Sunlight Studio in september 1990 and while it´s certainly not the most professional sounding demo release, which came out of Sunlight Studio, the raw sounding production actually provides the music with exactly the right amount of darkness and intensity, which this type of music requires to sound authentic and credible. Honestly this demo blows me away, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.