UMUR "...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a demo released in August 2007 by Dutch experimental extreme metal act Gnaw Their Tongues. The demo is not available as a physical release but can be downloaded for free on the band´s Myspace. There´s a blurred line between this demo release and the official releases by Gnaw Their Tongues when it comes to quality, so don´t expect this to sound like a demo compared to the band´s official releases. The reason for making a demo at this stage in the band´s career is a bit unclear to me as Gnaw Their Tongues already had several official releases under their belt at this point, but the recordings may be of an older date. As always with Gnaw Their Tongues releases everything from composing and playing to artwork design is done by the band´s sole member Mories.

The demo contains six tracks and the total playing time is 48 minutes. All songs exceed the six minute mark. The music is extremely dark with droning bass/ guitars, sampled/ programmed drums and layers upon layers of eerie samples and keyboard/ synth sounds. The music is somewhat rooted in black metal but has been given an experimental, industrial, droning and ambient twist. A song like "Nihilism; Tied Up and Burning" represents the black metal side of the music. It´s a noisy, intense black metal track and it kinda reminds me of a band like the noisy industial grindcore/ black metal act Anaal Nathrakh when they are at their most filthy. Most tracks are slow and droning though. The atmosphere is dark, eerie and unpleasant and with song titles like "Chinese Torture Worship" and "Horse Drawn Hearse" it´s obviously not the lighter sides of life that Mories writes about which is also obvious when reading the title of the demo. "Chinese Torture Worship" actually needs a special mention as it is positively one of the most unpleasant listening experiences I´ve had in a while. I listened to the song on my iPod while walking through the dark basement in the building where I live and it freaked me out to the point where I had to look over my shoulder several times to see if a monstrous creation was sneaking up on me. Eerie white ambient noise with tortured screaming vocals low in the mix. I ususally have a hard time appreciating this kind of ambient noise music but this song really is something special. "Horse Drawn Hearse" is a really fascinating track as well. Lots of atmosphere enhancing mad preacher samples in that one. The last track on the demo is "Seven Heads, Ten Horns" which was also featured on the debut full-length studio album "Spit at Me and Wreak Havoc on My Flesh (2006)". I´m assuming this demo version was recorded before 2006 even though it was released in 2007.

The production is noisy and at times murky, but the dark sound suits the music well. It´s one of the more lo-fi productions in Gnaw Their Tongues discography though.

"...Spasming and Howling, Bowels Loosening and Bladders Emptying, Vomiting Helplessly..." is a great release by Gnaw Their Tongues and considering that it´s free for download on the band´s Myspace it´s an even more attractive item IMO. Gnaw Their Tongues has made many fascinating high quality releases but if you would like to take a listen to how the music sounds and not even pay for it, this is a great opportunity to do that. The demo is not Mories best release but it´s still a great effort and a 3.5 star rating is well deserved. It seems like Mories can do no wrong.