UMUR "Swallow The Symmetric Swab" is the third demo recording by Finnish death metal act Lubricant. The demo was independently released in November 1991. It´s the successor to the February 1991 "Surgical Centesis" demo. Two of the songs from "Surgical Centesis" have been re-recorded and included on "Swallow The Symmetric Swab". The material from the demo appears on the "Swallow This" compilation album (Svart Records, March 2017).

Although Lubricant showed some maturation between their December 1990 "Subscription of Hydatidocele" demo and the February 1991 "Surgical Centesis" demo, both are pretty amaturish, raw, and unpolished death metal recordings, but the band have managed to take a quantum leap with "Swallow The Symmetric Swab", which is an absolutely brilliant death metal demo.

Lubricant are audibly strongly influenced by Carcass, but other than a few parts here and there, they don´t sound like clones, and they have many interesting songwriting ideas which make them sound pretty unique. They have a heavy groove in their music which is pretty unique and the many different vocal styles they use are also a great asset to their music (the odd "humorous" vocals on "Inflammatorious Pulmonectomia" should have been left out if you ask me). Deep growling and aggressive snarling are the dominant vocal styles, but there are also a couple of moments with high pitched screams and some juicy growling.

I´ve listened to quite a few Finnish death metal demos over the years, and "Swallow The Symmetric Swab" is definitely one of the most intriguing, brutal, and creative releases from the early years of the Finnish death metal scene. As the whole thing is also packed in a raw, brutal, and detailed sounding production job, there are few complaints and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.