UMUR "Crushed Infamy" is the fourth demo recording by US death/black metal act Order From Chaos. The demo was independently released in July 1989. Order From Chaos released no less than three demos during 1988 and therefore they were already relatively seasoned underground recording artists when recording the material for "Crushed Infamy".

Their previous recording experiences and the subsequent maturity of their songwriting are audible on "Crushed Infamy", which is a more well rounded demo recording than anything which came before. Order From Chaos have also developed their own unique style of blackened death metal, which they would continue to play on their future releases. The heavy distorted bass, the chaotic sounding guitar, and the organic and powerful drumming spiced up with Pete Helmkamp´s blackened snarling aggressive vocals. He sounds nothing short of amazing here.

Order From Chaos have opted to go back to writing shorter songs again after writing unnecessarily long tracks for the July 1988 "Inhumanities" demo. This decision works in their favor as the tracks on "Crushed Infamy" are more effectful, delivering their twisted, angry, and raw messsage much more effeciently.

This is of course still a demo recording, and there are some issues with the sound production, which makes the demo a bit of an odd listen. It´s primarily the extremely thin sounding guitar tone, which is pretty weird sounding, but I guess that´s just a touch of black metal along with Helmkamp´s vocals. Other than that I´d primarily call this death metal featuring both speed/thrash and even hardcore/punk leanings (take a listen to "Of Death and Dying" to hear those influences).

"Crushed Infamy" sold pretty well for a demo and it gave Order From Chaos the attention needed for the labels to begin noticing them, which led to their first label deal with Putrefaction Records, who released Order From Chaos´ "Will to Power" EP in July 1990. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.