siLLy puPPy Old school death metal at its rawest and closest to the heart. ABIOSIS was formed in Napa, California in 1991 and existed for three years until its demise in 1994. While never really crafting a style of death metal that could break through into the top notches of the genre, this local Bay Area band certainly attracted a cult following during its brief existence.

This compilation basically is the official CD release of the band’s two demos “Abiosis” and “The Killing.” This is no frills as there is no remastering, no bonus tracks and nothing else to add beyond finding the band’s demo material launched into a higher level of archival curiosity.

See my reviews for individual demos for detailed description of the music itself but if you are a stalwart old school metal fan who relishes these demo only bands that never captured the attention of a greater audience then you will find lots to love on these primeval recordings. A great talent indeed but just a little too late to the world of death metal to capture any significant attention since there were so many more creative bands out there.

siLLy puPPy The Napa, California based death metal band ABIOSIS released not one but two demos in 1992 which made me wonder why they didn’t just release one of a longer playing time? I dunno how these things worked back then so whatever. THE KILLING followed the eponymous debut demo and showcased a slightly more sophisticated development which thankfully included a more robust display of drumming duties courtesy of drummer Lincoln Lucas who sounded pretty lazy on the first run.

This demo featured five tracks and discovered the art of death-doom as well as blastbeats! Yay! Taking influences from all the old school deathies such as Morbid Angel, Obituary and Autopsy, ABIOSIS showcased a competent style of old school death metal that was just a wee bit too late to arrive at the death metal party in 1992. This second demo certainly shows significant improvement with a more diverse display of metal madness ranging from Black Sabbath infused traditional doomy molasses metal to fully fueled death metal on lightning bolt mode.

Raw and unfucked with in terms of production, this band displayed a clear loyalty to the death metal paradigm of the day but didn’t quite have the chops to take things above and beyond the call of duty and therefore has been relegated to a tiny footnote in the world of extreme metal having been buried manyfold by countless death metal bands with a keener sense of creative expression, however this is not a bad release by any means. While generic in many senses for those well attuned to the nuances of death metal, this band does have subtle indescribable idiosyncrasies.

Both THE KILLING demo and the previous eponymous demo were released in 2017 as the compilation album “Absence of Life” which allows detective sleuths of all things old school death metal to relish in glee.

siLLy puPPy One of the many San Francisco Bay Area bands that had their shining moment on the local scene for a quick flash of time and then dissipated into the annals of history only to become a mere footnote if even that. This band ABIOSIS was an old school death metal band emerging from the wine country city of Napa, California. Formed in 1991 this band that consisted of Cisco Alcazar (bass), Lincoln Lucas (drums), Curtiss Gray (guitar) and Dan Nicholson (vocals) only existed for three years and recorded two short demos before calling it quits.

This first demo of 1992 (both were released the same year) featured three tracks that existed somewhere between the final stages of thrash metal of 80s Metallica and the old school death metal of the Tampa scene like Obituary, Deicide and Massacre. Although this band really never evolved past its initial stages, it’s quite clear from these demos that these guys were quite capable of death metal greatness but then again so were many others and not enough attention span to go around so they went by the wayside!

As you would expect this demo features a lo-fi production that was created to sell the band’s talent rather than production skills however there are a couple issues with the band’s playing at this point. Number one on the list is in the percussion department. Sorry Lincoln Lucas but the drumming on this demo is neither inventive nor technically competent in comparison to the legions of death metal bands such as Morbid Angel and Atheist who had already set the bar high even with their debut albums. Not that technicality is the be all end all but ABIOSIS was clearly a few steps behind the bigwigs of the day.

This is a decent if not phenomenal presentation of a band that exuded a great talent but didn’t take it far enough by 1992 to really capture the attention of the fast evolving world of death metal. Except for the lackadaisical drumming, i find this to be a very pleasing expression of old school death metal however i have to admit that it does sound a bit dated and generic however for a mere demo this is better than many other bands at the same stage of development. One of those golden missed opportunity bands in Bay Area metal history but nothing to get overly excited about either.

Both this eponymous demo and the following “The Killing” were released in 2017 as the compilation album “Absence of Life” which allows detective sleuths of all things old school death metal to relish in glee.