UMUR "The Deep..." is an EP release by German death metal act Crawlspace. The EP is the band´s debut release and it was independently released on CD in 1993. Crawlspace formed in 1989 and released this EP and subsequently a string of demos. The last demo was released in 2001 and chances are the band split-up soon after that.

So "The Deep..." is their only "official" release, but considering the rather abysmal sound production values on the EP, it could just as well have been released as a demo. Stylistically the material on the 4 track, 18:51 minutes long EP is relatively brutal old school death metal. The band can play and they perform their music with a nice brutal attitude and conviction. I like the growling vocals by Patrick Gestier, who sometimes sounds a little like a young Glen Benton. The music is predominantly mid-paced but features some pretty busy drumming, which ensures that the music has a slight technical edge to it, but it´s not technical death metal by any means. Crawlspace occasionally whip up an effective heavy groove too, but sometimes also shifts gears and play really slow death/doom parts, which remind me slightly of Asphyx. The songwriting is actually relatively memorable and "The Deep..." is well worth a listen for fans of old school death metal.

"The Deep..." is not exactly a groundbreaking release, but it´s a pretty solid release overall, minus the noisy and murky sounding production. The production does drag my rating down a bit. On the other hand this is early 90s old school death metal, and we wouldn´t want too much polish on that, so I guess I can live with this being a pretty raw and unpolished sounding release. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.