UMUR "A Serenade of Agony" is the debut and only full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Maceration. The album was recorded in five days in September 1991 and released in 1992 by Progress Red Label. Maceration was started in 1990 as a death metal side-project by the two Invocator members Jakob Schultz and Jacob Hansen. Lars Bangsholt and Rune Hansen completed the lineup. Before the recording of "A Serenade of Agony" was replaced by Day Disyraah ( Dan Swanö´s pseudonym) who delivers the vocals and some keyboards/ piano playing on the album.

The music on "A Serenade of Agony" is old school death metal. Deep growling ( yet decipherable) vocals, mostly mid- to fast paced songs and pretty standard songwriting, is what you´ll get here. Dan Swanö´s vocal delivery is as always distinct and powerful and he is the main reason why the album has any merit IMO. The rest of the music is honestly not that interesting. The production is not very good either and while the instruments are handled pretty well, there´s nothing here I would rate beyond a standard rating.

There´s not a single song on the album that stands out as being something really intriguing to my ears, but songs like the title track and "Pain and Pleasure Incarnate" do have enough quality elements to warrant a listen now and again. I´m not too excited though and a 2.5 star rating will do.