UMUR
"Blessed" is the first demo release by Swedish black/death metal act Segregation. The demo was independently released in 1992. It´s the only release by Segregation, who came from the town of Gothenburg, but who don´t sound anything like the melodeath bands who would soon emerge from that town.
Instead were treated to a fast-paced, energetic, and brutal blackened death metal style. "Blessed" is a live in the studio rehearsal demo and while it´s obvious that the band can play their instruments, the recording is pretty raw and lo-fi. The vocals are heavily distorted and sometimes overpower the remaining parts of the music. The listener is led through four tracks in 13:52 minutes and it´s quite an intense listening experience. Blackened thrashy riffs, snarling screams and death metal grunts, spiced up with fast-paced energetic death/thrash drumming and you´re halfway there.
"Blessed" isn´t a particularly unique sounding release, and as a consequenc of the lo-fi rehearsal quality sound production it´s not a particularly pleasant sounding release either. But if you like your blackened thrash/death metal as raw and as authentic as possible, I guess you can find worse releases than this one. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.