07-09-2016, 10:46 PM
Artist: Rommel
Release: Rommel (1987)
Rating: 7.5/10
"Down with the Master" starts off with a thrashing fury that manages to combine the raw intensities of both early Venom and X Japan. It's a very sped-up song with a melodic solo. "Burning Brains" continues that vibe, albeit not being as memorable. The demo improves with "The Prince of Hell" and especially the addicting "Night Hawk". The latter is the highlight of the demo, bringing in more heavy metal influences than just being another chaotic thrash metal song. It embodies a lot of great melodies not that often found outside of the NWOBHM or power metal. Great falsettos, too. Closing off is a song simply titled "Outro", which is mostly an acoustic guitar with some background chants. It does nothing more than to close off the demo on a sweet note.
Since I mentioned X Japan in the last paragraph, you'll notice many vocal similarities between Hisashi Takai and X Japan's Toshimitsu Deyama from that time period -- they sang in that really gruff, nasally tone that often reminds me of Michael Jackson's rasps when he was fronting Satan and ultimately Pariah in the late 1980s. In fact, Takai was even one of the guitarists in X Japan when they were still known as X, having played on two demos and their insanely good 1986 EP.
The production is just fine to these ears. I can hear all of the musicians loud and clear, and no one's being relegated to the back of the forefront.
A very good demo to kick off Rommel's short-lived career. Not something that I'll always come back to, but there's simply nothing that I can find to fault it for. Anyone who's into ancient Japanese metal will surely appreciate this demo.