DEMISE

 

Give it another ten years and someone with too much money is going to "discover" DEMISE and package up a discography LP and pat themselves on the back for bringing sweaty Wisconsin basements to the new century punks. While I will applaud those efforts (and I will purchase that future LP), the joke might be on that self congratulatory entrepreneur because those sweaty Wisconsin basements were cranking out magic long before DEMISE and they've never stopped. But since we're focusing on this 1992 demo (or, Promo Tape) lets soak up some of the songs that will be on that collection. The vocals are more mature than on the previous year's Apathy Will Get You Nowhere - which works frighteningly well on the dirge "Not By Choice" (though not so much on the verses of "Fear Itself") and Grant's guitars are kicking open the door that would lead to ANIMAL FARM (shit, "Not By Choice" could have been an AF track) and then OJOROJO and TALK IS POISON after The Great Relocation later in the decade. DEMISE is a flagship band in the argument for not forgetting the '90s - they were fukkn fierce, they were intense, the songs were powerful and thirty years has done nothing to make them feel (or sound) any less relevant today. So to whomever puts that discography together, you've got my $20. I'll even preorder.

PROMO TAPE 92' 

all we have is fear itself
the cops, the landlords and everyone else