According to the packaging, the songs in question were remastered, having only heard the latter of the three recordings on this CD in its original format, its safe to say that they did to some extent. Right off the bat is must be stated that all twelve songs are very raw and sloppy. The first three, from the 'Paradise Lost' demo, are the "worst" of the bunch and are easily more Death than Doom with the band perhaps throwing in a few slow parts here and there. Two of the three songs were never put to any album after the demos were released. Those two are 'Drown in Darkness' & 'Morbid Existence'. Both songs are excellent, for primitive Doom/Death Metal and its a shame that they didn't make it on to the bands first proper release. 'Internal Torment' is mostly the same with a few noticeable differences in the middle of the song. These are cool and its interesting to hear a different version of this song alongside the rarer gems. Nicks vocals are possibly the best they'd ever be on this recording.
In the notes, Nick mentions that the second demo 'Frozen Illusion' is where you can start to hear the beginnings of the band's style form. This is true as the songs are vicious and intense. They are better sounding than the versions heard on 'Lost Paradise'. The distortion is thicker and the playing isn't as sloppy as on the first demo. Everything is, in essence, taken up a level in terms of over all quality. With that being said the last song is a little quieter than the others. The last demo of the group is the 'Plains Of Desolation' live bootleg. In its original format it's nearly impossible to discern what is being played because the recording quality is beyond sub par and its very quiet. The remaster (if it can so be called) does turn the instruments up a little and the vocals up a lot. This is very annoying as Nick has a tendency to practically drown out the others throughout much of the recording. Once again, this is very good aside from the aforementioned issue. You can hear the crowed cheer and laugh at Nick's random and amusing diatribes between songs. He growls everything in between songs, but if you're familiar with his voice its easy to make out what he's saying. He pays tribute to 'Metalduck' (this elicits laughter from the crowd) as well as a friend of theirs calling him a wimp. He also reminds the crowd that they're "Not Glam, its for wimps and we're not wimps". In retrospect his personality hasn't changed a bit.
All in all the songs are heavier with thicker distortion and better vocals than anything the band has ever done. It's also great to hear four new songs; Drown In Darkness, Morbid Existence, Plains Of Desolation & Nuclear Abomination. It's really a shame that these never got properly released as any fan of old school Doom/Death would really dig these. This is worth getting for anyone into this style, not just diehard fans. There is a lot of good here with only a few drawbacks.....8/10
Review Written By Grimdoom
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