Year of release: 2021
Label: Metal Race Records
Rating: 8 / 10
Unlike the other recent necromantic Death Metal release of Metal Race, the AMPUTATOR demo, this compilation is more difficult to write about. It is almost impossible to beat it at one attempt - there are more than 100 minutes of intense music on two discs. Of course, listening to everything to the end is not difficult, but maintaining concentration is. EXTINCTION is active again today, and in its old version existed from 1992 to 1999, recording a number of demos and two amateur live releases. All demos are included in this collection. The group is also notable for the fact that it was created by the members of MORTIFER.
The demos are arranged on discs in chronological order, so the development and complication of EXTINCTION's music can be easily traced. There is no need to guess about the sources of inspiration. Firstly, they are indicated in the interviews posted in the booklet, and secondly, everything is more or less clear here anyway. However, paraphrasing a well-known expression, the truth is in the ears of the listener - if the musicians list NAPALM DEATH, BENEDICTION, SUFFOCATION and CANNIBAL CORPSE as their idols, then I heard first of all DEICIDE, MASSACRE and a little bit of MALEVOLENT CREATION. Although the influence of the Cannibals is really traced from the very beginning in the lyrics / song titles and eventually permeates the music. As for SUFFOCATION, it should be limited to their demo and EP “Human Waste” only; the first two EXTINCTION recordings have a very similar sound, and the vocalist imitates Frank Mullen to some extent. The demos "Life Inside the Tomb" and "Extinction" were recorded with a break of one year, and they are so similar to each other that the first disc sounds almost like a full-length album. Almost all tracks are very fast and rhythmic, with rigid structures that do not tolerate unnecessary branches. Alternative opinions begin to occur only at the very end of the second demo. At the same time, the guitars and bass work quite technically, without slipping into chaotic intestinal bloodshed and shit. If GORGASM was formed in 1992 in Russia, it would most likely bear the name EXTINCTION.
The second disc contains demos from 1996 and 1997; the sound instantly changes to a thicker and heavier one. This is accomplished more through tricks with the sound than by performance itself, but it still works. On the one hand, the intensity of the compositions even increases, real blast beats appear. On the other hand, the group often pauses for a few moments to allow one of the instruments to breathe. The riffs seem to have more CANNIBAL COPRSE vibe in them, but at the same time, it is obvious that EXTINCTION does not have that characteristic soreness that was especially evident on “The Bleeding” and “Vile”. Their iron was intended to inflict effective wounds, not for curly slicing of male balls hanged on the hooks. On the 1997 demo, the sound changed again, becoming cleaner and more vicious. After the intro, the band gives almost DARK ANGEL, but then again goes into cannibalism - more noticeably than on previous records. Familiar transitions from fast to mid tempos appear, as well as tricky bass parts, nd the vocalist wheezes very much like "The Bleeding"-era Barnes. The band also managed to listen to “Vile”, otherwise I don’t know how to explain the similarity of the introduction to “Contiquity like Opposition” with “Devoured by Vermin”. In general, by the fourth demo EXTINCTION learned how to shoot at the speed of a machine gun, while hitting targets along very unusual trajectories. Looking at the name of the demo (“Environment-Disbalance-Sindrom & Vulgar Dances”) I make an assumption that on the next releases the band, willingly or unwillingly, would have rushed into technical / progressive Death Metal, but this (perhaps fortunately) did not happen. EXTINCTION's career came to a halt a step away from a huge mistake that many old deathsters made. One way or another, the potential of the band was huge, judging by what I've heard. Now it is active again, and if over the years the musicians managed not to catch some typical illness of aged metalheads ("groovy riffs" etc.), then we have a chance to hear a great old school Death Metal album from Russia in the near future.
The CD “Anthology” booklet is just wonderful - it includes all the available archival graphics, and instead of lyrics (more likely lost forever), there are as many as four interviews on its pages. Moreover, they were placed not in the form of twisted-eyed oblique scans, but so that they could be read - and all this in the original design of the fanzines used. Great job, as always! Details on a video.
English (UK) 
Крыўская