Squelched into muddy stupor, slapped together into wetly bound mass and fingered viciously into form this gruesome first smear from Lublin, Poland-based death metal trio MANGLED RECREMENT shows keen insight into the mildly eclectic yet moldering spectrum of ‘old school’ inspired craft. Obsessed with grotesque horror and the miserable dread to follow their work on this debut demo tape, the inadvisably titled ‘Demo‘, carries both virtuosic and barbaric traits within its haze-ridden and slow bopping sense of movement. Through restlessly worming and cavernous tracts the peristaltic retching achieved herein shows some great promise in the realm of grinding and grime-slicked death metal grooves.

Mangled Recrement formed back in 2024 between folks known for their work in prog-death band Toughness and gore-obsessed crew Leucotome with the goal of putting together an ‘old school’ death metal inspired faction. Pulling from a blend of classic staples (Autopsy, Immolation) and modern permutations of those foundations (Morbific, Malignant Altar) they’ve managed a sort of mid-paced mid-90’s capable pure underground sound which touches upon brutality, cavernous estrangement and worming riffcraft. ‘Demo‘ is exactly what it says on the tape… a short and straight-forward demonstration of what they’ve crafted thus far, marking their first public recording/release.

There is no real shortage of new-found death metal bands figuring their way through half-speed brutal death metal riffcraft today but there are few who make anything compelling, or even slightly related to true early 90’s sounds under these strictures. Opener “Boiled to Death” takes the percussive topple-and-thrash of earlier east coast USDM and weaves Mangled Recrement‘s hand through it for an ear-catching introductory moment. We get something closer to an earlier Tomb Mold groove on the second half of the song but whammy-whittled dives (~2:19 minutes in) and the leads which follow read as authentic approximation otherwise.

The cavernous sound of ‘Demo‘ and the not-so dummy threads they’re pulling off here make for an alluring combination, an obscured dark entity which brings some weird and surprising shit out from the shadows now and then. Hitting the ~two minute mark on the slower yanked “Irresponsive Cephalic Fracture” where bad horror synth, pick scraping and a sample conjoin was almost as surprising as the feral shout back into the song at the ~2:34 minute mark, setting off the final third of the piece unto Old Yharnam worthy shrieking and rattling, militant uptick. At the very least Mangled Recrement have the sense to tangle their work into beastly interest rather than plainly barrel through (see also: Temora‘s recent tape).

Beyond the rusty slap bass and pinch harmonic whipping parts of “Bile Seeping Crypt” it is kind of a messy burner and floated past ’til closer “Buried Beneath Grubs” struck. The finale of this tape shows some affinity for ‘Necroticism…‘-or-nearby era Carcass per its thrashing and slow-scaling main progression to start, the one feature of this tape I’d like to see expanded most, it is the wobbling doom-edged riffcraft that arrives in the song’s second half that’d tipped the scales for my taste. The way they’ve dropped into that final wave (starting around the ~2:42 minute mark) is a simple enough movement but one which suggests these folks have ideas spilling from their work, details which come from observant fandom rather than dryly notional derivation.

If you are familiar with Marc Necrohelm‘s work (Calderum, Sanctuarium, et al.) you’ll likely have recognized his illustrative style in xerox-like form per the ‘Demo‘ cover art. This is well chosen alongside the shredded-ass logo he’s also provided, looking like an infected bite-wound on the forehead of the tape. Seeing this type of hand-drawn cover and diving into the cassette itself recalls (to me) the sensation of exploring early Drowned Productions releases, finding make-do bands that were exactly as strange as their packaging looked. I’m not sure Mangled Recrement are all that far out or deranged but I’d heard well enough potential in the span of these ~15 minutes to recommend their gig.

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