Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Damaged - Passive Backseat Demon Engines (1995)

There's a reason why deathgrind is not one of the death metal subgenres I chose to rediscover. It's a mix of two of the deadliest metal genres; standard death metal and grindcore, and bands like Brutal Truth (whose vocalist Kevin Sharp would perform in their final album 5 years after this one) are beyond my leeway. So why am I here? To explore the earliest deathcore releases and, SPOILER, this ain't!

With the lack of impact outside their homeland, Damaged was signed to Rotten Records to have this EP and their debut reissued as one album. Damaged is in their game of deathgrind fury, sounding good in a couple tracks, but when they rarely ease up, it's as intense as the world's spiciest ghost pepper and not how I would handle spiciness.

One track I truly enjoy is the title track, which has unholy guitar-vocal assault that might be an early hint of deathcore, but again that subgenre is not what this EP is for the most part. The only other enjoyable track for me is the neat little cover of Bathory's "Equimanthorn". Still nowhere near deathcore, but it's quite interesting hearing this band transform an early black metal song into deathgrind.

If you enjoy Celtic Frost's earlier death metal-influencing material mixed with the noise-grind that Nails would later have, you might like and handle the intensity of Passive Backseat Demon Engines way more than I do. All you need to know is, they're deathgrind, very little deathcore is present, end of review....

Favorites (only songs I like here): "Passive Backseat Demon Engines", "Equimanthorn"