Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Damaged - Do Not Spit (1993)
Do you know when deathcore was invented? I say it was first realized as a full genre in 1996/1997 with releases by Abnegation, Day of Suffering, Deformity, and (you guessed it) Damaged, before Embodyment sealed the deal with their 1998 debut. This has to be said for the 60% of deathcore voters in this release's RYM genre-voting page, THIS IS NOT DEATHCORE. Sure there are some hardcore elements, but the mid-90s material of Damaged is just pure deathgrind.
And is their debut Do Not Spit a good album for me? I'm sorry but it ain't. The problems I had with their next couple releases are around in this one and at their worst, and it once again shows that deathgrind is out of my league...
The issues begin from the first few seconds of "Dreggs" after the guitar tone sounds pretty good but then gets trampled on by the stampeding bass and drums. Normally I'm a fan of that combo, but that was quite a buzzkill. I'm not really a fan of the vocals either that sound so constipated, and it doesn't help the riffing with constant interruptions. A troubling start to the album, and I have to ask why they placed it there. "Dust" is a better track and hints at a bit of their later proto-deathcore with some metalcore riffing that Unearth would later have. "The Travellin' Maniac" is not something I really need. A slow stoner-ish riff flows through the aptly titled "Slow (Heretic)", but it fits much better in a sludge band, not a deathgrind band like Damaged.
Next up, "Ultra-Mild" is just a half-minute experimentation with a riff before an abrupt stop. What the f*** was the point of that sh*t!? The blend of grind and death is more prominent in "Open Arms". This kind of instrumentation gives the song and much of this album more in common with Terrorizer, maybe even the Swedish death 'n' roll of Entombed. This is the kind of chaos that you can mosh around to, but not the kind of chaos I would enjoy in the long term. Also having some groove-ish riffing is the title track. There's even some melodic soloing, but nothing memorable. However, I enjoy the death-punk of "Resurrect".
Then it's back to the horrid rhythms in "Walk Blind". Then "My Grain" brings things back up with the sludgy riffing of Coalesce's demo releases. It shares the same track with "Nails" which is much faster, giving this two-part track a great "yin-yang" deal. After a minute of half of silence, an unnamed track comes on. It's actually a cover of Celtic Frost's "Dethrone Emperor", but despite staying true to its original sound, they really f***ed it up and it's perhaps the worst cover in that otherwise enjoyable category.
Do Not Spit has some good moments here and there, but in over half of the album, the instrumentation and vocals are all just awkward and out of place. Not outright terrible but not really for me. They would gradually become better in the next couple releases, slowly building their way up to the earliest stage of deathcore....
Favorites (only songs I like): "Dust", "Resurrect", "My Grain", "Nails"