### Clamath: Last exit to damnation

#### 21/09/09 || Smalley

So, this is my very first demo review for Global Domination; I know demos aren’t really supposed to be good, not the good that consumers are supposed to go out and spend their hard-earned money to own (they’re more for promotion purposes), but I’ll do my best to try to judge this one fairly anyway. The way I look at it, these demo reviews are a preemptive strike on the developing metal bands out there; oh no, we don’t wait for you to make an album, we tell the world right now if you suck or not! Global Domination shows no mercy and take no prisoners!!! Anyway, on to “Last exit”.

Clamath’s a Finnish group that’s been together for the past 7 years, but only have 1 demo (besides this one) and 1 EP to their name so far, and there’s something in particular on “Last exit to damnation” that I know would be a problem on any future full-length; those hoarse, hardcore-ish vocals, which sort of remind of Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta (and I fucken hate Jasta’s singing). Ville isn’t quite as annoying as that, but is still pretty grating in his own right, and his performance really brought this down for me. But besides the vocals, Clamath ain’t too bad; they have an uptempo kind of groove metal thing going on, the closest comparison I can think of is a thrashier version of Lamb Of God (whom I don’t enjoy, but Clamath is still a bit better than they are).

And besides the decreased sound quality inherent to most demos, every other performer besides the singer sounds fine; the drumming is well-performed, and always provides good backup rhythms, and the rhythm guitar tone and riffing isn’t bad either (the same goes for the overall songwriting, though it’s nothing great). I might have enjoyed this somewhat if it didn’t have the incredibly lousy vocalwork, but alas, it does. It’s like every other member of the band was having a nice time at a party, playing some decent stuff over the stereo, then that lame singer nobody likes waltz in the door (already a bit tipsy, of course), pops some AvX7 (Avenged Sevenfold, for the unc00l among us) into the CD player, and spends the rest of the night getting drunker and drunker, while he spews his beer breath in everybody’s face, hovering over them and letting the dumb inanity stumble forth from his mouth without cease. Change yer vocals and work on that songwriting a bit, Clamath, and I might be interested in an album.

That’s the basic gist of my experience with “Last exit to damnation”, so it’s a…

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Website: Clamath MySpace
- Band
- Ville Niskakoski: vocals
- Olli Sundholm: bass
- Mikko Syväterä: guitar
- Panu Koskinen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. State Of Total Awareness
- 02. The Blackest Nightmare
- 03. Ground Breaks
- 04. Last Exit To Damnation