ERUCTATION Is The Best Classic Gothenburg Death Metal Band You Never Heard Of

Are you a giant death metal nerd? Then you need to hear this very obscure demo from a great death metal band that never really got the recognition that they deserve… and then check out my full series on exactly this topic right here.

Eructation was a short-lived death metal band from Gothenburg, though they never quite fit into the Gothenburg metal mold. Their Demo #1, released in 1992, could easily be mistaken for a professionally produced EP. The sound quality is frankly outrageous for a demo tape, thanks in large part to the mix by Sonny Wadstedt — a name that surprisingly doesn't appear much elsewhere in metal production history.

What makes Demo #1 so compelling is how confidently it refuses to conform to what was going on in Sweden at the time. This is during the golden age of buzzsaw death metal and the emerging Gothenburg melodic death metal scene, and they didn't lean into either. There's no Boss HM-2 chainsaw tone or syrupy twin leads here.

Instead, what you get is something far more progressive, rhythmically dense, and pretty bass-forward for death metal at the time. Sonically, Eructation lands somewhere between the angular intensity of Atheist or early Pestilence and the oppressive weight of early Morbid Angel.

It's technical without being flashy, atmospheric without really using any keyboards at all, and aggressive without feeling forced. In a scene that was already fragmenting into well-defined substyles, Eructation carved out their own strange little space and then disappeared.

Eructation never reunited, and its members just kind of faded into obscurity — leaving behind a single demo and little else, or so everybody thought.

In 2016, Spanish label Memento Mori unearthed more from the band's short-lived existence with the compilation The Fumes of Putrefaction. It included the original demo, five never-before-heard tracks from late 1993 that were originally intended for a 1994 EP, and two additional songs from the band's final 1995 recording sessions.

The 1993 tracks offer improved clarity and performance, though they trade some of the demo's thick, crushing atmosphere for a slightly thinner production. Still, these tracks continued to prove that Eructation were never trying to fit the mold of Swedish death metal. They remained a strange outlier in the scene.

The final two songs recorded in 1995 round out the compilation and mark the last known recordings from Eructation. "Sadistic Mind" sees vocalist Mattias shifting slightly away from his earlier David Vincent-style growl and bringing a more distinct, personal edge to the performance with some varied vocals that weren't really present earlier in the band's material.

The drum production on both this track and "Invincible Dream" is very crisp and sharp — easily the best-sounding drum mix across the compilation. Unfortunately, the bass is a little harder to make out, only occasionally surfacing in "Sadistic Mind." Still, these two tracks could have easily stood on their own as a solid two-song EP or 7-inch. They're focused, aggressive, and a fitting close to the band's short but very unique journey.

The Fumes of Putrefaction is actually available on streaming services, and you can hunt down a physical copy of it relatively cheap.