Demos are meant to be low sound quality and show the artist just burgeoning with creativity laying down thought sketches vs fully dressed up songs. Delivering a demo in depressive suicidal black metal style takes lo-fi sound to the extreme, since the genre itself is built on sound quality being purposefully diminished. Her Name in a Cemetery, a one man band out of Seattle (what else can you expect in this genre) , capital of misery and suicide, is no exception and almost revels in its lo-fi bedroom production, although I would think the Demo MMXX would have definitely benefited from better sound clarity. Thus, forced to separate the demo aspect from intentional fuzz, I needed to dissociate myself completely from sound analysis to tease out emotions in this demo, of which there are plenty.

There is something booming in the area of bass drum frequencies and a moving wall opening Photographs Of Myself And The Phantom. The narrative changes, however, and the rhythmic template shifts before the grieving riff takes over around 4’. Guitars float up from this muck and if those were just a touch less distorted and more defined Her Name in a Cemetery would have been even more impactful. The composition continues to pile grief on in droves and the vocals are expected horrid depraved screams. The fans of Xasthur and Swedish Silencer would not wish for anything different Photographs Of Myself And The Phantom presents.

Just like Photographs Of Myself And The Phantom If I Might See You Again Someday is lengthy, but Her Name in a Cemetery has a knack for songwriting which keeps you tuned in seeking morsels out of this phantasmagory and conglomeration. The steady wall of funeral chords with percussion underneath switch to more uptempo moments, also around the 4’ mark, before reverting back to a slower plod. Vocals just can’t stop layering on in If I Might See You Again Someday, yet since you don’t understand a word the singer is saying, this is still just a beast locked up in its cage hollering along.

Closing pensive acoustic Owl Singing on Suicide Nights, meandering and in the rain, actually proves that Her Name in a Cemetery can be clean sounding and it detracts nothing from the message. Placing Photographs of Myself and the Phantom and If I Might See You Again Someday into an impenetrable bubble was then clearly a matter of choice. I empathize with the solemn nature and disposition of the demo and can understand the message, but still feel that dropping the modicum of clean would turn to this demo's advantage.