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CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER- Life in Grave Demo Tape (USA, 1985)

This is still one of my favourite demos! CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER to me came out of the blue with this tape. 1985 was a good year for music – bands like SLAUGHTER, NYC MAYHEM, VOOR, WEHRMACHT, HIRAX, DEATH, REPULSION and CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER amazed me and they still blow me a away today! Especially this one here with its youthful urgency, its unpolished power and enthusiasm. And stilistically, this was very refreshing. Could you say whether this is more metal or more hc? Does it matter to you?
The band’s guitarist Les Evans was part of the hyper active international tape trading scene on the 80s. I think I have never ever spoken to a person who did not trade tapes with Les.

I was lucky enough to see CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER live in 1986. It was a great gig and when it was over, the boys pulled me inside their van and played the just recorded advance tape of the first LP “Convicted” – I was so impressed! And I still love the band’s first two albums, for their sloppyness, their honesty and their energy.

Flesh of the Wench.mp3
Necessity supreme.mp3
Life in Grave.mp3
War to the Knife.mp3
Rest in Pain.mp3

17 Comments

  1. SwePete

    Great!! But where is Life in Grave?

    [Reply]

    Posted on 06-Dec-06 at 15:19 | Permalink
  2. Erich

    it’s all there, sweetheart.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 06-Dec-06 at 15:45 | Permalink
  3. SwePete

    Thanks Honeybunch!!

    [Reply]

    Posted on 06-Dec-06 at 15:57 | Permalink
  4. Anonymous

    ouch!!!!!!!
    timmy

    [Reply]

    Posted on 06-Dec-06 at 18:01 | Permalink
  5. stinky82

    aarrgghh…CRYPTIC´s demo. Not bad, but songs are too long and quite monotonal. I prefer first LP much better. And my both cats as well :D Because they love SIEGE and it sounds like that band, but improved.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 01:52 | Permalink
  6. Erich

    You find Cryptic Slaughter an advanced version of Siege???????

    Monotony is punk.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 04:42 | Permalink
  7. Anonymous

    i love it!!!!! went to high school with les. funny guy but kinda weird. is he stilll alive? hasn’t someone of the band recently died?

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 08:54 | Permalink
  8. larm

    Life In Grave is CS’s most metal release, Les’ riffs seriously shred, Necessity Supreme being a prime example.

    1985 was a great year for demos. I thought it was cool how even Death incorporated a hardcore/crossover influence on their rehearsal tapes during their San Francisco period. I guess all those Attitude Adjustment, Excel, Hirax and Cryptic Saughter gigs must have had an impact on them. Plus they did the extreme speed/blast beats thing then with Eric Brecht from D.R.I. on drums. I think Genocide/Repulsion, Slaughter and Cryptic Slaughter have a lot to do with that.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 15:06 | Permalink
  9. Peter - KBDRecords

    This was the kind of stuff that made me yaaawwwwn.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 23:45 | Permalink
  10. Anonymous

    my band, the looters, played with cryptic slaughter at a mason’s lodge in culver city back in ’86. we went on second, right after our singer got arrested trying to sneak a 40 into the hall. the place was crawling with suicidals and fights were breaking out everywhere. we borrowed cs’s amps and managed to get through our set (still got a soundboard of that night around here somewhere), then three or four songs into the next band’s set a full-on riot broke out and the show was shut down. so far as i know, cryptic slaughter never got a chance to play…….

    -jimmy tumors

    [Reply]

    Posted on 07-Dec-06 at 23:53 | Permalink
  11. Anonymous

    Thanks for posting this!

    [Reply]

    Posted on 09-Dec-06 at 22:17 | Permalink
  12. Anonymous

    A great one for sure, the drummer probably had bionic arms, crazy anyway.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 11-Dec-06 at 04:06 | Permalink
  13. Anonymous

    Thanks for posting, bro, I love this..

    [Reply]

    Posted on 11-Dec-06 at 18:43 | Permalink
  14. Erich

    Never ‘eard of the Looters – care to post some of your band’s material?

    [Reply]

    Posted on 15-Dec-06 at 14:41 | Permalink
  15. jimmy tumors

    dunno that most who like cryptic slaughter would dig the looters, though we strangely went over well that show. the singer (my brother) and i were from an earlier thrash/noise band called butt acne, shane was just coming off the tail end of his interest in hardcore and his brother jason was a stoner into led zeppelin. the result was a kinda hybrid of hardcore, older 70s punk and flipper-type dirges. shane and jason later became part of the rip offs and cememnted their place in punk history, my brother and i went back to butt acne and another band, plain agony, the he went off and headed fish head, and i went on to our band sucks, the black jax, ollin and the tumors.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 13-Oct-07 at 12:28 | Permalink
  16. klon

    I’ve loved Cryptic Slaughter ever since I bought a tape of theirs for 50 cents at a flea market.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 18-Jan-08 at 08:56 | Permalink
  17. elliott

    wow. what a fuckin fantastic demo. my friend gave me a coppy of the first lp but i can’t remember what happened to the record other than i don’t have it. stolen probably. this demo sounds more metal than punk but who cares. play it loud and play it proud.

    [Reply]

    Posted on 05-May-10 at 23:17 | Permalink

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