Pandemic - "Deaf Nite" (Defense Records, 2018)

Band: Pandemic
Title: Deaf Nite
Genre: Thrash Metal
Time: 18.19 min
Release Date: 15th September 2018
Rating: 73/100













There are cool stories that don't last long. A story of this kind is about Sebastian "Sharp" Wikar, a thrash metal maniac that in 2015 realized his dream to form, indeed, a thrash metal band. That band was named Pandemic and their first show was held in their native Krakow (Poland) in the early Spring of 2016. After two years, Sharp started to work on the first Pandemic's demo but, unfortunately, he would never saw the final result of his efforts. This because he prematurely died at the age of 22 years on 9th March 2018 due to an unexpected blood clot. At least, Sharp lives in "Deaf Nite", a demo that, released by Defense Records and sent me some months ago by Mythrone Promotion, was completely composed by himself also about the lyrical contents.

Now, there is need to say that "Deaf Nite" is a special demo. In fact, it is the first one by Pandemic but each of its 4 songs were recorded with different line-ups with the only stable presences of the guitarplayers Marcin Konieczny and Wiktor "Nocturnitier" Łobarzewski. Both effectively belongs to the current formation of Pandemic, along with the singer/bassplayer Gniewno "Mara" Jelski while their new drummer is Count Seth (who is only 16 years old!), that, anyway, didn't take part of the demo recordings. Instead, the guests are the drummers Kamil Kajta and Filip Worek, the bassist Bartek Bochniak and the singer Piotr "Satan" Drobina, that are almost all involved in other thrash metal acts such as Better Than Worse (Kajta and Bochniak) and Species (Satan). Finally, a direct contribution of Sharp, with his guitar, is present only in the titletrack.

But despite all these different line-ups, the demo sounds in a homogeneous way. This because it shows a US old-school thrash metal basically characterized by heavy doses of aggressiveness and speed but mixing all this with lenghty and very nice guitar solos full of engaging melodies, as you'll see soon.

A thing I strongly appreciate about "Deaf Nite" is that it contains a good variety, very useful to keep high the attention of the listeners. Doing a track by track, the demo opens with the self-celebrative "Pandemic", that see the classic thrash metal inferno à la Exodus of the band with the addition of a somehow proggy and participative bass (whose work is already listenable in the long intro of this song) and the aggressive vocals of Satan. Then, there is the titletrack, that's see a poignant, acoustic end but also, more importantly, a truly fukken outstanding guitar solo giving a dramatic mood to the song even thanks to some neoclassical touches, while Satan (what a modest moniker, he?) uses here a more melodic voice with so fatalistic tunes to be fit also for a doom metal act, and I think that this different vocal intonation is really perfect considering that the lyrics talks about a witch at the stake, so to justify the (very '80s!) cover artwork of the demo. The third song is "Total Battery", whose title is already a whole program since it shows a thrash 'till death assault with lyrics about unstoppable banging heads and killing the posers, and all this is greatly reinforced by the vocals of Mara, that has a bestial and uncontrolled vocal approach which I largely prefer if compared to the one of the more melodic Satan. Finally, it's the turn of "Warpath", a 6-minute brilliant tour de force almost fast and fast in its entirety but with a memorable power ballad section in the middle where there is another beautiful guitar solo, that abruptly shifts in terms of speed and mood during a violent tempo change.

At this point, I believe that "Deaf Nite" is absolutely a good way to remember Sebastian "Sharp" Wikar, especially thanks to songs like the same "Deaf Nite" and "Warpath", that features even some raucous vocals à la Lemmy by Mara. Now I hope that Pandemic will continue their story not only by playing intense live gigs (speaking about them, they will support the mighty Terrordome on 21st September 2019) but also by recording something else after "Deaf Nite". However, there is need to say that we must still verify the songwriting skills of Pandemic since the main composer, unfortunately, isn't among us anymore, but I think that their strong juvenile energy (in fact, they have an average age of 20 years old) will help them a lot. So, let's stop this endless review and support Pandemic that they kick very well your fuckin' old and flaccid asses!

Tracklist:

1 - Pandemic
2 - Deaf Nite
3 - Total Battery
4 - Warpath

Line-up:

Gniewko "Mara" Jelski - vocals (tracks 3 and 4)/bass (tracks 1 & 4)
Sebastian Sharp Wikar - guitars (track 2)
Wiktor "Nocturnitier" Łobarzewski - guitars
Marcin Konieczny - guitars

Guests:

Piotr "Satan" Drobina - vocals (tracks 1 and 2)
Bartek Bochniak - bass (tracks 2 and 3)
Kamil Kajta - drums (tracks 1 and 2)
Filip Worek - drums (tracks 3 and 4)

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pandemic.vol2/
Defense Records: https://www.facebook.com/defensemerch