Formed in 1987 in suburb of  St. Louis, Missouri as Doom Lyre, Timeghoul were largely unnoticed  in the early 90s. Heck, I lived in Missouri in the early 90s, and I never heard of them. But here is Dark Descent Records to give you another one of their well done re-issues, but like the label’s Xenomorph re-issue this is a pretty niche re-issue certainly isn’t as mandatory or as needed as other label reissues like Mitochondrion,  Uncanny or Utumno.

That being said, this is still a pretty interesting release. It contains 1992’s Tumultuous Travelings (4 songs) and 1994’s Panaramic Twilight (2 songs) demos amounting to only 6 songs.  It also features brand new tri fold artwork from renowned metal artist Mark Riddick as well as 8 page  CD booklet with all the lyrics. But let’s get down to the music, simply put, Timeghoul‘s influence can be directly linked to Nocturnus and their sci fi based take on 90s US death metal. Though far rougher and looser than Nocturnus, (which is to be expected in 2 demos) and initially lacking the beep-boop-beep synths, you can definitely  still hear it especially later on. Both demos have a muffled, raw sound though it gets a little better on Panaramic Twilight, as does the bands songwriting and playing.The first 4 songs are more direct and early  demo quality European (Finnish mainly) death metal with titles like “Gutspawn” (The first song the band wrote), “The Siege” and “Rain Wound”, though moments of the bands extra dimensional and sci fi leanings are birthing amid the earthy typically 1992 rumbling.

But, to be honest is the last 2 songs from Panaramic Twilight that save this release. Both are longer songs (“Occurrence on Mimas” is over 10 minutes long) and with a fuller sound, and more fleshed out technicality, synths and a full on science fiction theme that was above and beyond much of the b movie blood n guts themes of most other early  90s US death metal. The lyrics and vocals are far better done, with even some tasteful robotic clean vocals (which are initially hinted in “The Siege” but improved on) amid the echo-y bellows. But on “Boiling in  the Hourglass” and the aforementioned “Occurrence on Mimas” you really start to feel that the band were on the cusp of something really different and special. I can’t think of many US death metal bands that were writing  8 and 10 minute Sci fi concept based songs in 1994 and doing it with a technical, but still gritty tone. And while Athiest and Cynic were certainly the standard bearer of this more intellectual technical  ilk, Timeghoul seemed to have just a little gruffer and rougher edge.

It took me a while to figure out why Dark Descent chose this for the re-issue treatment, but the last two tracks seal it and show the label’s knack for unearthing previously ignored or hard to come by gems, and Timeghoul certainly qualifiers as both.

 

[Visit the band's website]

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