Judecca - Beyond, What the Eyes Can't See... (1996)

Not surprising that Judecca led a brief career, then their losses, as their earlier EP releases Scenes of an Obscure Death and Awakened by the Stench of the Dead played the law of averages rather closely. Then again, there was a particular, ominous atmosphere the band had been able to create through both their guttural decrepitude and lo fidelity sound standards. A particular charm, against all odds, that was not offensive to the brutal simpleton seeking a morbid mashing of his/her brains. Beyond, What the Eyes Can't See... is thus a fitting swansong which, while not elevating their status noticeably, channels these ironic strengths to a new height of ghastly gore.

The album consists of two tracks from the Awakened... EP (1993), including a longer version of "The Black Blood of Christ" and then seven that had not been released, and it too received a limited release through the now defunct Wild Rags label. You can expect lots of simplistic, grooving hooks slathered in the ominous, blunt vocals, interspersed with creepy and perverse samples. Despite the mere 25 minutes of its existence, through, it is by far their most substantial release, not exactly over in the blink of an eye and long enough to let the listener subdue himself to the primitive bludgeoning. A few tracks like "As We Fuck" and "Trauma Induced Coma" pick up the pace to some solid double-bass driven brutality, but the majority slog along with a lumbering, chugging gait that feels not unlike the early years of Amon (aka Deicide). Solid examples of this would be "May You Find Peace" or "The Undead". I do quite like the samples the band has included, especially for "The Stench of An Undouched Cunt" but I can't say that the composition itself lives up to the smutty introduction.

The extended version of "The Black Blood..." retains its doomed pace, and its arguably the most atmospheric and memorable track on the entire album, but even this still feels average when you've got such a wealth of better alternatives available in 1996. Judecca is definitely the sort of band that the obscure death enthusiast would stroke himself (or herself) to, but the sad fact is that they offer absolutely nothing new, and outside of the dense miasma of atmosphere created by the vocals and recording, and the promise of the samples, there is just not much to this. It's a better expenditure of time than either of the EPs, but that's primarily due to its longer length. It's better to reign in the underground than serve in the mainstream, but such royalty would evade this Florida cult throughout their limited duration.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

Judecca - Awakened by the Stench of the Dead EP (1993)

1993 must have been a busy year for Judecca, because not only did they have their previous demo content released with the Scenes of an Obscure Death EP, but also this shorter work featuring three new songs. The difference in the production here is huge, with the Florida cult coming in closer to their more mainstream peers. There's not a large shift in the dark, brooding guitar tone, but the drums are loud, present, and vastly more powerful than the tin and wan weakness of the demos. Some of the charm of their crude atmosphere may actually be lost here, but through the 10 minutes, Judecca craft a reasonably varied array that straddles both the death and doom genres.

Strangely, Awakened by the Stench of the Dead opens with its most brutal, chugging and brief piece in "Forensic Pathology". Just under two minutes of brute force in the vein of Deicide, Bolt Thrower and Suffocation, with a bit of squealing and rampant, mid-paced double bass. The vocals are rather resonant here, about the hugest aspect of their sound, and it's fun enough to listen though it might feel derivative and soulless due to its lack of a compelling central riff. "The Black Blood of Christ" is over twice the length, with some samples of wind and banal acoustic guitars heralding the chugging death/doom sequences. Once more, the huge vocals are pretty good, as well as the spooky narrative part in the bridge; but despite casting an efficient gloom, the composition is not that thrilling. "Evil Born" falls between the other two, a bouncing, simplistic rhythm bursting on after the baby sample, then picking up to a straight, brutal thrash riff with double bass.

Clearly this was a Judecca more equipped to compete with their peers in the underground, yet the band still lacked a lot of the character of the more famous acts like Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and so forth. Thus it's not much of a surprise that they remained in the grasp of obscurity with no real hope of escape. That said, this isn't all bad, and those who lack demanding tastes and simply want an imminently dark, slow face crushing are not turned away by the admittedly slim content of this.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Judecca - Scenes of an Obscure Death EP (1993)

Judecca was one of a number of underground acts picked up through the independent label Wild Rags for wider distribution, and in 1993 they issued a pair of EPs rooted purely within the ghastly concepts of old school death metal. They formed relatively late in the Florida sweepstakes, years after the larger locals, but nonetheless there was something of value here: a credibly effective alternative to the earliest albums of Death, Xecutioner aka Obituary, Autopsy and other US pioneers like Incantation. Scenes of an Obscure Death is an incredibly crude recording, as it was essentially a demo cassette repressed as a CD (with the band's 1992 demo Eternal Rest tacked on as a bonus), but it's still as charming as the corpses strung upon its cover...

Most of the gripes here would naturally revolve around the production aesthetics. The drums are incredibly simplistic and tinny sounding, and they leech potential power from the songs. The guitar tone sounds little more than a cheap amp plugged in with little finish, and the bass plunks along at an often unrecognizable level beneath. These are demos, after all. Yet the songwriting is not at all bad, and beneath the blunt grunted vocals they will often deliver a moment of brutal, subterranean bliss, like the guttural intro to "The Realm" and its doom/death swagger; or the smutty intro and Halloween-like melodies that inaugurates "Unspeakable Acts" with a primal, blustering cheese. A few of the tunes are sheer, grunting neanderthal power: "Left to Die" and the mind sawing "Necrosis", but they're not exactly bristling with riff quality, and even the titles seem to reflect better known peers (Autopsy, Death, etc.).

The three tunes taken from the Eternal Rest demo are even more burgeoning, bullying and noisy, but they still retain a margin of ghoulish charisma for those with no expectations beyond the foul pungency of the upturned grave. Leads, where they are displayed, generally consist of little more than confusion, a few notes being wrung out across the churning fleshscape. Most of the flaws in the drumming are incurred by their reduced volume, but it's unlikely those who fancy the sick bombast behind Morbid Angel or Deicide would appreciated their lewd facade here, and this is possibly one of the reasons the band never broke out of the sub-cellars of the genre's waking years. Scenes of an Obscure Death is all too apt a title for this release, and its permanent underground status is justified by the often lackluster content, but I'd be lying to say that Judecca don't have a few passages here that are fun enough to ignore the mediocrity of the writing...but only if you're in the mood.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]