Review by Greg on September 26, 2024.

After less than a year from the release of their first demo The Shrouds of Falstaff, Finnish weirdos Tetragon seemed to be already keen on leaving that one-off death/thrash episode behind them, and focusing on something more demanding. The outcome was another demo, Vermilion.

Again, the tape is introduced by a fairly unsettling, ominous intro, this time performed by a piano. The bloodcurdling shrieks that kickstart 'Brothers in Blood', however, reveal truly different stuff. The drums stand as the most evident improvement, benefitting from a greater restrain and control, even if still a little sloppy from time to time – and the angular riffing starts to detach from the more conventional old-school thrash, in favor of more off-kilter stuff. The biggest change, however, has to concern Petri's vocals, which have likewise largely abandoned their former venomous timbre and now seem to pursue something along the lines of Heathen, but instead ending up like a poor man's Kyle Thomas from Exhorder if he were honestly pretty bad at singing. Really, this change hasn't been for the better, and even the more conventional 'Tetragonal Dreams', representing more or less Tetragon's last traces of thrash metal (at least for a while...), isn't helped by his delivery.

The obvious eye-catcher has to be the closer and title track, which almost reaches 10 minutes, being a precursor of their later material. It isn't terribly different from its peers until about 4:40, but then the sung acoustic break erupting into more furious stuff is definitely original sounding, even if the voice is again the Achilles' heel of the whole thing. Not that the subpar production, even for a demo, helps the band's ambitions, as it feels more suitable to a Mutilator (or akin raw Brazilian band) old tape. Vermilion won't be the last weird Tetragon release, but I can't help but feel it represents little more than a missing link between two very distinct phases.

As with any material by this band, though, it may be worth a spin out of curiosity, at the very least.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10