I wasn’t their most dedicated follower but I liked WITHERING SURFACE, they weren’t drastically different than your usual Swedish styled Death Metal band at the time but at least they moved forward with each album experimenting with various approaches to the style with varied end results. After disbanding in 2004, guitarist Allan Tvedebrink and four stringer K.B. Larsen immediately formed a new outlet for their musical inspirations.

THE DOWNWARD CANDIDATE while still being very aggressive music has barely anything in common with the style practiced in WITHERING SURFACE. This self produced demo clocks in at just less than fifteen minutes and contains four tracks of dynamite Hardcore complemented with minimal melodic breaks and drums firmly rooted in Thrash Metal recorded with none other than Berno Paulsson (AMON AMARTH, THE HAUNTED) at his studio in Malmö (same studio where W.S. recorded “Walking On Phantom Ice”).

I honestly did not see this coming, I mean Hardcore isn’t exactly a compatible style with me, but when finished with my initial rounds with “Disgust & Confuse” I was already hooked on the recognisable catchy signature of Mr. Tvedebrink. I’m not qualified to make associations here but I can definitely feel the energy, these four Danes bring that live feeling to the table, the guitars are dirty and dusty but infectious and pretty darn heavy, vocals attacking bordering insane Anselmo screaming and the rhythm section is about as tight as the flesh gateway of a female virgin, basically well done all the way if not utterly exciting or revolutionary.

Other than the title track (just a little too sterile for my tastes), I’m actually sitting here at my table and enjoying this slab of sledgehammer Thrashcore, “Lower Than Your Tired Eyes” and the drum dominant “World At My Feet” will most likely become virulent disease carriers among fans of Thrash Metal and fuelled Hardcore. They sound like the real deal and they are, for a band of this genre this band is exceptionally heavy and very, very pissed off… and you thought you had a bad day.

For unpolished aggression, fatal vocalisations and grooves with more attitude than the middle-finger message itself, look towards THE DOWNWARD CANDIDATE and they’ll give you precisely that. (Online April 27, 2006)