Curse of the Undead is a four track demo offering from German death metallers Mandatory. The material on this effort was created as a duo with Sascha handling the bass and guitar duties, while Stinne handles the drums and vocals. The music they create can easily be classified as old school death metal in the vein of Obituary, Entombed, Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Grave and the like.

The music is well written and well played and definitely displays these guys’ love for the early ’90s death metal sound. The riffing is really solid and catchy, the drumming is handled really well and the raspy vocals reek of old school. This recording suffers from the standard problems associated with demo releases in that the production isn’t very good so a lot of instruments don’t sound very clear, but despite this flaw it’s obvious that these guys are onto something potentially great with the quality material they’ve recorded for this release.

Since this demo was released Mandatory has added a bassist and rhythm guitarist, leaving Sascha to handle the lead guitar duties, but Stinne still handles double duties which is fine by me considering he did a good job on Curse of the Undead. While the demo itself was limited to 100 copies, it is currently available as part of a three-way split with Deathevokation and Poland’s Kingdom on none other than Obliteration Records! Yes, the same Obliteration Records that has released efforts by Butcher ABC, Dead, Dead Infection, Cock And Ball Torture, Disgorge (Mex) and many other quality acts. Mandatory are definitely a band worth checking out if you’re a fan of old school death metal the way it’s meant to be played!

Written By: Teufel