3 out of 5

Label: Self-released

Producer: Jamie L. Uertz

Yeah, I had to go through this a handful of times to be okay with it.  It’s an incredibly wandering slab of instrumental rock, and only really hits hard on a couple tracks – since this was a demo, maybe sort of? – but once your ear adjusts to the pace, ‘Out For Blood’ is a nice sketch of early Hematovore, with surprising inclusion of tracks used later – like Autopsy Turvy – giving insight into where/how the band grew.

So Hemat is a band with two legit albums and then like ninety demo albums.  Not really, more like 2 or 3, but the group definitely went through the paces of a release cycle before getting something official out there.  ‘Out for Blood’ is maybe the earliest of these demos, and this is apparent not only in the more simplistic (overall) song structures, but also in that it sounds like a demo.  A couple tracks just end, there are long pauses between songs, and the early obsession with having tracks broken into sections (Based on the liner notes, track 8 has 2 sections and 4 sub-sections, for example) is one of those ideas that sounds novel when you’re getting going but once your song-writing chops catch up, it’s fairly unnecessary.  ‘Untitled’ has songs that branch and diverge in their own ways without being broken up as such.  If anything, it just creates a barrier to establishing a flow, as some of the songs will completely shift gears for no apparent reason other than… uh… cue the next section.

The recording, while it works, is also the least forceful of all their albums.  It’s just sorta unmixed feeling, and doesn’t properly capture the range of pummeling of which the group was capable, even at this early point.  But some of that is also down to the compositions.  The double kick-drum madness isn’t as prevalent, and the stop-start dynamics aren’t used as often as the chugga-chugga stuff they would revert to for ‘Nokturnal Grave Decorator,’ which makes it fitting that ‘Autopsy’ appears here in almost the same form as it does on that album.

But is there awesome stuff on here?  Absolutely.  Opener ‘Gnat Attack’ is excellent thrash, and ‘The Plan Is…’ is absolutely evidence of some of the intense twisty-turny rockin’ out that the group would deliver in full on ‘Untitled.’  The final track, ‘Who’s Afraid of Terry Allen?’ is also a blast, but a blast quite unlike anything else from the band, a weird sorta’ jazzy mix that reminds me of The Feud.  The goods are spread out, and I think this is more fruitful for fans of the band (otherwise it tends to sound just like average metal instrumental stuff), but ‘Out for Blood’ is still something I feel lucky to have in my possession; enough dashes of awesome to make it worth a listen and not just a collector’s item.