Raster Density is not a too good name for a band, especially not for a Death Metal band, but these young fellows have worked under the name since '08 nonetheless. The band released it's debut demo in '09, and it's follow-up "Infecting Purification" in the early spring of 2010. One of the band's trademarks is the cuddly animal-costumes they wear in their promo-pictures and on their gigs in order to stand out from the usual stereotype Death Metal -fellows, so prepare for some visual confusion as you check out the release's inlay.
The music is both brutal and technical, but not too much of either to damage the other, and there's some slightly progressive midparts (in song two there's a slightly jazz-reminiscent one) that really bring out the songs' darker values. The songs vary from simplistic and aggressive blastbeat-moments to some darker atmosphere, and from heavy shredding to more technical, cleaner and even slightly twisted riffing - and a lot of this can happen within a relatively short time, so it takes quite some time to get a some kind of an image of the songs. All this is topped by two similar but different harshly growling vocalists, and even their young ages can be heard in their voices they manage to sound very convincing. Two vocalists could be employed more efficiently though, for example to give the songs a good dose of chaos every now and then.
The band has changed quite a bit since their previous demo. The musical basis of the debut demo is the same as on this one, but the songs were less ambitious and even a bit shy of their potential, leaving out a promising but held-back image and a lack of self-consciousness. On this demo the band has managed to express their ambition to a much higher potential, and they have dared to add a lot more variation and bold choices to the songs. They seem a lot more sure of their expression.
Visually the demo is really dull. I guess the cover is meant to look like a destroyed forest-landscape, but it's unprofessional execution and dull colouring make it really easy to pass and forget. The inlay looks equally demo-like and evokes no images or feelings (if one doesn't want to focus on the band's costumes only) aside of boredom. I think the band could develop a whole visual side for them from their costumes, but any visual improvement from this demo would be gladly accepted. The lyrics are some death-related and anguished thought processes and are fairly decent, but they have a good amount of room for improvement.
The band has pretty much found their own style and balance between the brutal, technical and progressive aspects of Death Metal. The band has just too much variation and different elements in their music for it to really shine, especially on a release this short. Packing so much stuff in the songs also gives a little messy and still somewhat self-searching image of the band, and the darker and more atmospheric parts aren't imbued naturally enough to the songs and they end up flattening the aggression a bit. I'm guessing that they really wanted to surprise the listener with their variation, but they went just slightly off with it. They're heading to the right direction and clearly have enough vision, ambition and talent to go far. Maybe they'll nail their style on their next release? I wouldn't be too amazed if they did. Fans of bands such as The Faceless could do well to check this one out.