Best Demo

Just listing the ones I think most of us have heard at one point or another.  I know sound quality has something to do with it for most of us that have listened to 10th gen boots.  But try and vote on musical merit.

This thread might be just personal to me - but I tapetraded like mad back in the 80's. Here is one band that I still love to this day from hearing their demo:

Motley Crue - Leathur Demo

Saviour Machine
Mortification - Break the Curse

"Watchtower - Demonstrations in Chaos" wasn't a demo, but a collection of demos and live tracks.

My first Dark Angel demo tape has "Gonna Burn" written on the tape cover. I also have one called "Hell On It's Knees".

I also have the "Into The Inferno" demo by Shellshock

I have a three song Exodus demo from 82 and the two song "Die By His Hand" demo from 83

My early Slayer stuff is just live from before the first album.

It's funny, my brother was way into the tape trading scene back in the day but he was mostly a death metal guy, which was never my "thang," so I never really took part in it... therefore I never heard many of the so-called "legendary" thrash demos till years later when they got bootlegged onto CDs or added to legit reissues/etc. as bonus tracks, haha.

That said...my vote is a write-in for Overkill's "Power in Black."

Yeah, "Power in Black" is a really fun one.

Temple of Blood wrote:

"Watchtower - Demonstrations in Chaos" wasn't a demo, but a collection of demos and live tracks.

Yeah - some of these probably have original titles that I don't know about. Half are from memory and the other half from my itunes.

I should have included that Overkill, for sure.

I've not heard them all.

But I am intrigured by a Voivod demo, because they are such a weird band to begin with.

I was a big tape trader back in the day but I was too young to hear demos by most of the bands listed at the time and only got into underground metal by those band's debut albums, so by the time I heard say No Life I already had Metallica's first two albums.

But some bands that came along later I heard the demos first and they blew me away were









I also had a rehearsal tape of Onslaught doing some of the In Search Of Sanity songs with Sy Keeler that was great!

Flotsam & Jetsam - Metal Shock demo

From that list I'd pick the Crue.

Some of my other favorite demos:

Visigoth - Vengeance Demo 2010:



Blitkrieg 1980 Demo:



Van Halen - 1977 Warner Brothers Demo:



Prodigy - As Darkness Reigns Demo (This is the Prodigy from Jacksonville, Florida that changed their name to Oracle)

Motley Crue - Leathur Demo

From those listed,Seventh Angel.

voted Crue but some have listed some great ones like VH and Overkill.