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Festerday is a Finnish band that plays a safe Slowly We Rot/Altars of Madness brand of Death Metal. The vocals are decent and avoid the burping/vomiting end of the spectrum and there are some cool Slayer-esque riffs that can be found on ...The Four Stages of Decomposition... a double CD/triple vinyl compilation of what has to be everything band ever recorded. Metal-Archives lists only three demos (creatively titled Demo I, Demo II and Demo III) along with a split release that only features the two tracks from Demo II. ...The Four Stages of Decomposition... however contains 29 tracks of re-recorded and apparently re-written stuff comprising the first CD and original demo/rehearsal material on the second. As I said, this stuff is safe though I do like the funk bass that opens "In Gorgeous Autumn Colors", if only because it is different, as well as the band's tendency to slow things down a bit rather than go full throttle all the time (e.g. "Wonderful Worms"). Unfortunately, after the good sound of the first 17 tracks, Festerday gives us 12 tracks of warty, grimy rehearsal room recordings that, granted are not meant to be more than they are, but sound like shit nonetheless. If this were a more well-known band I could understand including early stuff for historical value but this is a band with exactly no major releases prior to this one so what's the point? I don't know but sitting through almost two hours of generic Death Metal, the last 45 minutes of which is nearly unlistenable, wasn't exactly fun.

If you value quantity over quality than by all means pick up ...The Four Stages of Decomposition... as the sheer volume of music it contains is massive. Fans of early first wave U.S. Death Metal from Obituary, Morbid Angel and that lot may also get some enjoyment out of Festerday's hero worship but it won't be anything they haven't already heard.