Asmodian Coven

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995
1) The Magnificent Magnitude of the Night Body (Parts I, II, III)
2) Chant to a Star

Zippyshare / Yandex

Let us chill out once again, but today's items comes with a twist: a plea for assistance. You might've noticed this name appearing on my want list and still remaining there despite the fact I'm posting the demo right here, right now. You see, me and especially the donor of the tape this '95 demo of überobscure Brazilian project Aeternum Maleficium was dubbed on are very keen on finding someone with, preferably but not absolutely necessarily, an original copy of this or failing that, a better dub than the one we (well, mostly me) were working with. The contributed tape was not terribly worn itself but the dub is of nth generation and leaves its mark. We've no cover or any other illustration to offer either so that would be really appreciated too. A band pic/logo would do also.

To the content: there are only two tracks which I hope to have divided correctly. The first one is way longer of the two which is fitting as it should contain three parts. The second one runs in usual metal song duration. Dark ambient with somewhat otherworldly feeling to it, most of the time just synths floating around in the gentle waves of tape hiss, occasionally obscured by clouds of wear and buffeted by winds of tear. Some voices appear in the first track but they're scarce enough. And percussion, used also very sparingly and effectively. The sound forces my hand to add the dungeon synth tag too, this seems deserving. It's quite simple but pleasant and pretty relaxing, not at all harsh or threatening. The second track especially appeals to me today and makes me wish there was more. Somehow personally I've grown accustomed and even fond off of the challenges and limitations presented by the dub reminiscent of an ancient scroll, stained and nearly crumbling apart whenever you pursue to study the contents. I fear a pristine copy might lack the aura of mystery and otherness this has, but still, get in touch if you have an original tape. Meanwhile this is recommended for fellow scholars with a fondness for imperfect visions.

Twilight (swe) - The Melancholy of Northern Landscapes demo II 1995
1) The Spirit
2) Wings Turn to Ashes
3) My Final Rest
4) A Dream of Winter...Dying
5) The Dragon Legions
6) Outro

4shared / Mega

Time for some Swedish/Finnish melodic slightly blackened death metal, what do you say? Well, it doesn't matter since that's what we're having now, here is another (already old) collaboration between yours truly and brother Grev who dubbed me this second demo of Swedish Twilight, later Unbound and still later Deathbound. The nationality thing is a bit tricky, seeing that it was formed in Sweden by Finns, ok well they did have Swedes in the band too and eventually relocated to Finland after the second name change. Better not stick to that, let's just call this a Swedish-Finnish joint effort. Grev had a traded dub of this so we've no cover art, just another stamp size pathetic excuse of an image from the Metal Archives. A proper one would be nice, though you can see from that the correct title, M.A. and another old rip that was in the nets had that wrong.

Should I bitch about the generic band name or just move into the music? I'll just mention that Twilight always brings to my mind the Greek black metal one by Odes from Absu& cohorts which apparently is still/again active. Ok, ok to the music here finally: five songs and an outro, fair demo sound with decent balance. Most songs are quite fast and melodic in that mid-90's technical way. Nice harsh vocals, closer to screams than growls as is my preference. I haven't heard the other two Twilight demos, nor the later apparently quite different material released under the other names (not much of a death metal fan you know) so can't compare but this is nice enough to make me want to hear at least the other old materials. Nothing really stands out much, but perhaps the slightly shorter songs hit the mark a bit better? Recommended if you're into old Swedish melodeath with very minor touches of svart.

Alviss - Fafnir demo I 1995 or 1996?
1) Eternal Forest
2) Aura
3) Übermensch

RGhost / Sendspace

It's already Sunday again, time passes faster than necessary. Let us chill then with some German dungeon synth contributed by, once again, brother LKS. Thank you! This is the first demo by the rather obscure Alviss of which I know practically nothing about and the covers aren't helping much. Just the band name, demo title, "demo I" and tracklisting. And some "borrowed" Tolkien art for cover and a sunwheel symbol inside. I was supposed to post this already long, long ago but had issues dividing it into tracks.

This is a very short demo, a bit less than eight minutes for the three tracks which also again blend into each other except where they don't; there's an unfortunate cassette-related fail on the second song "Aura" with the sound dropping out for almost two seconds. I included a "fixed" version with simply the blank bit removed but that does not sound right either. Blessed tapes, have I cursed them often enough already? So unless the artist originally managed to botch up all the demos I'd appreciate a rip with unblemished audio.

Music itself is minimalistic, simple and purely instrumental dungeon synth. That probably does not read as a very exciting description but once I got over the track division issues and the audiofail on "Aura" I've found myself enjoying this probably more than I should. Why not try it if you like minimalist one-man forest ambient?

Dethroned - In the Sign of the Pentagram demo V 1997
1) Hoffnunslosigkeit
2) Resnu Retav
3) Ereschkigal
4) In the Sign of Pentagram
5) Hymn to My Horned Leades
6) Die Schlacht in Hredvard
7) The Final War

Mediafire / Zippyshare

I wanted to do another German item, this time black metal and it is an old sending courtesy of brother Baldemar which I meddled a little with, thank you for the original rip and scan! I know this fifth tape, fourth demo (one was a promo tape) of Dethroned is kind of unnecessary as it was included complete on the compilation CD of the same name released by Dominance of Darkness back in 2008, but I just happen to like it a lot and this is a good opportunity to request the other, older tapes which were not featured on that disc. I still strongly encourage you to support DoD and pick up the compilation, either physical or from Bandcamp.

So if you have any of the '95 - '96 tapes let me know, here they are for your reference:
'95: "Finsternis"
'96: "Corpus Dei", "Dungeons of Darkness" and Promotape '96
'98: "Christentod" could just as well request this one too.

Ok, back to the contents. Seven songs but they're all very compact, ranging from less than two minutes to just over three and half. All are very catchy and melodic sort of black metal with plenty of straight up heavy metal riffs included which this time around is pretty awesome since they just seem to blend there so naturally instead of all the bad retro amalgam crap. Take a listen to the start of the (almost) title track, it's practically NWOBHM! Some of you might be interested knowing the band included Corneus of Grausamkeit and ton of side projects infame in its line up. That's enough, I like this a lot and recommend it if you like raw(-ish) black metal with underground production and can stomach melodic, heavy metal parts. Must have more.

Exstinctio Sensus fanzine, issue 2 (1996)
Interviews:
Solistitium Records
Ildfrost
Nattvindens Gråt
Penitent
Einherjum magazine
Funerary Call
Wintergods
Windir
Inherit
Perunwit
Fimbul
Melek Taus
Dimmu Borgir
Kampfar
Gehenna
Dead Christ Commune
Covenant
Helheim
Near Dark mag & prod.
Hefeystos
December's Fire
Empyrium
Skogen magazine
Forgotten Woods
Articles/Bios/Featurettes:
Silence
Blazing Eternity
The Lord
Dagor
Theatres des Vampires
Apolokia
Prophecy
Beseech
Vladimir
+ lyric/poem "Lethalspell" and a page of reviews, English translations for Nattvindens Gråt lyrics

Mega

I'm going to travel to Nummirock for usual midsummer hijinks already tomorrow morning so I thought I'd leave you with some reading. Remember Exstinctio Sensus issue 1? Well, here is the second issue! Thanks to our comrade Kurgan for contributing this to me, much appreciated. Scan quality can be blamed again on me.

The second issue features a bigger number of interviews as seen above, despite being a solo effort this time, except for some art contributions. I must say with regret that the 'zine follows the typical patters of the time; where the first issue was clearly a black metal fanzine made with certain enthusiasm and drive the second one goes on to expand onto non-metal music (not a bad thing itself, good to see someone other than Mortiis represented) and the editor is all jaded and fed up with the commercial and trendy scene. It's amusing how the editor explains his idea to include non-band interviews (which I think is a bad idea as most are not at all interesting) to do "a more interesting range" and "not counting typical inties with Metalion, Osmose..." and then he has Solistitium which appeared in every other 'zine at the time (nothing against Carsten but enough is enough), possibly more than Herve & Osmose did, and Odinn of Einherjum. I'm rolling my eyes so hard it takes effort to remain seated. And he also goes on about commercialism, popularization of black metal and money-hungry bands (avoiding name dropping though) and then has both Dimmu Borgir and Covenant, how ironic is that?

Despite all my kvetching this is still well above average 'zine, nice and clear (non-computer) layout, actually interesting bands featured among the usual publicity hunters (for example Wintergods and Funerary Call make a "proper" appearance here after being featured with articles in the previous issue). Of the non-band interviews D.C.C. and Sascha of Skogen are most interesting. The band articles are a bit on the short side but at least not just copied bios. Wintergods interview made me want to hear the three tracks that were supposed to be on the EP, apparently they sent it out as advance tape/promo. But enough from me, I must resume packing.

Resistencia 88 - A Nova Ordem demo 1997
1) Hino Ao Führer (Intro)
2) Ziklon-B
3) Orgasm of War
4) Império Facista
5) Junto a Longa Glória (Outro)

Depositfiles / Zippyshare

Once again I've overcome the madness of midsummer celebrations and it is time to resume posting. In the spirit of summer heat I decided to continue the southern contributions with another one by comrade unholydeath. Thanks as always! This one is a bit different from the previous, though the language remains same, for here we have Resistencia 88 heiling from Brazil with their only demo from 1997. They, or more accurately he (yes, another solo project), changed name to Command and released more demos and an album between '99 and '04. Our man Herr Wolf is probably best known from Evil but also plays in Ritualmurder and Hammergoat which I'm personally not familiar with.

Ok, no doubts about the ideological direction on this one as a single look at the cover art tells and the intro, a typical march sample, verifies it. The three proper tracks that follow are all raw and quite short, especially as "Orgasm of War" devotes almost a third of its running time to, you probably guessed it, a Hitler sample. Pretty sure it's him. "Império Facista" has another sample, though that's not Adolf this time I think? Anyways, that leaves the song proper at same two minutes time as the previous one. Outro is a short hymnic sample. I like the sound, it's raw and cavernous, but not at all a mess. The second track "Ziklon-B" is easily best of the bunch, having most meat around the bones and no sample attached, followed by "Império..." which is enjoyably frantic and aggressive. I don't seem to remember if I've heard any Command material or not but better fix that, this is quite good! Recommended for people into raw (ns) black metal, provided you can stand the ol' samples. I know I could do without them.

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal 1989
1) Holyness Lamentation
2) Feast of the Grand Whore
3) Fortress of Cremation
4) De Vermis Mysteriis
5) Outro

Yandex / Sendspace

The voices tell me to continue the Southern Summer Heat Special and we move back to the end of 80's with this sending of master Fenrirsson. Certainly closer in sound and spirit to FNI than R88, this is the rehearal promo for studio demo by Rotting Christ, sent around by master Sakis in the summer of '89. In the end that demo was scrapped/re-envisioned and the result was "Satanas Tedeum" released in the fall same year. There were no proper covers for this one, just dubbed tapes with handwritten tracklistings and I didn't feel like whipping up a mock one so we're devoid of decorations today.

I've seen other rip(s) of this float around the inter nets but since Fenrirsson's rip is of decent quality and has the track divisions made unlike the other versions (which are only three tracks, lumping 1+2 and 4+5 together) I wanted to feature it. Not to mention his tape perished soon after the rip was made. Curse the frailty of cassettes! Spite! Wrath! Dissatisfaction! Right, back to music. This is a short tape, eight minutes roughly, and highly similar to how "Satanas Tedeum" turned out. Plodding abyssic black/death metal. Except when they speed up to grind speeds, for old times sakes I suppose, like on Fortress of Cremation. If you enjoy old school blackened metal of death with rehearsal sound be sure to pick this up. However, if you're only familiar with RC's more recent, bombastic output (like "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" the other year or the latest album "Rituals") or the melodic, quasi-gothic late mid-90's phase you might not be very pleased with the primitiveness here.

PS: Looks like they're touring quite a bit this year. Go have a look if you're nearby, I've always enjoyed seeing them perform live.

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo 12/97 (1998)
1) Winds of Battle
2) In the Forest of the Nightwolfs
3) Southern Holocaust
4) Pagan Blood
5) Ancient War Spirit

RGhost / Mediafire

Our usual Sunday chill turns south with even more Southern material bringing the heat, courtesy of comrade unholydeath again. Thanks for the rip & scan! Continuing fluently where we left off at the end of last month this is Wolfhord, another side project by Herr Wolf, here known as Warlord von Ravenclaw. Non-metal material this time, "battle stuff" as the cover says seems a neatly vague description. This is the first demo, strangely referred to as demo tape 12/97 when it was partially recorded in January '98.

Five parts, roughly 18 minutes and this "battle stuff" of his is basically somewhat lofi, but very loud and messy mind you, ambient reminiscent of LLN projects (not that much really but got your attention now) and more importantly the various folk/pagan/etc/ambient projects hailing from Poland. The first long track is basically wind samples, synth and a voice groaning/croaking a few passages over it, all in noisy, gritty texture. Second one is more winds but this time dominated by electric guitar which is joined by percussion at times, very folky or should we say volkisch melodies. This pattern repeats for the rest of the demo, all tied together by the slightly over-the-top wind noises. I must dash off now so let's wrap this up quickly; if you dig the old Polish material in similar vein or are in general a lofi dark/pagan ambient enthusiast, dungeon synth connoisseurs included, you might want to give this a shot. Be cautious of the sound though!

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo October 1994
1) Conjuration
2) Beyond Eternal Nights

Mega / Rusfolder

The weather has taken a pleasant turn to slightly cooler but I still wanted to keep up with the southern summer campaign for at least a bit longer. Today we have, to counterbalance some of the recent posts, some Israeli material from my vaults. Grimoire from Herzelia was active for a few years around the mid-90's, releasing a demo, an album and this promo tape here. Their name popped up with slightly surprising frequency in fanzines and tape trader lists, considering the rather limited discography. Most of that was probably due novelty factor and I guess they were quite active with correspondence and such. I didn't have covers for this but fortunately there were pretty good scans on Discogs, thanks to user ateshu.

There are two quite long songs here and the first one was also featured on their demo "In the Darkwoods Sovreignity" which as an aside I'm not very fond of. I disliked the sound on it, guitars are way too subdued. The sound here is rougher than on the demo but also more to my liking, the instruments are in better balance and guitar more prominent, percussion less in your face. Bass is notably audible here (on the demo also). Okay, I admit the faster sections do get messy but that's a minor issue, of course your mileage may vary here. Songwriting is quite elaborate for a debut release, there are no synths here yet but several atmospheric passages which do well enough without them. Things do not always flow very fluently but that is to be expected, a few errors give demo and rehearsal recordings character. Some slightly oriental tones can be heard on the second song, but not to the extent of the album which was pretty much sympho black with Middle East melodies.

That's enough for this time, should next post continue with the theme of summer heat and southern sounds or is it time to cool down with some freezing northern noise? Or perhaps as a more neutral option something from Central(-ish) Europe? Cast your vote and it might actually matter!

Adversary - Promo 1994
1) Intro: Into the Fog
2) Slave to Eternity

Yandex / Zippyshare

No-one seemed to have much to say as to what direction the next post(s) should head so I decided to slap here another old, short Israeli black metal item. Remember Dalmerot's Kingdom I posted a few years ago? Oh, actually six years ago. Time flies. Anyways, this is the pre-DK band Adversary with their very short '94 promo tape, just an intro and one song. I haven't heard the '94 demo which appears to feature versions of this material so can't make comparisons. This was, as you probably guessed already, another tape traded item and I've no idea if there was some form of cover made. Most likely not, this seems an item just dubbed to some folks they were in touch with.

The intro is a brief atmospheric synth piece, possibly (read: most likely) borrowed from some soundtrack or other, considering how different it sounds to synth on the proper recording. The main course is black metal with very, apparently typically to several other bm bands of the time and region, prominent and slightly distracting percussion, quite tastefully executed moodful synth-driven breaks and crunchy-sounding guitars. Pretty much a more primitive version of the Dalmerot's Kingdom material. The vocals are also kind of lost among other ruckus but seem your usual raspy screeches with decent enough execution. Some of the shifts feel a bit jarring and the song ends kind of... soon? Like if it was an abbreviated version. Well, at least they don't overstay their welcome. The part near the end with whispered vocals brings something to my mind but what, can't quite put my finger on it! Recommended to those dedicated to exploration of the more exotic scenes, fans of old proto-sympho black metal and obviously those who enjoy Dalmerot's Kingdom.

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo 1995
1) The Belief - The Lie
2) Heirs of Fire
3) Niemals geboren
4) Intrude into Immortality
5) Worm of Sin

Sendspace / Depositfiles

Let's head to Germany today for change, this is a contribution by master Fenrirsson and it is the '95 demo of Tsatthoggua, formerly known as Dissection and later signed to Osmose. Thanks to F for the rip, it was a tape traded item so he did not have covers to scan, I used what I could scavenge online.

I used to think of Tsatthoggua as kind of German version of Impaled Nazarene back in the day. I was thinking old ImpNaz, obviously. All the songs here were re-recorded for the debut album too but the demo versions sound quite different. If you're not familiar with Tsatthoggua, it's fast & ferocious black metal with a few scarce death metal touches and a bit of synth here and there. This is sounding good today, really good. Must dig up "Hosanna Bizarre" and compare to that, I've a nagging suspicion this might be superior. Did it have those background synths used here? Anyways, recommended if you enjoy this sort of racket!

Sorg - Demo I 1995 (?)
1) Necronomicon
2) Subtle Punishment
3) Chalice of Sin
4) Initiation
5) Für Dich
6) Chaos

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's stick to Germania a while longer. This is again a collaboration between me and comrade LKS. Well, to be honest LKS did most of the work ripping the tape and scanning the covers, I just divided it into tracks, which was quite a bit of work too! Alright, Sorg of Germany was somewhat a mystery to both of us, despite having access to the covers as they're not very informative. According to another demo, to which we return later, a man who calls himself Astaroth is apparently behind all the music and most likely instrumentation too. Apparently Metal Archives has been updated recently to mark him as the same fellow who handled bass and vocals in Fjell, we speculated this earlier but were not certain. Good to see user Uglur knew this for sure. As you see from the question mark up there the release year is uncertain, '95 is just a guess but could be '94 as well. Please confirm if you know.

Music on this demo is what I suppose should be called ambient black metal as it has enough metal elements on it to merit that sort of a monicker. Pushing it, maybe, but very gently. More like nudging or perhaps poking. Mostly slow tempo and moody material, black metal voices croaking, crooning and occasionally growling over funereal keyboards and strings (sounds like bass to me), plodding percussion, you get the idea. Lofi but clean sound, atmospheric and quite mellow on the slow long opening numbers, gets a bit silly on faster bits like Initiation. Very interesting for sure and I would need the second demo, third one we already have.

Bonehill Blues - Risin' Thunder demo I 1992
1) Son of a Gun
2) In My Heart
3) Born to Raise a Hell
4) Risin' Thunder

Sendspace / Mega

And now, something completely different. Very much so and way outside our usual line of Necromancy, I've exhumed a bit more personal skeleton from the tombs. No, it's not my old band, not THAT personal. It was my schoolmates' band and I felt this sort of stuff kinda fits summer don't you think? Bunch of kids playing a (slightly confusing/-sed) ~~mess~~ mixture of hard rock, grunge (hell forbid!), alternative and other influences, generally falling under the rock umbrella. This was their first demo tape recorded in the late fall/early winter of 1992. I don't remember when exactly but the date on my dub says 20.11.92 and I think I got it pretty soon after it was finished. See below for a scan. There wasn't a real cover for the demo either, just a pencil doodle my younger self did on a notepad. The image above is a slightly cropped and edited version I whipped up to decorate the post. Just had to use Comic Sans for the text.

Whoa! It's a TDK, amazing! So kvlt.

Four tracks of... ugh, let's call it hard rock for now, I suppose? First one is an uptempo affair, second almost falls to ballad/slow song department and is the longest of the litter, third one is more uptempo again and actually reminds me a touch of old Alice Cooper (the band era-old) stuff, at least in the beginning, the chorus is more 90's... I'm actually thinking Rolling Stones too now when the verse kicked in again. Rock music is really not my expertise I suppose. As for the title track, first thing that comes to mind is AC/DC meets CCR. Sound is pretty good, all instruments easily audible. Playing is on the expected level. Cool vocals. There's some tape wear which is unfortunate but can't be helped. I had a tape somewhere with a full live gig which I can't seem to be able to locate. Haven't actually seen it for a long time, wonder if I've loaned it to someone... That's enough for now, next time we'll welter in nostalgy, obviously, but probably with something more in line with the Coven's usual focus.

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo I 1991
1) Never Ending Terror
2) Mask Over the Sun
3) Excretion Feast
4) Eye Among the Blind
5) One by One

Rusfolder / Yandex

Isn't it about time to do some death metal again? We move another year into the past, to 1991 and travel down under with this sending by our brother Wehrwolf, further meddled with by yours truly. Hecatomb, one of the dozen or so to use the name, but only one to feature Shane Rout of Abyssic Hate fame on drums. And Brad Johnston on bass (and vocals) whom you might've encountered with Blood Duster, Samsara or Mindsnare. No? How about MysteriumI posted back in '13? That was his solo project. Anyways, this is the first demo from '91, apparently by consensus self-titled. Cover scans are also included, thanks to W.

Two... no actually three, Excretion Feast just shortened to Feast, reappear on the second demo "Deep Sleep Therapy" and as I'm just listening to it I can say they're not too different from the original versions. Sound is somewhat (not that much but the rip I'm listening is partly to blame) more refined and consistent which leads to my meddling with Wehrwolf's rip. It's not drastic, really, I just hit normalize on it and another time for the last two tracks which had disturbingly lower volume. The sound quality also changes a bit, I guess the tracks were recorded at different sessions. Doesn't say on the covers. Other than that, which has been sort of fixed, I've no issue with the quality, sound- or rip-wise. Metal Archives has this marked as Death/Black/Thrash Metal which seems a bit overkill to me, I'd just call it death metal and that's it. Tempo varies from the almost doomy opener to the short and grindy Excretion Feast, thrashy parts pop up here and there but overall it sounds heavy and cavernous. At times smothering even. I'm not really picking up much black metal emanations here and lyrics seem to range from medical horror to more abstract dark fare. Recommended for folks into good ol' fashion death metal, explorers on southern(most) voyages and archaeologists not frightened by huge spiders, crocs, bushfires, nasty heat, traps and other poisonous things.

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo 1996
1) As the Waters Darken
2) Embers of Light Dying

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Today's contribution by master Fenrirsson, thanks for the rip, takes us to United Kingdom which is not really too well known for black metal despite spawning the band that named the whole genre. In the mid 90's you basically had Cradle of Filth, Thus Defiled and Bal-Sagoth, COF starting as death metal and TD black/death, then if you dug a bit deeper you might encounter the likes of Dead Christ, Megiddo, The Fallen, Witchclan, Silence (which I still need to hear for myself, provided they even recorded anything!), Ewigkeit, Ordog and Xaztur. Oh yeah and Hecate Enthroned, never forget! They were really much better known for death and doom metal plus combinations of those. Hmm, where was I? Oh yeah, today's thingy, the only demo from Shadowlore, side project by Thus Defiled Pauls Carter and Foster-Dent. We have featured Thus Defiled extensively enough earlier so let's not go biographing this time. No cover as F was working with a dub so there's just the small image I looted from a crypt somewhere online.

This is the original two song version of the demo, there was also a later re-release by Dark Trinity Productions with two more recent songs on the B-side (which I'd be curious to hear), probably had a different cover too but that's pretty much all I know about that. Both songs are decent length so it lasts a bit over ten minutes. If you're familiar with the first two Thus Defiled albums, between which this was done, you'll recall they were black/death metal with increasing emphasis on melody on the second one as well as keyboards taking more prominence while the demo material was pretty much death metal tinged with black. This recording by the two Pauls is straight up synth black metal with black metal rasps, screams and whispers for vocals and machine percussion support. The sound is not too far away from the TD releases of the era really, the sparse instrumentation just makes it thinner and obviously less heavy. Both songs are divided into intro parts and "song proper" with the rest of the elements (vocals and percussion that is) joining the keyboards. I seem to enjoy this today more than on the previous listen, so perhaps it is again one of those things that grow on you? Can't help wondering how it'd sound with some guitar buzz thrown in. Is that a bass on the second track that I hear? I was under the impression it was just vox and synth, though it could be more keyboards shenanigans. Also, I'd really like to hear the two later bonus tracks so if you have that version please get in touch!

Burning Northshore information booklet, volume 3 (autumn 1996)
Article on Bloodsword, some reviews, addresses and info on editor's other projects

Mega

Ok, today we're doing another of these newsletter posts and this is the third volume of the Burning Northshore information booklet, which translates to a six-page newsletter, plus covers. I haven't seen the other volumes and this one too got passed to me from a trader I think... or did I get it from somewhere with an order of something or other? Not sure, but it was anyways one of those random things people used to add besides flyers, biosheets, logo stickers and whathaveyou.

The content here deals pretty exclusively with the editor's stuff; Den, Superior, Bloodsword, Galdrastafur 305 and The Meniscus Plains. As far as I've understood, it's mostly odinistic ambient sort of music, except for Superior whose '96 demo was recently... well, not very long ago, re-released and who sound very much like old Polish black metal. I heard a sample of Den somewhere and it was quite interesting too, I believe at least some of that material was going to be released again as well. Or has been, I haven't checked. Must do so after I'm done here. Right, let's wrap this up: it's curious stuff and probably not of interest to many, but maybe it will have some audience.

Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005
1) Discipline and the Revisionist
2) Throatsaw
3) The Knife-Chaser Narratives
4) Irrational Hope
5) The Great Hopelessness
6) Promise Keepers' Collapse
7) Depression (Black Flag cover)

Depositfiles / Zippyshare

Another atypical post today, here's another of our comrade Chris's sendings from that bunch sent quite a while ago. The unusualification herein is the relative recentness of this release, dating to 2005 which is mere eleven years ago. This is the first and only demo by Canadian band Nietzschean Reprisal who play raw, noisy sort of black metal that sounds influenced by punk, industrial and, well, noise. Not that sort of straight up white noise several artists have been keen on putting out on tapes in the recent years, mind you. Ok sound though the guitars are kind of subdued in favour of very clear and almost funky (not really, don't get too excited) bass. Vocals are sort of strangled sounding shriek ran through some filter or effect. The music's not full steam ahead rush, tempo shifts abound and there are calmer bits in the ruckus strewn aboot. Again it seems my opinion about this varies greatly depending when I'm listening to it. Presently, coming to it already somewhat angry and irritated it surprisingly sounds better than on the last listen a few months ago. There's a slight resemblance to Diamatregon, which I'm very much into, in places. Not as good as D, no sir, but a few acres of common ground at least.

There have been other rips on the nets and I haven't compared Chris's version to them, but if nothing else sets this apart at least the supermassive cover scans do. I didn't bother separating them to a different download this time so be forewarned the .rar is large and almost half of it would be the scans. The seven tracks of music run for a bit over twenty six minutes, ranging from very short (less than two minutes) to surprisingly long opener (almost seven). That's enough from me, being as distracted as I am now I should not tarry. Grab this if you got curious or have a thing for Canadian sounds.

Realm - Dark Winds of Asuras demo I August 1997
1) Fallen Skies
2) Blood of the Imperial Night
3) Kingdom of Nightfall
4) Master of Centuries Black

4shared / Yandex

I thought I'd start August off with something slightly more exotic again and I must say I love that yellow cover! So sunny and summerlike feeling! Maybe it's quite inappropriate for a black metal band's demo, but one must admit it is very striking. And it's not even any sort of druggy wanna-be-industrial sort of thing, no, this is Realm of Singapore who play pure & honest black metal. This was again contributed by our easternmost cohort Morbid Chanter, rip and cover. It seems like this was the only demo released under this monicker as the mastermind of the project Night changed the name to Netherealm quite soon after the demo was released and the recording line-up fell apart.

Pretty good, loud sound. Not very clear perhaps, but it's not a negative thing. Pound-pound-pounding drums that sound almost tribal at times, grating and ever-so-slightly buzzy guitar, bass very much audible but firmly on the sidelines and good, raw vocals almost "properly" sung and supported by slightly dirtier, lewd screams and raspy howls plus a smattering of clean (spoken) session vocals on the final song. Acoustic passages and atmospheric breaks mix things up. This is one of those pieces that are somewhat more metal than black while remaining black metal if you know what I mean? And they manage it naturally, not sounding retro-this or old school-that for the sake of hooking up with Osmose or who had you back then releasing all that neothrash. It's quite long for a four song demo, over 25 minutes, much of which is taken by the epic last track. I like this, more than the split made with Austrian Seraph that followed, as Netherealm. That one suffered from the lack of a full line-up I believe. Recommended even if you can't stand yellow!

Moonstruck - Under Her Burning Wings demo III 1996
1) Under Her Burning Wings
2) Falling Through Silent Skies
3) Where Hope Lies Dying

Sendspace / Mediafire

Melodic death metal from Sweden, mid-90s. Hey, come back, we're not done yet! Ok, in case someone stayed let's continue. Moonstruck were a less known death metal band hailing from Bjärred, apparently formed back in '93 and this is their third demo, recorded in October '96 and released... somehow I'm thinking it was actually released early '97 but the present public opinion seems to favour 1996 so let's just go with that. Anyways, I got this while tape-trading in the olden days and can't really remember why I picked it, seeing as I wasn't into melodic death metal at that time (either). Probably liked the name or some similar well established and researched reason. No cover, I've borrowed the small image from their Metal Archives entry. Released by Supremacy Records, which I suspect was their own label, the cover was all shiny and fancy. Or so I recall from a flyer I had (possibly still have).

Besides the quasi-professional look, the sound is also quite polished. Compared to the average German rehearsal room recording of the era at least. Anyways, it still sounds obviously like a demo recording while you can hear they have some experience under their belts by this time. Music is, uh, melodic death metal. Made by Swedes. In Sweden. So you know, it sounds like that. Though I do imagine hearing traces of more Finnish sort of melodeath on the first track now as I listen to it through second time today. Slightly folky tones, don't make me drop the obvious name. Still active, name starts with an 'A'... Right, this isn't going to lead anywhere; it has become a well known fact that I can't say anything clever when it's melodeath, but I know there's an audience for this material and I was quite surprised not to find a rip of this at higher bitrates. They made an album too in '99 so pick that up if you like this demo. Not that I'd actually heard it, but they did record all of these songs for it too so I presume it continues in similar vein.

Blackthorn - Ancient rehearsal demo II 1994
1) Ponad krainą cieni
2) Rogaty wojownik
3) Gniew
4) Ponad krainą cieni (rehearsal)
5) Rogaty wojownik (rehearsal)
6) Gniew (rehearsal)

Mega / Rusfolder

Black metal from Poland once again and here we continue, with the assistance of comrade LKS who provided the rip, from where we left off in May. This is Blackthorn's second tape and it is a rehearsal demo also dating to 1994. Interestingly, this version features the same tracks as, uh, rehearsal versions. On a rehearsal demo. Yo dawg... no, not going there. No cover scans so as usual an image from the Metal Archives was used. See the entry for the first demo for more background on Blackthorn. Or the Chors post.

Three songs, with titles and lyrics this time in their native tongue, offered and they're all quite long (over 5½ minutes) while the first demo had both various short numbers and a longer black metal song. The alternative rehearsal takes that follow are all much longer still. Sound is kind of thin and sharp, with no discernible bass and distant, faraway percussion. No synths either. Bloodfreezing shrieks add to the cold atmosphere, tempo varies from frantic pace to slow and contemplative within each song. It's essentially a very simple and tried formula but nevertheless enjoyable and I like this sort of "poor" sound personally. I'm not saying this would sound like Burzum but... I guess I already kind of did by dropping the name, didn't I? Not to mention the write-up to the first demo. The third song Gniew has a shift in sound, to kind of worse as it heavily shifts to favour one side, as well as in vocals which are dominated by even sharper, hysterical screams. It also has a riff in the beginning that sounds extremely familiar. Translating the song titles we see the topics would seem to fit the TTF formula well ("Above the Land of Shadows", "Horned Warrior" and "Anger" if you've not heard of Google translator) and continue from the first demo.

The alternative rehearsal takes actually have a slightly fuller and more balanced sound, with more audible drumming. They also feature false starts and all sorts of unedited glorious mishaps. Hard to say which I prefer more, the desolate chill of the "demo" tracks has its own charm for sure, but why choose when we have both? Recommended for those who enjoyed the first demo, Chors and old Polish black metal in general.

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995

Twilight - The Melancholy of Northern Landscapes demo '95

Alviss - Fafnir demo I '96 (?)

Dethroned - In the Sign of the Pentagram demo '97

Exstinctio Sensus #2

Resistencia 88 - A Nova Ordem demo '97

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal '89

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo '98

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo '94

Adversary - Promo '94

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo '95

Sorg - Demo I 1995

Bonehill Blues - Risin' Thunder demo '92

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo '91

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo '96

Burning Northshore #3

Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005

Realm - Dark Winds of Asuras demo '97

Moonstruck - Under Her Burning Wings demo '96

Blackthorn - Ancient demo '94