Faerghail - Dark Oceans Calm Cass EP 1996

Faerghail - Dark Oceans Calm Cassette EP 1996
1) Nightshades
2) Talven Tahdon Jäävän
3) Dark Oceans Calm
4) With All My Sorrows

Reuploaded

Here's something more "ordinary" after all the non-metal and other weirdness: Finnish melodic dark metal from Faerghail and their cassette EP released on Dark Moon Prods in 1996. I'm aware these tracks were also released as bonus on their debut album "Horizon's Fall" (1999) but as I found out that after ripping my tape with this EP I decided to just go ahead and upload it still, I don't think the album's very widely distributed anymore these days. I didn't have the covers for this, but I stole pretty decent scans from Discogs. Thanks!

What I said at the very beginning sums this up: Finnish melodic dark metal. It does have a degree of the charm of an enthusiastic demo band to it, clear production but not overtly polished one and passable material so if you like 90's dark metal at all I think you might want to give this a try. The musicianship should probably be called more eager than proficient. It is pretty upbeat and not very dark after all, but that's the style of the times. It's fun to listen to occasionally, even if I'm not that much into the style anymore, but please don't call this black metal, at least to my face. If you find a copy of the "Horizon's Fall" album, pick that up for (most likely) better sounding versions of the tracks.

Chained And Desperate - The Day After demo 1992

Chained And Desperate - The Day After demo II 1992
1) The Day After (Intro)
2) Learning to Die
3) Tales of the Dead
4) Sands of War
5) Raped Souls

Reuploaded

Remember when I posted the 1994 demo by Chained And Desperate and kept mentioning the previous effort? Well, here it is. This is their second demo, though if I remember correctly 1991's "Total Destruction" was a rehearsal tape, and very, very, very different from their current style and actually anything released after it. I was well aware the band is certainly not fond of their first three tapes but my morbid curiosity still drove me to find the material. Big thanks, once again, to Grev who dubbed me this one. I still need the "Total Destruction" tape so let me know if you have it.

So how bad is it and what is it? As the band's bio puts it, this is an experimental demo of "electro doom forms" which means 5 very short songs in about ten minutes with minimalistic instrumentation and voices. It is very odd, clumsy and honestly quite bad. I'm assuming some kind of drum machine or program is used, as well as keyboards and... well then I'm not sure anymore, there's probably a bass used too? And some guitar. It sounds strange and I can't really compare it to much anything, well maybe some moments to old Abruptum. A bizarre little demo, check it out if your curiosity is of the unsatiable sort!

Thokk - A Trance for the Ever-Toiling Witch demo 1995

Thokk - A Trance for the Ever-Toiling Witch demo 1995
1) Wolf-Hymn
2) Falling in the White Tempest
3) Of Rape and Vampirism
4) The Witch-Tower of Vshanaad
5) In the Phantasmagoric Dimensions
6) Abscond to Nightmare Chasms
7) Come a Grimmer Presence
8) Haunted by Saturnian Phantoms (Abducted in the Cosmic Bog)

Depositfiles

Here's some black metal again and a request, I think it was from comrade Feuersturm. The only demo of Thokk, an American black metal project which featured Lord Kaiaphas aka "Lord Fag Pussyferian" (yeah I still find that amusing, I'm a lowbrow caveman), the old vocalist of GBK and Ancient. Later apparently he's been involved in electronic music. Back to this item, this was recorded together with a member of Arghoslent and can be divided into two parts, the first being black metal (1-5) and second sort of ambient (6-8) with vocals. I got this from a trader around 1995 and without a copy of the covers so I've dug up some images from the Inter Nets, including a pretty decent one from the Demo Archives. Thanks, D.A.! Though I believe their image is of a xerox copy as the other (crappy) images I found depict a coloured cover (see above) instead of b&w.

Unknown generation dub, but sounds ok. The demo itself has a passable sound too and the music is mostly good even though his silly vampyric sheanigans are getting stronger here than on the 2nd GBK demo (it would peak during his tenure with Ancient) and some parts like the giggling and laughing on "In the Phantasmagoric Dimensions" sounds demented and not in the good way. The ambient latter half sounds now better than it used to which is obviously a matter entirely in my head. Track 7 is the invocation from Necronomicon used also by Beherit for "Spirit of the God of Fire" on H418ov21.C - just thought I'd mention that. Mordgrimm released a CD called "Of Rape and Vampirism" which has the same tracklisting, having not heard it I'm not sure if it's just this demo on CD or has the material been re-recorded/-mastered or something. If it's the same stuff, then you're obviously better off picking that up. However, you might want to try this demo version first, just in case.

Amber Asylum - Looking Glass / Poppies 7"EP 1996

Amber Asylum - Looking Glass / Poppies 7" Picture EP 1996
1) Looking Glass
2) Poppies

Reuploaded

More non-metal music from the US of A. This 1996 EP by Amber Asylum is not dark dungeon synth by one man and his synthesizer, however, this is pure ambient/neoclassical music. Ripped clumsily from a tape I'm afraid, but that was dubbed directly from a vinyl I think, so the quality is ok. Included are someone's scans of the picture disc, which I "borrowed" from Discogs. Thanks, someone!

Two tracks of ethereal, atmospheric and tranquil neoclassical ambient with female voice. Audible vinyl crackling included for your authentic listening pleasure. Both tracks were included on their second album "The Natural Philosophy of Love" as re-recorded versions if I'm correct. Buy it and confirm for yourself if you liked this EP. Recommended if you need a break from relentless metallic assault, enjoy ambient or feel adventurous.

Equitant - The Great Lands of Minas Ithil demo 1994

Equitant - The Great Lands of Minas Ithil (City of Isildur) demo 1994
1) The Fallen Walls of Agurak (A Time of Misery) Part I
2) The Fallen Walls of Agurak (A New Beginning) Part II
3) Love Song for Elizabeth Bathory
4) When the Istari Wizards Appeared in Middle Earth (The Days of the King Had Come to an End)

UPDATED: Depositfiles

Here's the second Equitant demo I promised to upload. Like I told you on the earlier post, these two old tapes differ very much from his later works and are dark ambient/dungeon music. The copy I found is of the version Equitant had self-released and sold himself, so the cover and other stuff is different from the DAP release. Scans are included.

UPDATE: Brother Fenrirsson sent me scans of his copy of this demo - it is different from both mine and the DAP version so I presume it would be a second edition released by Equitant himself as it has more decoration to it and quite obviously the picture of the lady is just slapped over the old cover. The DAP version appears to have another castle/fortified city image, from what I can tell from the tiny pic on Discogs. See below for cropped version of this second cover version which is now included in the new download link.

The second version sent by Fenrirsson

The sound quality is quite good even though the tape hisses quite a bit. That can't be helped I'm afraid. At least the tape wasn't worn otherwise. This demo consists of only four tracks which are quite lenghty each, with durations between 6:26 and 9:47. The lyrics are again fantasy oriented with the first two tracks dealing with Equitant's Agurak which seems to be influenced by Celtic, Nordic and Howard-school fantasy mythos. The rest are about countess Bathory (S/M flavour this time) and Tolkien mythos, like the title of the demo hinted. Music is mainly dark ambient/dungeon synth and this time the almost omnipresent spoken vocals are more dominant which I'm not very happy about. They worked better when more in the background I think. The first two tracks form a clear whole with their more bombastic yet solemn approach (and of course the lyrics) while the third one is more minimalistic in its dark ambient, with voice a little more in the background (thankfully, he sounds sillier than ever on this one) and the fourth one is instrumental and most "dark dungeon music" of the tracks. It's also my preferred track here. Check this out if you liked the first Equitant demo and these sort of synth projects in general. Personally I prefer the first demo but this is quite good too. If someone has the CDR re-release, I'd be interested to hear that for improved sound.

Asafated - Live in Istanbul 24.06.1995

Asafated - Live in Istanbul, Turkey 24th June 1995
1) (Soundcheck)
2) Lonely
3) Goner
4) Violent Desires
5) Lost Innocence
6) Divine Suffocation
7) Summer Holyday
8) Lonely (Encore)

Reuploaded

Here's the last Asafated item from my tapes, a live show from 1995 I got from a trader. Complete recording, to the point of including a soundcheck/jam/whatever in the beginning - it's short enough to pass as an intro and you can skip it anyways.

All songs are familiar from their demos and "Kaybolmuş Masumiyet" album, including the "Summer Holyday" instrumental, which ends their set proper here, it was retitled "7" later. I'm not sure why they play "Lonely" again as an encore, probably simply because they didn't have anything else rehearsed. Well it's their best track so I don't mind. Good live sound and a decent performance so pick this up if you enjoyed their material.

Carcass - Necroticism rehearsal 1991

Carcass - Necroticism rehearsal 1991
1) Inpropagation
2) Pedigree Butchery

Reuploaded

You know this band I suppose? Carcass had a little, special place in my heart even if they never were one of my fave bands - I liked best "Necroticism" album which was also the first I heard from them, never got much into their fabled first efforts (though I found the tracks I had from "Symphonies" funny which basically sums up how I felt about death/grind, grindcore and such) and "Heartwork" felt already bit too mainstream even if it had its moments. "Swansongs" I didn't even bother listening to. I was quite pleased to catch them live at Tuska some time ago and of course the "Necroticism" tracks were personally a highlight. This quite short rehearsal tape I got from a trader friend and it was actually dated for 1992 on his list but I find that doubtful as the album was released in 1991. I'd wager this session would be from the same year.

These versions are instrumental and the sound volume is low, sound itself muffled but otherwise bearable. Not the best quality among rehearsal tapes posted here but worth a listen if you're a fan of the band and/or album. Nothing further to add I guess.

Gorplough - In Valle Tenebrarum demo 1996

Gorplough - In Valle Tenebrarum demo 1996
1) Cruces Blancas
2) Señor de los Sueños
3) El Horizonte de los Sentidos
4) Los Hongos del Placer

Reuploaded

I'm back again and here's an item I ripped quite a long time ago, it's been lying on my desktop so I decided to start with it. Spanish black/doom/death/whatever hybrid here, as far as I know their only recording, dubbed by a tape trader back in the 90's. He did not send me a cover so I'm using the image from M.A. which looks strangely like a CD cover, was this released on tape or CD(r) or both? I've very little info on the band myself... I must note my trader comrade wrote this to be a 1996 release while M.A. says 1995. I'm sticking with my comrade's description until proven wrong.

Four songs of gloomy and heavy black/doom hybrid which has an old school vibe to it, making me compare it to bands like Mortuary Drape, Opera IX, Countess, Barathrum, Nebiros (col), Xantotol, Filii Nigrantium Infernalium, old Necromantia et cetera. Old school southern black metal spirit is strongly present without being a carbon copy of anyone in particular. There's some synth included, but it is used quite tastefully and adds to the atmosphere. The main vocal is a raw half-scream, but other styles pop up time to time. Notable example is the retard chorus on second (or was it third?) track! All lyrics are in Spanish, which sounds cool with this style. A good demo, give it a try.