Resplendence newsletter #3

Resplendence newsletter, issue 3 (September-November 1996)
Interviews:
In-Quest
Ironsword
+ reviews

Yandex

Friday night filler. Yeah, I'm not going to pretend this'd be really much more. But hey I told you I'd do these every now and then when I posted the two Syphilis ones, right? Resplendence was the name of both a 'zine/newsletter and an underground label, both run by Bart Marescaux, vocalist of Rhymes Of Destruction and his comrade Frederic Caure, former R.O.D. bass player and also a member of Serpentcult. The first two Resplendence issues were in full A5 'zine format, haven't seen 'em but they're listed to have 44 and 52 pages and at this third issue they switched to newsletter. No idea how many issues they did after this one. As for the content, there's 8 A5 pages, last though filled with a list of their releases. Interviews are a little so-and-so but at least Ironsword gives quite long answers. I don't really agree with the editors' attitude either but that's my issue. It's an ok quick read, have a look.

Oops, I had accidentally deleted the text when I meant to delete a misspelled comment! Restored now. Kids, don't drink and inter net.

Orchestra Infernale - Unreleased Promo 1995

Orchestra Infernale - Unreleased Promo 1995
1) The Gates
2) Funeral
3) Desolation
4) A Hymn Before Dying

Mediafire / Yandex

Today's post is another obscure non-metal item contributed by brother Wehrwolf, thank you! Orchestra Infernale was a project by Joe Skullfucker of Corpse Molestation/Bestial Warlust - fame and his girlfriend. This cassette was sent around in limited quantities to labels and such people but wasn't really sold or distributed, which is why it says "unreleased" up there... though it's not really unreleased if it was sent around, is it? Well, let's not go there. No proper cover exists, but the tapes had stickers on them and W provided us with a picture seen above.

Wehrwolf tells me more than ten tracks were actually recorded but only the four here were spread and the third one was also featured on a compilation CD which was released by a Melbourne indie label/record store. The music is, like W described me, Cold Meat Industry type music so it's somewhere between dark ambient and industrial. Some bits are more "active" while others are droning and brooding. Sound is good and the rather short (a bit below 14 minutes) tape leaves me curious to hear more. Shame they never got around to release that album. But I'm going to keep this short, give it a listen if you're into the kinds of music mentioned or an unusually open-minded Bestial Warlust fan.

UPDATE: Just noticed the id tags were wrong, the artist was misspelled as Orchestra Infernal instead of ...Infernale. Oops! If you've already downloaded, either fix by hand or download again as I've reupped it corrected. Sorry about the inconvenience!

UPDATE II: Was contacted by Vanth who informed me that the album release is actually on its way still after all the years! Stay tuned for further info.

Shadows Of Sunset - Fires of the Soon Dead Sun demo 1996

Shadows of  Sunset - Fires of the Soon Dead Sun demo 1996
1) Images of the Darkest Nature's Wrath
2) Until the Fires of Dawn
3) Beyond Emptiness
4) Craving of Pleasure

Rusfolder /Yandex

Bio sheet circa MCD (1997)

A Finnish demo today and another contribution sent in by brother Grindfreak, thank you! Shadows of Sunset was a Finnish death metal band, originally formed under the name of Imposed Silence in 1993 and released a demo called "Torn Angels of Divine" (pretty cool title) in 1995 before changing the band's name to this one. They released this demo and a MCD "Reflection from Afar" plus possibly another demo "Mirror of Bestiality" in 2000. After changing their style to a heavier, more brutal style of death metal the band name changed to Torn. This last incarnation released an album in 2002 and a demo in 2004. Grindfreak's rip includes cover scan so we're all set, are we not? - No we're not, I found a bio sheet which I decided to scan. Not going to reupload to add that, so click the image.

Okay, to the music. I'm not going to compare this to Imposed Silence demo as I don't remember how it sounded like. But I'm going to get that one from brother Grev so we'll return to it another time. The sound is quite good and so is the rip quality, decent studio demo production with quite a heavy and audible bass and more than enough clarity to hear all the instruments. At places you can hear some sort of hissing or piercing, whiny background noise but fortunately that's either a passing phenomenon or drowns out so effectively that my half-deaf ears fail to note it for most of the time... no, it's there constantly, I noticed it now. Well, it's not really bad, but please note that if it manages to drive you insane or cause other issues the Coven is in no way responsible for your condition. The style is melodic death metal, you know the sort, with quite a lot of speed, some atmospheric breaks and vocals more reminiscent of black metal than death grunts. The vocalist is better than I remembered, giving slight variation to his output while thankfully avoiding embarassing "clean" singing and/or spoken parts. I guess calling it blackened death metal wouldn't be utterly out of question except that the themes don't cross over to actual black metal so let's stick with death metal. I actually like the overall sound here better than the MCD which isn't bad either. From the Torn era I've only heard the demo and that's really completely different thing, not to mention the vocalist is different. But I suggest you give this a listen if you enjoy or at least tolerate melodic (very slightly blackened) 90's death metal.

Northern Darkness Records Advance - Promo 1996

Various Artists - Northern Darkness Records advance-promo (1996)
1) Godfuck 93 - Tomb Desecration XXX 192
2) Godfuck 93 - 172: Whore Remix (Heroin Control)
3) Entirety - Intro
4) Entirety - Monolith
5) Entirety - Deserts of Vast Eternity
6) Handful Of Hate - Prophecy of a New Assiah's Supremacy
7) Handful Of Hate - Undicies Ah-Qlipha
8) Love History - Intro - From Bohemia's Woods and Fields
9) Love History - Labyrinth of Love
10) Love History - Desires
11) Novgorod - Through the Seven Gates of Kur
12) Novgorod - From the Flesh He Was Created

Depositfiles / Mediafire

Looks like it's been a bit over year since I last posted a compilation tape, time to remedy that I suppose. This item here is actually probably more correctly called a sampler as it was a promotional/advance tape sent around by the Italian underground label Northern Darkness Records in 1996 for free, mostly to distros, 'zines, other labels and people who ordered stuff from them. Came with a xeroxed cover and an ordinary tape with stickers on them. Scanned the cover, not the tape itself. Side A is called "...the Northern Side" and contains advance tracks, unmixed raw versions and side B is "...the Darkness Side" and has tracks from two preceeding releases, Love History MCD and Novgorod demo.

The first two tracks are sort of industrial black metal by Godfuck 93, an Italian project featuring the Necromass vocalist at the time whose name is not mentioned on the cover but I presume it'd be Charles Blasphemy. The music on these two tracks is still mostly pretty straight black metal with drum machine, samples, effects and such. Though the second track has some almost danceable beats, guess later Samael meets Aborym wouldn't be a too far-fetched comparison. I remember being quite intrigued and even excited by this back then. Entirety are also Italian and have a bit cleaner sound than Gf93... for their intro, once the metal kicks in it gets rather muddled and strangely quiet compared to the nice intro bit. Well, like the cover says material on this side of the tape is raw recordings without editing & mastering. Music is melodeath with ample background synths. Think about the Swedes in the 90's. Last on this side of the tape is Handful of Hate, Italian black metal band who are still active and released an album this year. Much clearer sound here, quite fast black metal with typically Italian occult touch and some tempo changes and atmospheric breaks, fortunately. The line-up for the album credits a J.M. for drums but this sounds like a machine here. Might be the sound. This sounds better than I remembered, I guess I have to take another listen to their albums. And that demo.

Side B opens with the intro of the only non-Italian group here, Czech Rep's Love History who play atmospheric death/doom with dramatic touches and different kinds of vocals; whispers, growls, spoken bits and so on. You're thinking My Dying Bride, aren't you? Well, fortunately they've got something of their own going there too, some slightly folksy, Slavonic-sounding (though I suppose these should be Bohemian) melodies for example which sound very nice, reminding me of Gods Tower. The cover doesn't mention their second "proper" track at all, probably due oversight. It's an instrumental piece with almost jazzy parts, showing again another side. They also sound better than I remembered, I recall preferring their country mates Dissolving of Prodigy as if I couldn't listen to both. That's a second band here I need to listen more to. Last is, wait for it, Italian Novgorod with two long tracks taken from their demo. Synth-driven gothic sort of black(ish) metal with a slightly low sound. Not very impressed with them, the songs are a bit too long for their own good and some of the transitions and playing sound very awkward and not in the good way. Annoying as there are some pretty cool moments too. The total duration of the sampler is a bit over 47 minutes and I've written enough about it, I'm hungry.

Maze Of Cako Torments - Nuli Med Salhathaz demo 1996

Maze Of Cako Torments - Nuli Med Salhathaz demo II 1996
1) Intro
2) Ratom Ase?
3) Me Vhatav Tvalebs
4) Niavi Gavs Cechils
5) Dabadebuli
6) Kalaki Opiumis Simarshi
7) Usikvdilo...? Bred
8) Outro

Mediafire

Today's post is another contribution sent by a reader, thanks to him and Billy Warminster, whoever he might be, credited for the rip in the info text included with the files. I know this demo, probably the very same rip, has already been posted in for example brother Raf's (excellent) blog, but since I sought it for so long I decided to post it anyways. So this is the second (I think) demo of the Latvian oddball project Maze Of Cako Torments whose third tape you find here. See that text for a little more background babble on this. Unfortunately no proper scan of the covers, just a photo which I think is taken from Metal Archives. Looks like it had pretty neat covers.

All of the song titles are... not sure if that's Latvian or just gibberish but incomprehensible anyways. UPDATE: I was informed that the titles (and possibly lyrics) are in Georgian! Thanks for the info and sorry about the gibberish bit to possible Georgian readers. The intro+6 tracks+outro combo is quite lenghty, over 37 minutes which is easily enough for album length. It doesn't sound like an album, though. Obvious demo sound but very clear and it feels a little less murky than the 3rd demo but this might be due it being a dub of whatever generation. The overall sound combined with the drum programming makes this effort sound more like industrial black metal, so calling the project such might be justified if one had only heard this demo. There are some synths used for mostly background and the atmosphere gets quite manic at times, like on "Me Vhatav Tvalebs". But not all tracks are either mechanical or maniacal churning, there are more "casual" atmospheric moments like the beginning of "Niavi..." or "Dabedebuli" which gets quite frantic in the end but in an interesting and again different way. Ok, enough talk. You've probably already downloaded this or rolled your eyes, sighed and decided to wait for another post and nothing I'll type here will change anything. Recommended if you like unusual black metal based material.

Freezing Flames #3

Freezing Flames fanzine, issue 3 (July 1998)
Interviews:
Division 187
Nightsky Bequest
Siebenbürgen
Forsth
Acheron
Infernal Mäjesty
Castrum
Forgotten Silence
In The Nursery
Warhead Records
Benighted Leams
Fleurety
Enchanted
Burzum
A View Into The Abyss 'zine
Withering Surface
Canvasser
Emanzipation Productions
Terrae Sole Calentes
+ article: Baldr's Death, reviews, ads

Reuploaded - 2022

I thought this would be a good time to post another 'zine and looks like this is my first Hungarian item posted here. Freezing Flames was an underground fanzine which made at least four issues if I'm not mistaken and this third one I scanned is the only one I've seen so I obviously can't make much comparisons, can I? The oddly coloured cover and stuff under text look of the inside pages is initially a turn off but fortunately the 'zine is more interesting to read than the first look might indicate. Made by three people of which Zsolt Pfalzgráf seems to be the main editor while Emese Tátrai and Lázló Kaposvári come off more as contributors, even though the effort is spread almost evenly among them. Most of the bands featured were quite underground, the exceptions should be pretty easy to spot from the list. I'm not really fond of the various "other" interviews 'zines feature, from other editors to distributions to labels, well the last ones might be more interesting like the Warhead Records one here. Reviews feature the usual albums, demos and 'zines and an Emperor gig report written by István Vass of Nebron. The 'zine reviews section was helpful in reminding me of which ones I'd like to see so I guess I need to update the request section. Overall the reviews are not very critical but at least you usually get the idea of what sort of music the band plays, unlike say the notoriously bad reviews in SFP. All said, I seem to be left with a positive impression of the 'zine even though I definitely don't agree with the editor's idea that it'd be preferable for all 'zines to feature background images. Read for yourself and let me know if you have their other issues, would be interesting to see them too.

Tzaphkial - Anahata Chakra, Kundalini, Luciferi... demo 1994

Tzaphkial - Anahata Chakra, Kundalini, Luciferi... demo 1994
1) Post-Life (Intro)
2) Arcane XII
3) Bacahi Laca... (Intro)
4) Ens Seminis Seed
5) Sadhaka
6) Zero Anno Satanas (Outro)
7) Catoptromancia (intro) "reh."
8) Ens Seminis Seed "reh."

Depositfiles

One song obscure rehearsal tapes by unknown bands may be cool and interesting but I can't help feeling this weekend needs a bit meatier post too. So here's another contribution by a reader and an item I know one can find around the inter nets pretty easily but as the rip I was sent is pretty good (except for the low volume which I tampered with) I decided to go ahead and post it - I myself wanted to hear this for years until I finally got it back whenever, interest aroused by the mysterious title and sole member Abrahel's connection with other French black metal bands, namely Osculum Infame where he's better known as D.Deviant. He also participates in Bekhira and Archon Infaustus. Two versions of cover scans are enclosed and I don't know who ripped this originally but thanks to that person anyways and the guy who sent me this.

8 tracks might seem like a lot, but two of these are bonus rehearsal recordings and furthermore four are intros/outros so the whole demo runs for just below 20 minutes, leaving the tracks a bit below average length except for 5+min "Sadhaka". The sound is raw. Originally very muffled and generally low volume, except for acoustic parts which are really on top of everything else, I had to increase it a bit as my hearing is not improving with the years. The intros were a bit more balanced except for the effected voices which again are on top of everything. With the volume increased you can hear the overall sound is, not surprisingly, closer to Osculum Infame, Funeral/Kristallnacht and Blessed in Sin than Mütiilation or Vlad Tepes. Rehearsal-like, cold and again lacking in the low end but perfectly acceptable to my ears. I have beer to drink, so enough writing. Recommended if you like the other associated bands and early 90's raw black metal.

Black Rise - Rehearsal 18.02.1996

Black Rise - Rehearsal 18.02.1996
1) By the Act of Consolamentum

Yandex / RGhost

Here's yet another single track, mega-obscure rehearsal tape, significantly shorter and with a bit more information this time around. Dubbed on a tape as filler by one of my traders in the 90's I got an actual date for this, was informed that they were Danish and I'm pretty sure there was at least another rehearsal tape from the same year, with an unknown amount of songs. Okay, that's not very much I admit, so further knowledge is appreciated.

One track of average length (4:08) with an obvious rehearsal sound which is reasonably clear and quite lacking in the low end heaviness. Music is fast paced black metal with some slower moments and melodic parts thrown in. Voice is a shrill sounding shriek and the overall feeling the track gives is raw and unpolished but not in the crude and barbaric way. Nothing really special, I'd say the value of this is mostly in the obscurity of the project. People into cold and raw black metal rehearsal sound and/or Scandinavian curiosities will check this out.

Grimoires - Rehearsal 1992

Grimoires - Rehearsal 1992
1) Golden Dawn

Yandex / Rusfolder

I'm not dead if you were wondering, just busy, after The Darkness Festival V mentioned in previous post I've been working and visiting Norway. But enough about that, the tomb of the Coven vomits forth another undead abomination, this one being an obscure rehearsal tape summoned by brother Grindfreak. Thank you for the contribution! He had very little information on this and I haven't been able to scry anything further, all we know for now is that this was on the B-side of an old Swedish demo tape he had ripped, at least we have a song title and band name which is better than some tapes I have. So any information would be very welcome!

This is a single, long (almost ten minutes) track and style would be slow death metal or death/doom I suppose, it's pretty dark but still kinda mellow? No good I need to sleep, listen for yourselves. Quite good rehearsal sound, even if it tends to wander from left to right and back again. Fortunately that's not too distracting. Start downloading if you like obscure, slower tempo death metal.