Unholy Impaler - Collection of Mephistophilis (2000)

Unholy Impaler - Collection of Mephistophilis compilation tape 2000
1) Symphony of Abazea
2) Blasphemous Torment
3) Lord Impaler
4) Faustus' Last Hour
5) Black Vomit
6) Satan's Speech
7) Supreme Evil Event
8) Old as Death
9) Horror Village
10) Ritual Tribal Practice (Rehearsal)
11) The Horny and the Horned (Impaled Nazarene cover)
12) Black and Violet (Death SS cover)
13) Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover)
14) Dusk of Forgotten Darkness (Enthroned cover)


Mega / 4shared

Full, massive cover scan

Today we have a compilation tape ripped and scanned by Chris the other year, thanks again for your work! Unholy Impaler saw the unlight of the black moon as a side project of the band Infernal Goat, which frankly isn't really a much better known name to your humble scribe, in tribute to the chaotic spirit of bands like old Beherit and Sodom. I am slightly confused by the information within, tracks 1-6 are the first Unholy Impaler recording session 22/08/00 and the rest 2nd session 31/08/00 but then they are supposedly taken from earlier demos? I quote: "All songs recorded and stolen from the 4 witched tapes except track 10" - yet these are recording sessions 1 & 2??? How puzzling!

Let us not tarry gawking flabbergasted for too long, instead a few words about the music: it's raw and primitive black metal with a rehearsal sound, sloppy untight playing and casual tempo. There is a noticeable change between the two recording sessions, most notably the vocals are louder and slightly more abrasive on the second one. Track ten has pronouncedly shoddy rehearsal sound and is dominated by the vocals totally. The four cover songs, which actually offer a surprise or two, were side B of the tape to further distance them from the Original Content. Someone might say the songwriting would do the trick by itself. I enjoy parts of this tape but it's too long for one sitting at almost 40 minutes. If primitive black metal of death is your thing, give this a listen. Perhaps in two parts.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to point out that Chris' original scans were enormous so I decided to upload them separately so those with slower connections and/or no care for cover scans could grab the main course.

Terror 88 - Terror 88 demo 2005

Terror 88 - Terror 88 demo 2005
1) Night of Terror
2) Storm in Soul

Mediafire / Zippyshare

Let's spice up the coming weekend with some mysterious, Finnish, very raw (NS) black metal courtesy of our comrade unholydeath! Thank you once again! Here we have Terror 88, with their self-titled demo released in 2005 by Ruin & Terror Productions. Which most likely means by themselves. A very limited edition of 30 copies and it's sort of a secret side project by certain people. Those who need to know do so or something like that. Anyways, brightest of you might make educated guesses based on the raging clues available. No scans were sent to preserve some of the mystique though they apparently contain practically no information besides the tracklisting. And possibly beautiful symbols.

Enough of suspense, let's move to the music. It's a short (under three minutes) and a long (over six) track of very harsh sounding black metal, mostly due the unnecessarily noisy and awfully loud "production" that has way more white noise than needed. Heh, see what I did there? Once you've adjusted your sound volume and head you'll notice it is rather catchy stuff. The shorter track is a fast and driven piece with a certain sense of urgency and a more midpaced bit in the middle. As expected, the longer song is slower midtempo (well, at first that is) and has some Darkthronean (read: Celtic Frosty/Hellhammerish) groove too, especially before the first speed-up and during it. Very old schoolish and kind of fun actually. Just a bit meddling with the sound and it'd really hit the spot. The high-energy "Sieg Heils" will probably be an issue to some who might otherwise enjoy the ruckus, but then again a sales point for others. If you enjoy stuff like "Panzerfaust" and aren't averse to some hail victories give this a go.

Weakling - Live Practice '98

Weakling - Live Practice 25th May 1998
1) No One Can Be Called as a Man While He'll Die
2) Disasters in the Sun
3) This Entire Fucking Battlefield
4) Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein

Depositfiles / Sendspace

I decided to do one of my own tape rips for today, this is Weakling from USA and their 1998 rehearsal tape or "Live Practice" as they labeled it. There have been rips around before but since this turned out quite nicely enough I decided to share. And no, it's not ripped from an original copy, it's from a dub I got from an American person. Cover image from Metal Archives if you didn't guess already.

Weakling is best known for releasing an album in 2000 with five staggeringly long tracks and four of them appear also here, meaning this has a running time comparable to most albums at over fifty minutes. The long, long instrumental songs combined with the rehearsal/live sound which is very clear, I must mention, even with all the feedback and so on present, can make this a bit hard morsel to chew, swallow, digest and eventually defecate. I like the sound here though and the unedited nature of the recording with the false start, little screw-ups, feedback and all. The drums are slightly more subdued than on the album and everything seems to have a bit more space and room to breathe. I said instrumental but one can hear some sort of screaming in the background occasionally, perhaps as a result of getting carried away? I tagged this progressive which might be a little misleading, but it feels somewhat justified. Recommended if you like long instrumental recordings of somewhat black metal nature and are not afraid of being stamped as a late-to-the-party hipster by people with callous, embittered characters.

Bal-Sagoth - Rehearsal January 1994

Bal-Sagoth - Rehearsal January 1994
1) Intro
2) Battle for the Topaz Throne
3) Dreaming of Atlantean Spires
4) The Fall of the Gleaming Citadels (Before the Dark Fury of the Elder Gods)
5) Enthroned in the Halls of the Serpent Kings
6) By the Blaze of the Fire Jewels
7) Thus Spake the Silent Halls of Valasia

Mega / RGhost

Today's post completes the gradual shift back to metal and is another thing discovered from the dungeons of our lord Fenrirsson, thank you for the rip! UK's Bal-Sagoth might be a familiar name to some of you, they've churned out six albums over a ten year period, the latest already a decade ago, and a demo back in '93 which got a re-release in 2013. If you've an interest in fantasy metal I'm quite sure you've encountered them before and basically know what to expect from this rehearsal tape. It's surprisingly long, over 36 minutes, but the ambient intro track here is remarkably lengthy, especially when compared to the metal tracks that follow, at seven minutes forty-eight seconds. It's followed, naturally, by the shortest song of the lot which takes slightly less than three minutes. The rest are more in the expected running times of four plus minutes, last one nearly equaling the intro. Pretty clear but not very powerful sound allows necessary elements be observed.

I should mention I've never been much into Bal-Sagoth, my initial experience with "A Black Moon Broods over Lemuria" left me slightly dissappointed and then "Starfire..." went totally over the top with the pomp, silliness, goofy breaks, circus synths and especially the vocals which I really disliked, way too much narration and just aaaargh enough, enough, ENOUGH! Where was I? Yeah, older B-S though sounds slightly more reasonable and ugh, kinda like old Cradle Of Filth I have to say. Bet they love(d) that comparison! Considering how little patience I have for the post-debut B-Sags (though I haven't heard all the albums) this is quite listenable. But enough from me, give it a go if you're thus inclined.

Torech Ungol / Gates of Azharia - Split 2004

Torech Ungol / Gates of Azharia - Split ...CD(-r?) 2004
Torech Ungol:
1) Le Désastre des Champs d'Iris
2) Le Torture de Hurin
3) Le Serment de Feanor
Gates of Azharia:
4) I
5) II
6) III
7) IV
8) V

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's do a split today. This one was sent to me by brother Emptiness Cycle who had scoured it from somewhere in the murky depths of the inter nets, thanks! From France, Torech Ungol and Gates of Azharia. It's not quite the '04 demo "Nirnaeth Arnoediad" that one of my readers requested a few... damn it, over five years ago! Yeah, but it did sate my curiosity about the band at least and perhaps it'll help unearth that tape too. I'm not sure if this should be considered a split album or rather a split demo released on CDr (I'm guessing the format by the cover, real sharp). Whatever, it was released by Inspire Hate Records, as was the demo too, generally better known for their NS-oriented bands in the early 00's.

Torech Ungol's part is wandering in the misty, ill-mapped realms of "ambient black metal" which generally tends to mean black metal vocals and some (usually artificial) percussion over what otherwise might pass as dungeon synth or dark ambient, perhaps with stringed instruments sitting quietly on the backseat while the keyboards drive and vocals make ruckus on the front seat. Must... not... namedrop... Summoning... oh damn it! Besides the raspy default voice we also have spoken parts on the second song, some silly effect-laden growly spoken parts, all in French and this one is actually more driven by acoustics, said voices and wind-effects. Can't forget the winds, no sir. It's very barely metal, I must say. Third one has more spoken words, synth and drum machines. As the band's name and song titles give away, this is very Tolkien-inspired stuff.

Gates of Azharia's segment is slightly longer and divided into five untitled parts which I insist on labeling with the ol' Roman numerals. How I love those! Their part is clearly more ambient of the two and has somewhat pagan vibe to it, even slightly martial what with the first track's drumming and chanted vocals. Reminds me vaguely of the Emglev stuff I posted earlier. II is folky and somewhat upbeat, III in similar vein but moodier, IV is a melancholic piece characterized by acoustic strumming and features some whispery voices. Last part is similar to the first. I must say I prefer Gates on this split, easily. Grab this if the names dropped ring any bells other than alarm ones.

Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green demo III 1999

Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green unreleased demo III 1999
1) The Sleeping
2) The Awakening
3) Through Ages
4) Öinen matkaaja
5) Vaipuminen

Yandex / Sendspace
Bandcamp

Alright, I promised a special post and here it finally is, after ~17 years, the third Lunar Womb demo. Master Sorvali sent me this just a few days ago after I once again pestered encouraged him to get it finished. Well, all he really had left was to do last touches to the covers, if you can speak of such with a digital release, so it was (surprisingly) quickly completed. Thank you again for agreeing to share this recording with us! It should be vigorously emphasized that everything was made in '98 - '99 and remastered last year, so I'll repeat Henri's words from the cover:

"The Sleeping Green was originally intended to be released as a cassette demo in 1999, but due to personal and artistic reasons it was never published.

It describes my deepest respect for the nature, the Finnish vast landscapes and beliefs age-old wrapped into a musical form.

The recordings were found from my personal archives in 2015 and carefully remastered from the original tracks afterwards. All the song-titles and artwork was inteded for the original release and while nothing in this release is matching the quality standards of 2016, I hope the music will take you where it took me over fifteen years ago as well... where I still dwell."

Illustrations for each of the tracks, art by Rudolf Koivu.

As you see, this one has the most songs out of the three but they're generally shorter (compared to the other demos, that is!) so the total running time is slightly over 34 minutes. The music here is more consistent than on the preceeding demos and clearly a concept work instead of a compilation of tracks, while the individual songs still have their own character. Compared to "The Astral Grief" the sound is more refined, part due the remastering I assume and music is generally more varying, complex and sophisticated. It has, depending on the track, both soundtrack-like and neoclassical qualities as well as trollish dungeon synth moments surrounded by an overall folkloric, national romantic feel. Fits very well with the artwork borrowed from Rudolf Koivu. Some sound effects and vocals are used, first one more liberally but not overbearingly and second one very sparingly which matches my policy and tastes.

Was it worth the wait then? Yes. The moods are generally more light, wistful and nostalgic rather than dark, moody or warlike and there is a certain sense of wonder present. Beautiful stuff and essential to any fan of Henri's work and generally recommended if this sort of music appeals to you at all.

UPDATE: Henri has also made it available at "name-your-price" option, lossless files, at his bandcamp page. So if you feel like supporting, scurry over there and throw your currency at screen when prompted!

Masochist - Nocturnal Practices reh/demo '94

Masochist - Nocturnal Practices rehearsal demo 1994
1) Black Church Bells Ring
2) Bleed for Thy Sins
3) Eve of Anti Creation
4) Sucking the Tongue of the Ancient One
5) Frost of the Diabolical Forest
6) Blasphemer (Sodom cover)
7) Outro

Zippyshare / Depositfiles

Today's item might be considered a weekend filler and that is somewhat justifiable, seeing that several other rips of the tape have bobbed on the gaily rollicking waves of the cybersea for long and especially considering the extensive memorial compilation "History" released by Moribund cult in 2007 which contains all Masochist works. But then again, this could serve as an introduction to uninitiated plus comrade unholydeath's sending was made from an original tape and came with scans so it'd be a waste not to feature it. Kind of a companion piece to the Summon post made a year ago. Thanks for the contribution!

Masochist were one of the earlier second wave US black metal bands and in my mind always personified by the late multi-instrumentalist Tchort who shares the vocal duties on this recording with Xaphan (he's responsible for tracks 3 and 6). This roughly half an hour recording is a rehearsal demo meant to promote '95 release on Moribund which never came to exist. Six tracks, one a Sodom cover and an outro that was not mentioned on the cover... well actually there is also an intro which ud didn't separate from the first track and which is equally unmentioned in the cover. It's a separate track on the "History" 2-CD and titled Intro (Deliver Us unto Temptation) there. Soundwise this is obviously a rehearsal recording, clear enough to hear all instruments (yes, even the bass) but the guitars are a bit subdued. Other than that I've no complaints. Music is clearly black metal but there are touches of death metal noticeable and it sounds very... uh, early 90s USBM. I enjoy the vocals a lot, must give the compilation a good spin later today. Next post will be a special one so look forward to it!

Fulgor - Eyequinox 7"EP '95

Fulgor - Eyequinox 7"EP 1995
1) Silent Waters Leading Deep
2) Art
3) The Flog

Mega

Today's post is the Fulgor 7"EP we discussed at the comments for the demo IV here. This is the rip and scans brother Misfits originally posted in the sadly deceased Lockjaw blog. We decided to make it available again here which means we're only missing the '93 rehearsal/promo from a complete Fulgor discography. Thanks again to Misfits for his work with this!

Merciless Records, known for being the label of several other German pioneers like Desaster, Martyrium and Ungod, released this EP back in '95 and describe the music as "Abusing Pattern Music" which is an ...interesting description, to say the least. The insert included in Misfits' scans states this EP was recorded "two years ago" which would mean '93, like basically all their material. So despite me calling it the trippiest Fulgor release I might be wrong about that, it's not really so drastically different from the last demos. Overall better sound quality than the tapes but otherwise direct continuation of "Our 10 Urphar Visions" and "To Be One with the Stars..." - they say themselves it completes the fourlogy of releases. Even though it is the fifth one. Wonder which one they're not counting in, the rehearsal/promo or the "Mystical Black Magic Metal" promo 06/93? Whatever, I'm not going to ramble on longer, if you liked the other releases you'll need this one too and I need the reh/promo!

Bestial Summoning - Rehearsal 17/10/91

Bestial Summoning - Rehearsal 17th October 1991
1) Unholy Horde of the Abyss
2) Raping the Holy Virgin
3) Blaspheming the Church
4) Dark Metal
5) Demon Baptism in Hades
6) Pleasures in Sadism
7) Unholy Master
8) Sadistic Torture
9) Christ Impalement
10) Angel Rape I
11) Angel Rape II

RGhost / Mediafire

Long overdue, here is more Dutch black metal madness as promised, in the form of another rehearsal tape by the notorious cult of Bestial Summoning. This was also among the rehearsal and demo rips our brother Baldemar sent. Thank you! I hesitated to post this a little since it's been around with the same bitrate for several years, but then in the end decided to go for it. There was no cover, I just made up a placeholder with the same principle as last time.

Eleven tracks for over half an hour of music, comparable to their demo "Sodomistic Rituals" and notably all songs seem unique to this recording. At least going by the song titles (which The Unsane conveniently bellows out loud before each track) but then again they could've been easily renamed and reworked... or re-improvised? for the demo or album. The sound here is a little messier than on the '90 jam session. Generally this is similar, at least partly improvised ruckus as the rest of Bestial Summoning material, total unsane black metal filth not suited for the seekers of sophisticated black art.

Mimir - Like a Dark Night of Winter demo '97

Mimir - Like a Dark Night of Winter demo 1997
1) Intro
2) Words of Wisdom Part 1
3) Like a Dark Night of Winter
4) Words of Wisdom Part 2
5) Written Chronicles of the Wood
6) Words of Wisdom Part 3
7) Battle Behind the Mountain of Frost
8) Words of Wisdom Part 4
9) Secrate Clouds Over the Temple of Ice
10) Outro

RGhost / Sendspace

Let's stray from the black metal path again for a bit, but not too far. Into the dungeons again, here is Mimir of Deutschland with their demo recorded at Pagan Art Studio in the February of 1997. Thanks to our brother LKS again for sending me the rip, which I separated into tracks, and cover scan. Mimir was a musical project of three men Astanoth, Octan and Nicron, which is slightly unusual, and very much connected to the black metal scene. This tape was also the first release of Fog of the Apokalypse which I presume to be the same entity as the still active label Fog of the Apocalypse. But that's enough speculation.

Half an hour of music is divided into ten parts, an intro, outro and four "Words of Wisdom" interludes, leaving four longer "proper" songs. Syntherizer sounds combine with live percussion, stringed instrument, some samples, sound effects, perhaps even actual field recordings and spoken black metal-esque voice, last notably only during the Words-parts. Reminds me of Olgerd a bit. It's generally more "foresty" and slightly folky than broodingly minimalistic and tomblike. I remember being initially more enthusiastic about this than today, but I am quite tired so I won't go further. Just grab this if old synth/atmospheric projects pluck your strings and ring the bells.

Distortion of Evil - Rehearsal 1992

Distortion of Evil - Rehearsal Tape 3rd July 1992
1) Pluck the Strings
2) Fuck God

Mediafire / Zippyshare

Some of you might've noticed me and master Fenrirsson discuss a certain Danish entity in the shadowy corner of the last post... well, comments section really. And here we are presenting the '92 two-song rehearsal tape by Distortion of Evil. Probably their only release, which is a pity. Kulmar and Nomos of later Denial of God fame were members of the band, don't know much else really. No cover but the Metal Archives entry had a logo which I borrowed. Thanks again to F for sharing!

Two songs only, but both run over four minutes so it's a decent enough representation of their music which is vile and filthy, quite brutal black metal. The songs do have a surprising amount of stuff going on, it's not just breakneck full speed ahead ram their side-sort of carnage. Rehearsal sound here is somewhat chaotic and messy but you're able to hear everything you need and it's not really bad or more importantly weak so it'll do just fine. Brings the Emperor demo and rehearsal tapes to mind actually, which in my book is a plus. Recommended.

UPDATE: Brother Grev informed me of the date of recording which has been added. Thanks as always!

Demonthrone - Behold, the Demonthrone demo 1998

Demonthrone - Behold, the Demonthrone demo I 1998
1) Behold, the Demonthrone
2) The Crypt of Malign Evil
3) O' Darkness Embrace Me
4) A Misty Village Afar

4shared / Yandex

I suppose this blog is best known for black metal? Or maybe synth stuff, depends on the reader I guess... never been that keen on making surveys and whatnot. Anyways, it is time we get back to what we usually do and here is again brother Grev conspiring with me: familiar division of work him dubbing and sending a scan, me ripping the tape and posting. Please do note that we never said it'd be good black metal, for today I give you the somewhat notorious and oft maligned Demonthrone. Some of you might remember this demo, which probably is their only one, scored a row of straight 1/5's from the staff of Meathooked 'zine sharing the dubious honour with such greats as Frostdemonstorm and Azaxul. That is enough to capture one's attention, especially someone often at odds with said editors' other reviews. I do remember the reception to this demo was universally quite sour which discouraged me from getting a copy back in the day. Fortunately G. wasn't daunted by such trivialities!

The cover is not exactly promising either, it's the wrong sort of crappy and amateurish. At least the song titles look decent enough. But music counts so we move on. A raw and echoy rehearsal sound is imminent when the silly demon voice intro starts the title track. Perhaps surprisingly the black metal that follows isn't nearly as bad as we've been goaded to believe, if not original or well executed either. The sound is very toleratable, songs generally on the short and simple and sort of bad side but it's definitely not even close to being worst stuff I've heard. Shabby for sure, but somehow almost sympathy evoking struggling. I bet the musicians were quite young. Not something you really want to sit back and listen to, though if you do I won't judge you. Question perhaps, doubt most certainly but not judge. Obsessive archivists of Finnish demonology will of course be interested in this, as well the idly curious who've read about it and probably there's someone warped enough to want this on vynil.

Various Newsletters ('95 - '00)

Clavelline newsletter, issue 6 (21st March 2000)
Article:
Faerie folk, part one
+ contact addresses, reviews

Divine Blackness newsletter, issue 6 (1996)
Interview:
Countess
+ news, reviews, Denial of God bio/newsletter March '95

Underground Scene Report newsletter, issue 14 (February 1995)
Lots of reviews

Mega

Remember when I said I'd make the next post "proper" last time? Well, I lied. I noticed I had scanned a bunch of small newsletters and put them in the same folder, then as usual forgot them lying on a corner of my desktop. I thought I might as well make a post of the three now. So here we have in alphabetical order and incidentally from the least pages to the most:
- Clavelline issue 6
An extremely minimalistic newsletter of two pages made by Radek "Jelly" Vicherek who probably did something else too but I can't remember what anymore. Nowadays seems to be a web developer, fun trivia. First page is basically a listing of addresses with short descriptions and a nude pic, second one has three (3) reviews which are pretty good and the article Faerie Folk (part one) which seems to be an alphabetic listing with brief descriptions of various fae creatures. I'm pretty sure I had another issue of Clavelline somewhere and it probably was similar to this but can't seem to find it. Might be imagining it. Perhaps someone else has other examples?
 - Divine Blackness issue 6
This was Impure Creations' (later Velvet Music) newsletter and I'm certain I had more issues but possibly forwarded them all. I also seem to recall it was called something else initially... Scarlet something? Anyways, they sent these to people they were in contact with and this has more interesting content. Four pages, first has a brief news section followed by short but interesting (mainly black metal) reviews, almost all are demos. Then two pages for a Countess interview made after the release of second album, decent if nothing that special and last page contains Denial of God's combined biography/newsletter dating to early '95. I suppose it's informative too.
- Underground Scene Report issue 14
Kind of a shame I didn't get more copies of this, wonder why not since it was practically free too. Made by a Dutch fellow Paul V.D. Burght this particular issue has six pages crammed full of reviews (of reasonable length) with separate sections for 'zines and compilations, plus a little Dark Records special and some ads. Plenty of logos here too. I'd like to see more issues if someone has kept them.

So there. Let's see what sort of an anomaly I can dig up next.

Нова генерация - Отвъд смъртта (1992)

Нова генерация - Отвъд смъртта cassette album 1992
1) Йон и ана
2) На прага
3) Последната вълна
4) Момиче без спомени
5) Градината на света
6) Обичам
7) Берлин
8) Част от колекция
9) Отплуване
10) Сто години
11) Яйцето
12) Отвъд смъртта

Depositfiles

No repost so let's do something slightly more unusual again. Roughly a year ago I posted the '92 tape album by the Bulgarian Violetov General aka Виолетов генерал as seen here. Well, apparently today is the not-very-near future referred to in that entry for I decided to post another cassette album from the same year, also from a new / cold / dark wave (don't look at me, I copied that from Wikipedia!) band hailing from Bulgaria, Нова генерация alternatively known as Nova Generacia or even New Generation. Apparently they're a cult band in their own country, possibly elsewhere too, can't really say since I'm not at all well versed in this scene. Cover images borrowed from Discogs and rip from a dub I got years ago tape trading.

Ok, it must be said right away the dub is shitty, there's annoying disturbancy noise in it, very apparent in the first intro track already. For a while I wondered if it could be some sort of really, really stupid effect added to the music but that can't be. The sound would be otherwise fine so that's extra bothersome. If you happen to have a better rip I'd be happy to have it. Music is the usual wave stuff to be honest, with lyrics in Bulgarian which adds value to me since if I don't understand them, their quality can't bother me. The album title translates as "Beyond Death" so I assume it would be gloomy enough. Due the bad dub (I hate tapes, have I remembered to mention this?) not an optimal listen at all, but since I had ripped the damned thing I wanted to post it and perhaps spark someone's curiosity to find more about them. Not to mention possibly gain a better version for myself! Older material also welcome.

I better make the next post proper again.