Secrets of the Moon - Rehearsals '96-'99

Secrets of the Moon - Rehearsals '96-'99
1) Praise the Kaos
2) Day of Doom
3) The Morbid Dying of the Universe
4) Intermezzo
5) Vanitas
6) Idolize Me
7) My Life for Yours
8) Sailà
9) Under a Funeral Moon
10) Through Golden Spheres
11) Fanatica
12) Thrash Song
13) His Fire My Flame
14) Lonesome in Forest at Nightfall
15) Fanatica
16) Orion in the Nightsky
17) Leichengott / Under the Sign
18) Sodomatic Rites
19) Absu Song
20) Possession

 Reuploaded

One last post for a year ending and again me and brother LKS are in Germany, in familiar company too. For the third time, I present you Secrets of the Moon and this time there is A LOT of stuff, a compilation tape (just over 90 minutes) of various rehearsal takes and bits the band had dubbed to some folks back in... I guess 1999 since that's where the last material on it dates. Scan of the tape cover, just a simple handwritten thing, can be seen above and within. Many thanks for sharing this, LKS!

Since you can see the cover right there I'm not going to go track-by-track saying what is recorded when... I wonder why I actually bothered typing the damn tracklisting in the first place? Because you always do that. Right, let's get back on rails, bro LKS sent this ripped as side A & B and I further meddled with it a little, some strategic normalising and a bit of silence cut here and there as I chopped it into separate tracks. Thanks to my troublesome ways, the sound level is considerably more even than in the original dub but does not really differ otherwise. Most of the time they've a good, pretty clear rehearsal sound . Please note that majority of the tape is instrumental! I should probably add it to tags as it's well over half of the content. More like three quarters actually. The two covers are no surprise as versions exist on other tapes. Tracks 12 and 19 have obviously very rough working titles to them and I think both 2 and 3 appeared under different titles on albums later, but can't right off the bat identify 'em. They were probably further processed too. Same with track four I think. Someone better at this game might do us all a favor and identify what became of them for much rejoicing and facepalming.

Ok, I'd love to drone on, seeing how this still is one of my favourite bands, but some of us have work to do tonight and I think I should sleep too. I bid you farewell now and wish you success, prosperity, darkness and perversion for the upcoming year!

Martyrium - Live in Neumagen 17-12-1994

Martyrium - Live in Neumagen, Germany 17th December 1994
1) Intro / Forgotten Spheres
2) Atum's Speech
3) A Living Ba
4) Lucifer Rising
5) Glory of the Raging Storm
6) Into Midnight Silence
7) Winds of Apocalypse

RGhost / 4shared / Mediafire

I missed the truly appropriate window to post this a week ago but better a bit later than to delay any more, as I got this live recording of the German Martyrium at the same time as the one I posted in June. Like the '93 show, this was ripped by brother Grev's associate and edited by me, with the assistance of sister Borderline in fixing the tracklisting. Thanks to all involved parties! Placeholder cover lazily edited from the one I made for the Annaberg live.

The set's duration is almost half an hour and as you see it differs a bit from the '93 one. Sound is also better though by no means polished. All instruments can be generally distinguished without much trouble, even if the busier moments can get somewhat messy. I don't really have a whole lot to say now, it's recommended for all who've enjoyed Martyrium releases so far and vastly easier to approach of the two live tapes.

Malitiae - My Inner Blasphemy promo '96

Malitiae - My Inner Blasphemy promo 1996
1) Goathead (Intro)
2) Förintelsens tron
3) Baphometh

links deleted as it wasn't correct item!

More contributions follow, this is Malitiae from Sweden, loved by a few, dreaded by a couple more and unknown to vast majority. Not devotees of the Coven though! This is the second tape, of which Lord Azazel Djinn himself commented: "About the other tapes, the second one was in many ways worse (though completely different), whereas the two following ones were standard black metal." Thanks for the chance to hear it go to my collaborateur, the man who originally ripped and scanned this, monsieur Ronan of Psychopathological zine and my lovely assistant not doing a magic show my collaboratrice, the good sister Borderline who forwarded the rip to me and acquired permission to feature it here. Merci beaucoup! Hvala vam puno!

Ok, enough banter, let's move to business: three songs, first being an intro and two "regular" ones, total a bit under ten minutes. Good sound but unfortunately Ronan has ripped it at slightly too loud volume so it sounds a bit more abrasive and broken than it should. This is fully intrumental and resembles most fellow Swedes Landscape and actually a bit Emglev too, now that I listen to the second song while typing this. This might pass as metal, ambient/black metal of some sort perhaps, if one is feeling generous, with the percussion and all. Third track not so much, it's basically keyboards on the background and piano that is beaten played like percussion on the forefront. At the end of the day I can't agree with the artist's assessment of this being worse of the two early demos. And now I'm really curious to hear how he progressed on the stardard black metal demos III & IV! Not obviously for everyone but much easier to recommend than the first effort.

UPDATE: Lord Azazel Djinn sent me his rip of this promo and it's not the one I got from Borderline who got it from Ronan!!! Almost same running time but different material! It has vocals and sounds more like a continuation of "Azazel" demo, I'll probably upload it here as soon as I get some sort of clearence what the hell the item Ronan had ripped is then, as he had provided scans I wonder if he somehow managed to do wrong side of the tape or what ever else may have occurred. Damn it! Now I wonder if it could be a Conjured to Baphometh recording, also by L.A.D. and in that vein.

UPDATE II: Yup, it's partial Conjured to Baphometh demo, not "My Inner Blasphemy" and links are removed. I will make a repost with Lord A.D.'s sending, stay tuned! And eventually CtB demo too.

Daemonium Aeturnus #...4? ...6?

Daemonium Aeturnus 'zine, probably issue 4 (1993) - could be even issue 6
Interviews:
Lullaby
Necromantia
Berserk
Thou Art Lord
In the Woods...
Beherit
Necromass
Absurd
Algol
Gorgoroth
(The) Ancients Rebirth
Dark Heresy
Lacerated Gods
Morningstar
Mütiilation
Anubi
Mock
Satanskin
Key of Alocer 'zine
Deinonychus
Demoncy
Two Witches
Inquisitor
Goatwinter
Xaztur
Sylvester's Death (Death SS)
Brotherhood of Balder
The Luciferian Light Group
Temple of the Vampire
Articles:
Asmodeus by Abaaner/KoA
Lilith Abaaner again
"Barbarian tale" by Absurd
Aleister Crowley
Loosening the Soul more Abaaner
Smell of Magick pretty sure Abaaner
De Bokkerijders by Gunther Theys
Eliphas Levi I can't believe it's not Abaaner
+reviews, special on Balder including the interview, another (Inside the Brotherhood of Balder) by Eric Fletcher, Sports Magick - an introduction, Runic Body Work, Coxland Press catalogue, Man-hunt - a training exercise on our expediton and Sleepwalkers Versus the Übermenchen (looong article)

Mediafire

It is time to post a 'zine again and this is another issue of the legendary Daemonium Aeturnus and as before, it's a (half-assed) scan I made of a xeroxed copy brother Kurgan sent me. Thanks for contributing as always! Unfortunately a grim spectre of uncertainity looms above us as we're not really sure which issue this is! The damned cover, originally red I presume, is almost completely illegible and master Unsane didn't see fit to mention such details inside. Well, the border made by Conscicide at least has year, which on the other hand is easy enough to deduce from the contents. I'm making a bold, educated guess and declare this as the 4th issue. It's much, much larger in content, slightly in staff (The Unsane is joined by Count Ildjarn/Gylvarheim which I presume different aliases of the same person and the rather special Rimmon the 4th Antichrist who is enthusiastic if nothing else) and obviously on page count compared to the second issue we earlier featured. Plenty of guest content too, as you may notice from the articles bit up there, many being courtesy of Abaaner Incendium of Key of Alocer fame. Another major clue was the mention of Demoncy having been featured before (Wicked interviewed by Rimmon) and that sure wasn't the 2nd issue so I'm assuming it was on the unseen third issue.

I tried red-ifying the cover but that didn't help at all.

There is a shitload of reading here, seventy pages and as U mentions on the editorial he had to reduce the size of printing on the interviews to cut the page count which means they're kind of hard on the eyes to squint through. This is where digital scans really come in handy, I'm not going to hunch over a text with a magnifying glass, no thank you! The reduced lettering is a bit messy but nothing you couldn't decipher with a little patience. Simple, gloriously lo-tech yet clear layout. I'm not going to write much longer about this, it's essential read but special mentions must go to having interesting, rather obscure and good interviews such as the Belgian Berserk as well as somewhat silly but equally clandestine and curious ones like Goatwinter who very eagerly agree with almost any topic dropped at them. Oh yeah, Rimmon's reviews are pretty atrocious ("This finish band is absolutely one of the better bands from Finland but there aren't many bands like this in Finland..." it's like he dictated whatever came to his mind to a robot) and his roughly 30 question interviews... well let's say that so many shots fired means some will hit the target. Unsane is more restrained, vastly better writer and notably calmer while the count is somewhere in the middle ground. But enough nagging, once again recommended and someone please verify if this actually is the fourth issue or not!

UPDATE: An anonymous commentor told me the 2nd Key of Alocer issue mentions an interview in the 6th (!) DA which would most likely be this then. Unless Abaaner featured in several issues which isn't totally improbable but seems less likely. Thanks for the clue, further confirmation would still be welcome!

Vacuum - Digest of Dreams demo '94

Vacuum [nor] - Digest of Dreams demo 1994
1) Cosmos
2) Deep in the Sea of Grief
3) Epitomized

Depositfiles / Yandex

Let's do another Norwegian item and in somewhat similar vein to our previous offering. Here, courtesy of the detective work performed by brother Emptiness Cycle, is finally the long-sought 1994 demo "Digest of Dreams" by Vacuum which you may remember from the Sverd Storm II compilation I posted in 2011. I've been after the damned thing for 20 years but not apparently hard enough, considering how easily EC acquired it! Well, not sure if easily but rather quickly anyways. Thanks again for doing the legwork! He had contacted a former member of the band who provided a master rip of the demo (and some other stuff, we return to them at later date) for our nefarious purposes. No cover scans unfortunately but at least the music is at last available.

Three tracks, the second one being already familiar from the compilation tape and all are full "proper" songs. General feeling is a bit more on the trippy and slightly experimental side rather than desolate doom and gloom of many peers worldwide at the time. Sound is good, I'd say and mostly very clear. There is a temporary quality shift on the second song which might be a little disconcerting to more tender listeners, but nothing really drastic. Main voice is the gruff yell familiar from the sampler presentation, much more melodious and singsongy than usual takes one tends to encounter. There are some passages which remind me of what Katatonia was shifting to at the time. Music, not the vocals, mind you. A few slightly silly bits too, like the synth hit around two minutes into the last song, perfect for striking a pose. EDIT: How did I manage to not mention the abrupt ending? Well, I did. So, the last track ends very, very abruptly which brother EC had also noticed and apparently "he's adamant that its how its meant to be" (the contributor that is) so it's an odd artistic choice then. Overall I can't say I'd be dissappointed after my excessive wait, have a listen if Norwegian non-black metal items of the 90's interest you at all!

Vidvandre - Svanesang demo '95

Vidvandre - Svanesang demo 1995
1) Stålet som skjærer
2) Når spurvene danser
3) Trell
4) Svanesang

Sendspace / Mediafire

How about a little bit mellower post? Not that the previous one would've been particularily vicious, mind you, but I need to write something to get myself out the door, on the path and eventually lost in the forest of digression. Which serves as a terrible way to get to the point; this is Vidvandre fra Stavanger, Norge and their one and (apparently) only demo "Svanesang" from 1995. An appropriate name if it indeed is their sole creation. I got a dub of this among other things from brother Grev already over two years ago but it took me this damn long to get off my ass and find more about the band, you see he had the band misspelled "Via Vandre" which produced zero results researching. Luckily my very meager skills in Norwegian language came in handy as I finally sat down to think what the band name really should be and bang, direct hit! Cover image was borrowed from Metal Archives, full scan would be neat.

Obviously reading of my revelation must be fascinating but some might prefer to discuss the music. Fine, three long songs and a shorter instrumental interlude of Norwegian folky doom metal, think bands like early Tristania, The Sins of Thy Beloved and fellow Stavangerites Dismal Euphony and Theatre of Tragedy. Actually, Frank Claessen (guitars) would actually later become a member of ToT. Pretty decent demo sound, though being a dub of a dub of a dub brings the inevitable wear and smudginess. National romantic melodies, melancholic and wistful moods, flutes and female vocal parts spicing up the soup. It's not bad at all (except the silly babbling bits in the last song, why did you do this), makes me wonder if I've actually read a review of the demo from a 'zine once upon a time, making yet another "note to self" to be eventually forgotten? Anyways, we found each other lost in the infinite woods, perhaps you will be drawn in as well. Recommended if you dig melodic death/doom.

Paymon - The Way of Knowledge demo '96

Paymon - The Map Way of Knowledge demo 1996
1) Intro
2) My Eternal Dream
3) Cauterized Soul
4) Scongiurazione a Diana
5) Christ's Death
6) Outro
7) Labyrinth der Einsamkeit

Mega / Rusfolder

Let's do something different from short Finnish rehearsal tapes for change... how about awkward, lo-fi German black metal/ambient? Yes! But only if it is at least album length with a strange and half-assed track division!! And boy, do we deliver. This is Paymon of Germania and their(/his?) only demo, "recorded in a Dirty Black Summer MDCCCCXCVI" as the cover states. Not exactly Danzig-influenced though. Well, maybe if one crossbred "Black Aria" with a mixture of old Mjölnir, Sorg and Siren, perhaps with a pinch of Fulgor thrown in for good measure. Nah, it's not really a good comparison. I've a scan of the charming xerox covers this time, both it and the rip again courtesy of brother LKS. Thank you! The probably inaccurate track division was my fault, I think... this has been sitting in Limbo waiting for quite a while already.

UPDATE: Damn it I thought the name was a bit odd and then finally had a good luck at the cover scan, tilted and what do you know, the accursed title is "The Way of Knowledge" not ...Map...!!! I should know better than trust Metal Archives' half-literate contributors, how can I be so blind?!? Reuploaded with the corrected title, so annoying!

The sound is quite low, both in volume and quality and as I've already hinted the music is kind of haphazard, lumbering slower stuff that I guess should be somewhat generously categorized into black metal. There are both short and loooong tracks but it's pretty hard to accurately say where one bit actually ends and next begins. I really need to get to bed soon so I think I'll stop my writeup here before it too wanders into the murky haze, not to be seen again. Certain parties will enjoy the display while others will add it to the list of obscure German crap best avoided. Have a listen and pick your side!

Moonrise - Rehearsal Track '96

Moonrise - Rehearsal Track 1996
1) Untitled

RGhost / Yandex

Let's do another short instrumental rehearsal thingy from a Finnish band and this is also a partial fulfilment of sister Borderline's wish from spring '15. I finally found the single rehearsal track of Finnish Moonrise, which could rightfully be considered an Unhola sideproject I guess, we discussed in comment section for... Realm of Frost rehearsal track I think? I had no title for this and have not heard either the instrumental rehearsal '95 mentioned on the Archives nor the '96 promo so I can't say if this would be one of the tracks from either. Or actually the '95 recording itself for that matter.

Sound is very good, less bass-heavy than some of the Unhola material and it's more Norsecore than mid-90's typical Finnish. It sounds very familiar too, I thought for a moment that this might be a Burzum cover but nope, it's a bit different and faster than the track I was thinking about. Knowing the accursed cassette media it could run at wrong speed though. Oh well, anyways it's a brisk midpace song with an urgent drive to it and quite straightforward nature. Would really love to hear the '96 promo and see what variation of vocals Margoath used for this project.

Gorgoroth - Rehearsal Tape '93

Gorgoroth [fin] - Rehearsal tape 1993 (probably)
1) Trapped in Icy City
2) Mournfull Gathering
3) Mournfull Gathering (pitkä versio)

Zippyshare / Yandex

Sorry, it's not the better known Norwegian Gorgoroth but the quite obscure Finnish one. As usual, I'm posting a Finnish item for the 6th December which, in case you've forgotten, is the independence day of Finland. So yeah, this is actually obscure enough for both me and brother Suuret Muinaiset, who dubbed me this and some other things some time ago, to not know what year it is from. Or that's how I remember it, I seem to have misplaced brother SM's letter that came with the tape (a letter is like an email written on a sheet of paper, possibly manually, and sent via the postal services, kids) but I'm almost certain he couldn't recall it anymore. Anyways, it's early 90's and I've seen it before on some trading list or another but fail to recall if it had a year listed or just "9x" or perhaps "9?" instead. I'm thinking '91 or '92, '93 at the very latest. Brother Grev, have you heard about this? Got any clues? Anyone?
UPDATE: As expected, Grev replied quickly and thinks this is '93. Let's go with that until proven otherwise and thanks to both SM & G

Obviously no cover for this, I believe they just dubbed it to some people like was a common practice at the time. All the three songs are instrumental and as you probably notice, the third one is just a longer version of the second track. And yes, I know it's misspelled, but if that's how they did it so do we! After all, it's "Necromansy" and "In Conspirasy with Satan" (though some heretics go "correct" the latter) and that's it! Everything is instrumental and music is sort of black/death metal hybrid, the reason we're calling it black in the first place is that I'm under the impression they considered themselves that. Rehearsal sound is a little messy for the bass, especially on faster parts (typical), but generally clear enough to distinguish all the necessary details. Kind of booming and echo-y. The last song's sound differs a little from the first two, being a bit more subdued. Another take with equipment slightly moved I suppose. The music isn't as crude and simple as you might expect, it's actually pretty melodic, more on the melancholic side rather than brutal and actually interesting enough for me to wonder how they would've sounded on a proper demo.

Well, that we're probably never going to know, unless somebody appears with another recording, perhaps done under a different monicker. I don't expect that to happen so let us just enjoy this for what it is. Or not, if you dislike instrumental stuff with rehearsal sound. Personally I like instrumental recordings better than ones with bad vocals so I can go ahead and give this a seal of Approval, Recommendation, Support and Excellence. "Excellence" might be going a bit far but I'm on a jovial mood today.