sunnuntai 5. maaliskuuta 2017

Drunemeton - Recital to the Shinning Moon demo '96


Drunemeton - Recital to the Shinning Moon demo '96
1) The Wolves of Winter: Part 1: Chorus During Early Nigth
2) The Wolves of Winter: Part 2: Leaving the Forest
3) The Wolves of Winter: Part 3: The Hurting
4) The Wolves of Winter: Part 4: The Last Breath
5) The Dancing Fost
6) The Hand's Cuting
7) Triumph of the Ice

Zippyshare / Yandex

Today I wanted to do an item that has been bothering me for almost twenty years but finally some weeks ago the matter was lain to rest, thanks to the contribution by comrade Dead Christmas! The bothersome item in question was this '96 demo by "Polish" (so I was told back in the tape trading days) synth project Drunemeton of which I had a very questionable dub. Fortunately DC had acquired the demo during his quest for Nazgul Productions items and judging from the information on the covers I believe this too was a French artist after all. The rip also revealed how hopelessly lacking my dub was. Cover scan is enclosed and I have uploaded a very slightly edited version of the rip; I increased the volume just a notch and cut away a bit of noise after the first song that was not part of the demo.

At roughly 42½ minutes this easily reaches album length and is divided into two halves so to say, first twenty minutes consisting of the epic The Wolves of Winter parts 1-4. Instrumental, somewhat neoclassical sounding dungeon synth mixing (I'm taking this from the covers directly) Akai, Oberheim and Roland synthesizers with grand piano and some flutes. I've cut each part into individual tracks as the tracklisting gives them separate running times and they divided easily enough. The second half is made of three tracks with slightly more individual character to each of them. The Dancing Fost (I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be ...Frost but I didn't go and correct the titles, like I always say it is Necromansy and that's it!) starts almost harshly and proceeds to change to more introspective moods before slowly picking momentum again, only for it to drop while approaching the end. Synthesizer sounds rather than piano dominate The Hand's Cuting (again, should be ...Cutting but no correcsies!) giving it an aura of menace that changes to desolation as the instrumentation gets scarcer and more minimalistic, developing to a trippy dark ambient end. Last song Triumph of the Ice is the longest of the lot and reprises some of the moods from the first parts while featuring a very distinct classical guitar part in the middle before a long build up to a slow but triumphant ending with percussive elements and orchestra hits. Wintry, melancholic and rather nostalgic stuff, decent enough sound though not by any means polished. Reminds me at times of Emglev (again!) and in places even Lamentation. Few places. And just a little. But much more Emg than Lam. Recommended for fans of French synth projects, dungeon explorers and Nazgul Productions enthusiasts.

6 kommenttia:

Unknown kirjoitti...

Drunemeton is the band from Ropczyce (Poland) ?
Link in Metal Archives : http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Drunemeton/79143

Velkaarn kirjoitti...

@UnholyBlackMad:

That's a different Drunemeton and probably the reason I was told back in '96 this was Polish. This one is not metal at all and the covers indicate they were French (recorded at Guardian Studio in Strasbourg, line up Lord Guardian - so it's probably his home studio - Mme as in 'madame' Guillotinne & Lord Hexen).

But thanks for reminding me of the Polish band, I'd be curious to hear them. I remember seeing the "Druids Tales" demo in some trading lists, though I recall it was marked as '95. Might be wrong there.

pagan kirjoitti...

And then Graveland also had an old demo called "Drunemeton", nothing special as I recall but that's what I thought of when I saw this post!

GREV kirjoitti...

Thanks for this one. I'll check it out later

Borderline1991 kirjoitti...

It sounds kind of boring and lasts for little bit too long, or maybe I'm just not in the right mood.
But the cover artwork - it's really beautiful, I love covers like that and would buy the tape just because of that cover. Logo is surprising - looks like Satanic black metal logo, weird, considering the music which isn't even dark.

kingpossum kirjoitti...

It's a "recital" all right: it seems to last forever and not really go anywhere. Like Borderline1991 I like the cover art (anything out of the expected intrigues me that the artist might offer something different and original), the bright colors being unusual. It doesn't align with the music contained therein, though, so it's kind of questionable. I'm digging the Jaaportit upload a lot more. Thanks for the post.