Chaotic Impurity - Rehearsal Madness '94

Chaotic Impurity - Rehearsal Madness 1994
1) Dark Legion
2) Meteor Doom
3) Mount Dead
4) Infinite Black
5) 'Old Slow Punk Ending'
6) 'Old Old Song'
7) Rabid
8) If Only You Knew
9) Take a Stab

RGhost / Mega

Another of brother The Unnamed's sendings is in order and this is both the oldest and easily the rarest of the bunch; a '94 rehearsal tape by Chaotic Impurity who were more or less proto-Infinite Black, though it's really inaccurate to say that. I actually asked about it and Jesse said "Chaotic stuff was pre-IB...different band but kind of incestuous when it comes to members... long story..." so that's that. Similar actually to OfDoom and Black Feast situation, to refer something domestic and slightly more current. No covers for this and it was ripped from a CDr Jesse burned me.

Recorded on a tape deck live in bedroom (IB demo '95 was a step up, they did that one in the living room) so it's a bit on the murky side soundwise but not really worse than most other old rehearsal tapes. The nine songs making up the roughly 25 minute recording are mostly short, fast and chaotic stabs of black/death metal mayhem and I think at least partially improvised as things sound like they get a bit out of hand at times! As the tracklisting reveals, two of the songs didn't have proper names either but it also serves to testify it was not as improvisational as I might have implied there. It's making me more confused (or confusing) than usual, isn't it? The personnel are largely same as on early Infinite Black recordings so the vocals of The Abhorred are the recognizable screeches, shrieks and howls. It's a neat detail how here we have track four titled Infinite Black and on IB reh/demo '95 the sixth song is Chaotic Impurity. Enough words, if you fancy some obscure and primitive Australian uneasy listening this is for you. If you would prefer melodic keyboard-drive music you're out of luck today.

Curse - Rehearsal 14/05/94

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 14th May 1994
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Blasphemous Incantation
3) Demons Appear
4) Blasphemy
5) Ferocia Animi

4shared / Yandex

Aaaand here's the rest of the botched Curse entry, the last five tracks which actually date to 1994. This way the tracklisting starts to make sense, there are now three "new" (for the time) tracks and two familiar from the "Satanic Dominion" demo. But I've already discussed these too in the old entry so I don't feel like repeating myself all over again. Took the opportunity to adjust/update the white-on-black alternative cover I did for the '93 rehearsal to serve as placeholder for this one.

Next post should probably be something different. Or more black/death... then again I could make a few more reposts with better rips of old things?

Curse - Rehearsal 09/08/93

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 9th August 1993
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Satanic Dominion
3) Disciples of Mockery

RGhost / Mediafire

Let's do this again. See the previous entry for a long description of the music, source and all that crap.

Now this makes much more sense. Three tracks, two of which appear on the debut demo recorded two months later the same year and the last one apparently only here. Oh yeah, I checked and could not find a song of that name at least on the M-A so I guess it's not a cover. Still sounds a lot like Deicide. That is all, please either download again or adjust your tags thank you~

Curse - Rehearsal 09/08/93 [incorrect!]

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 9th August 1993
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Satanic Dominion
3) Disciples of Mockery
4) Infant Jesus Dead
5) Blasphemous Incantation
6) Demons Appear
7) Blasphemy
8) Ferocia Animi

Links removed as entry is incorrect.

More vintage Finnish black/death metal, or brutal black metal if you prefer, this is Curse of Finland and a rehearsal recording predating the first demo "Satanic Dominion" sent by brother Baldemar years ago, finally laid on the altar as black candles glow and the shadows crawl. I suppose he got it via trading back in the day and it has probably travelled through several decks and dwelt on multiple cassettes before ending up in B's hands. Yeah, there is tape wear and other associated flaws, but it's not too bad. There was no proper cover, or I so I think, yet I felt like whipping up a placeholder in the vein of the first demo. And then I could not decide if I should have it black on white or reversed. Went with first option to follow the look of the demos.

At first I wanted to go with this so it'd look better on the blog.

As I mentioned earlier there is wear and tear here, most notably present on the first track. It gets a bit better and generally it's a pretty good rehearsal sound. I can't help thinking this is actually two separate sessions instead of one as the sound changes quite a bit at the fourth track. Would explain why they do Infant Jesus Dead twice. Though it was something of a signature song. Maybe they took a break and adjusted the stuff to make the sound heavier and decided to re-do that song and then proceed? Anyways, this contains all three songs from "Satanic Dominion", Blasphemous Incantation which would appear on the split tape and two songs out of four from "The Black Horde" cassette EP. Disciples of Mockery would seem to be unreleased, maybe they dropped it because it sounds so much like Deicide? I think I've written enough about Curse here over the years so I'll cut this here. Recommended for fans of Curse (obviously) and old Finnish deathly black metal in general.

UPDATE: Well, brother Grev informed me that this is actually two separate rehearsals, which I kind of suspected already. First three tracks are the '93 session and the rest are from May '94. I'll make a repost with the corrected information. Yay.

Nocturnal Feast - Hymn to Darkness demo '92

Nocturnal Feast - Hymn to Darkness demo I 1992
1) Intro: Live Eva
2) Ave Satanas
3) Enter the Eternal Night
4) Ancient Gods
5) Gates of Wisdom
6) The Gathering
7) Outro: The Waves of Acheron

Mega / Sampo

I'm behind schedule due unexpected "sick leave" but let's not dwell on that and rather push onward, to more old and moldy Finnish metal. This is Nocturnal Feast's only demo from '92, the band would gain much more notoriety under the banner of Black Dawn and survives today calling themselves (The) True Black Dawn with an album out on World Terror Committee. I know rips of this demo have been circulating around before but after having read their entry on Pirunkehto and recalling seeing this tape among the cassettes donated by Jukka from Curse ...wow, over six years ago?! Shit, I've even kept them in the same plastic bag all this time. Where was I? Yeah, so, remembered had the tape and decided to rip it. Here we go. I think his copy is original, sure the cover is somewhat sloppily xeroxed, but that hardly was uncommon at the time and the tape is a blackened-with-marker-pen type of affair with program repeating on both sides and something else dubbed after the demo as people were wont to do. I've discovered many a strange thing that way. More relevant than the authenticity is the content which we discuss next.

So if you're not familiar with old Black Dawn stuff, it was black/death metal hybrid, or Satanic death metal or evil milk metal as their old flyer described it (true story). Now that I checked, I've posted that flyer earlier. How convenient! Actually, seeing that I've posted pretty much all of old Black Dawn material you'd sort of had to either consciously avoid it or have jumped on board recently in which case welcome and please start from here and then proceed to other items in proper order.

The sound of the demo is very good, which is not really surprising if you consider this was recorded in a proper grown ups' studio and not one of those 4-tracker-in-rehearsal-room/garage-hey-lets-call-this-necrocatacomb-studio-awesome-idea-you-guys -things. Music leans more heavily on death metal here so the ratio might be like 75% death 25% black... or perhaps even more? Voice varies between deeper death growls and hoarse, raspy half-shriek half-yells with the growling being slightly more dominant of the two elements. Ever so slightly. There's also some whispers and generally good variation on the main forms. All five actual songs are quite short and simple affairs though tempos do alternate between faster, intense bursts of aggression and heavier, slower, bludgeoning passages. Enter the Eternal Night is the shortest of the lot at just over 1½ minutes while Ave Satanas almost makes it to three minutes. I also like the intro and outro bits. Ok, I think that's enough text for this time, coming up next even more black/death metal. Let's make this a black/death month!

Daemon - Trial of Satan demo '91

Daemon - Trial of Satan rehearsal demo 1991
1) Intro: Merciless Night
2) Battle of Pain
3) Hysterical Moment
4) Trial of Satan

Sampo / Mediafire

Inspired by this recent, highly recommended entry of brother Emptiness Cycle at Black Metal Yesteryear I decided to get off my ass, change my planned post yet again and finally upload this rip of another, unfortunately not as good, Daemon I had made already aeons ago. So there, this is the Daemon of Brunei, started in the late 80's as Daredevil and their apparently second recording under this name. Metal Archives entry mentions a compilation of some sort was supposed to be released but looks like that hasn't happened. This is my rip from a dub I got from brother A.S. and I'll warn you right away, the sound is abysmal. No cover so we make do with the image above pilfered from the Archives.

So how dismal a sound could it be? Mucky, lopsided, too quiet (though I upped the volume a bit) and generally opaque rehearsal recording. Perhaps it wouldn't be actually bad with a bit of tampering by someone with suitable knowhow but that is not my role in this play. Or if just ripped from an original tape or first generation dub. If the compilation ever gets released I recommend picking that up, at least it cannot sound worse. Wait, of course it can if done poorly enough. Music is death/black metal in old fashioned vein but I would not really call it primitive. Main influence is cited to be old Deicide but I think this sounds a bit more... melodic? Not really, no... maybe a little heavy metal influenced then, I don't know, ask your local death metal specialists. I like how the tracklisting makes it look like a concept demo, they seem like they were chapters of a story don't you think? Despite the challenging sound I suppose seekers of the exotic artifacts will brave this crypt, others might want to think twice and head to a tavern to look for another side quest.

Nocturnal Evil - Seven Rituals of Hell demo '08

Nocturnal Evil - Seven Rituals of Hell demo #4 2008
1) Prelude (The Sinister Apparition)
2) Black Past
3) Child Sacrifice
4) Necronomicon Exmortes
5) Dark Ascention
6) Necrofetish
7) Entering the Occult Dimention

Yandex / Sampo

The people who know me might be aware of my fondness to complete cycles, patterns and such as much as I can. Which leads us to today's suspiciously modern release (2008! that was practically yesterday!), another demo by the Argentinian bestial Beherit-metal unit Nocturnal Evil. I posted the previous effort here, same source et al. Four years passed between this and the third demo, a surprisingly long time actually. A glance at the covers is already telling even the casual layman observer that not much seems to have changed in that time. Same primitive look, same sort of jaggedy scripting, disarmingly crude artwork. The demo is dedicated to master Conscicide who had followed the freezing moon in August the same year, so it is similarily quasi-topical as the last post where the old Dutch scene was mentioned.

Are we to expect Bestial Summoning-worship then this time? Naaah, not really though one might argue some shades could be seen if you squeeze your eyes tight and believe real hard, with all your heart! It's in similar elder Tireheb-praising way as the demo #3 but with better, or at least louder, sound. All songs are very compact again so the total of Seven Rituals barely crosses the ten minute mark. No cover songs this time, or if there are I've missed them. Oh and Prelude... is an intro, Necronomicon Exmortes sort of interlude (Evil Dead sample as expected) and Entering... the outro. I find myself enjoying the proceedings much better this time around, is it the improvement overall or the old different day, different mood - issue remains to be seen. Similar recommendations as on the entry for the previous demo but a bit more enthusiastically! Do your best, Nocturnal-kun! Everyone, let's support Nocturnal Evil~♥ ...ok not that much enthusiasm. I think I need some sleep.

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.

Demogorgon - Henen-A Em Amsu demo II '95

Demogorgon - Henen-A Em Amsu demo II 1995
1) Threshold of Hell
2) Crucify
3) Ridiculed Beliefs
4) I Fell for All
5) Hopeful Victory
6) Black Clouds of Death
7) Putrifying Thoughts
8) My Black Innerself
9) Hordes of the Black Circle
10) Buried Soul
11) Eternal Hate to the False

Sendspace / Yandex

...or "Henen-Å Em Åmsu" if you want to stick to the odd spelling on the side panel! So it is time for music (finally) and this is another, somewhat overdue, sending by our brother Wehrwolf and again it is Australian material. Thank you for the rip & scans! Here we have what appears to be the second demo by Demogorgon from Victoria, not to be mixed with the scores of others who use and/or have used the name, best known (well at least in my opinion) being the Greek one, mostly due to connections to other Hellenic cults.

But let's concentrate on this effort. It's a long tape, full album length even if some of the songs are quite brief. And to be honest, it's a bit longer than necessary too. Seeing this is Australian and black metal I suppose folks may expect some form of wild, relentless burst of violence and warfare noise. Not this time. Sure, it does combine some death metal traits with black metal and is of certainly active nature but it'd put it closer to Anatomy than SadEx. Or perhaps more Baltak than Bestial Warlust? The sound comes off initially as messy but either one gets used to it or it actually improves as the recording proceeds. Quick field test indicates that the groovy (strangely almost Spear Of Longinus-ish) "Hordes of the Black Circle" not only sounds better but actually does have a superior sonic quality to the opener "Threshold of Hell". My opinions seem to fluctuate quite a bit while this plays so I suppose you should pay it attention even if the first tracks might seem discouraging. Or put it on shuffle? Anyways, with a bit of pruning this would be a very good demo. Maybe. Recommended to those who enthuse for things down under and those who endlessly seek more mid-90's relics.

One more thing, the third song "Ridiculed Beliefs" sounds extremely familiar, what in the Abyss does it resemble?

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo '95

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo 1995
1) The Belief - The Lie
2) Heirs of Fire
3) Niemals geboren
4) Intrude into Immortality
5) Worm of Sin

Sendspace / Depositfiles

Cover by LKS

Let's head to Germany today for change, this is a contribution by master Fenrirsson and it is the '95 demo of Tsatthoggua, formerly known as Dissection and later signed to Osmose. Thanks to F for the rip, it was a tape traded item so he did not have covers to scan, I used what I could scavenge online. UPDATE: LKS provided me with a scan of the cover xerox he had, upload link added above. Thank you!

I used to think of Tsatthoggua as kind of German version of Impaled Nazarene back in the day. I was thinking old ImpNaz, obviously. All the songs here were re-recorded for the debut album too but the demo versions sound quite different. If you're not familiar with Tsatthoggua, it's fast & ferocious black metal with a few scarce death metal touches and a bit of synth here and there. This is sounding good today, really good. Must dig up "Hosanna Bizarre" and compare to that, I've a nagging suspicion this might be superior. Did it have those background synths used here? Anyways, recommended if you enjoy this sort of racket!

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal '89

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal 1989
1) Holyness Lamentation
2) Feast of the Grand Whore
3) Fortress of Cremation
4) De Vermis Mysteriis
5) Outro

Yandex / Sendspace

The voices tell me to continue the Southern Summer Heat Special and we move back to the end of 80's with this sending of master Fenrirsson. Certainly closer in sound and spirit to FNI than R88, this is the rehearal promo for studio demo by Rotting Christ, sent around by master Sakis in the summer of '89. In the end that demo was scrapped/re-envisioned and the result was "Satanas Tedeum" released in the fall same year. There were no proper covers for this one, just dubbed tapes with handwritten tracklistings and I didn't feel like whipping up a mock one so we're devoid of decorations today.

I've seen other rip(s) of this float around the inter nets but since Fenrirsson's rip is of decent quality and has the track divisions made unlike the other versions (which are only three tracks, lumping 1+2 and 4+5 together) I wanted to feature it. Not to mention his tape perished soon after the rip was made. Curse the frailty of cassettes! Spite! Wrath! Dissatisfaction! Right, back to music. This is a short tape, eight minutes roughly, and highly similar to how "Satanas Tedeum" turned out. Plodding abyssic black/death metal. Except when they speed up to grind speeds, for old times sakes I suppose, like on Fortress of Cremation. If you enjoy old school blackened metal of death with rehearsal sound be sure to pick this up. However, if you're only familiar with RC's more recent, bombastic output (like "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" the other year or the latest album "Rituals") or the melodic, quasi-gothic late mid-90's phase you might not be very pleased with the primitiveness here.

PS: Looks like they're touring quite a bit this year. Go have a look if you're nearby, I've always enjoyed seeing them perform live.

Twilight - The Melancholy of Northern Landscapes demo '95

Twilight (swe) - The Melancholy of Northern Landscapes demo II 1995
1) The Spirit
2) Wings Turn to Ashes
3) My Final Rest
4) A Dream of Winter...Dying
5) The Dragon Legions
6) Outro

4shared / Mega

Time for some Swedish/Finnish melodic slightly blackened death metal, what do you say? Well, it doesn't matter since that's what we're having now, here is another (already old) collaboration between yours truly and brother Grev who dubbed me this second demo of Swedish Twilight, later Unbound and still later Deathbound. The nationality thing is a bit tricky, seeing that it was formed in Sweden by Finns, ok well they did have Swedes in the band too and eventually relocated to Finland after the second name change. Better not stick to that, let's just call this a Swedish-Finnish joint effort. Grev had a traded dub of this so we've no cover art, just another stamp size pathetic excuse of an image from the Metal Archives. A proper one would be nice, though you can see from that the correct title, M.A. and another old rip that was in the nets had that wrong.

Should I bitch about the generic band name or just move into the music? I'll just mention that Twilight always brings to my mind the Greek black metal one by Odes from Absu & cohorts which apparently is still/again active. Ok, ok to the music here finally: five songs and an outro, fair demo sound with decent balance. Most songs are quite fast and melodic in that mid-90's technical way. Nice harsh vocals, closer to screams than growls as is my preference. I haven't heard the other two Twilight demos, nor the later apparently quite different material released under the other names (not much of a death metal fan you know) so can't compare but this is nice enough to make me want to hear at least the other old materials. Nothing really stands out much, but perhaps the slightly shorter songs hit the mark a bit better? Recommended if you're into old Swedish melodeath with very minor touches of svart.

Nocturnal Evil - Altar of Sodomy demo 2004

Nocturnal Evil - Altar of Sodomy demo #3 2004
1) Intro - Procreation of Evil
2) Black Apocalypse
3) Altar of Sodomy
4) Outro - Unholy Worship
5) Penetrator Hammer (Beherit cover)

Sendspace / Mediafire

Another "modern" release today (post-2000) though it sounds very much like Beherit circa '90 which I suppose is the point too. This is Argentina's Nocturnal Evil and the third demo from '04, limited to 66 copies like they all seemed to have been. It's not ripped from an original tape but from a dub I got from a trader with copy of the cover which I scanned, thanks for that!

Intro, outro, two original (well, not really original to be honest) tracks and a Beherit cover, all on the short side so the total running time is around eight minutes. As the band name and cover track give away, this is pretty much a "tribute" band in similar way Finnish Black Feast was. Sound is slightly muffled, a little distant and fuzzy as if recorded with a soft, fluffy towel wrapped around the... whatever was used to record this, let's say microphone. Every element however is easily and clearly distinguishable from one another and the whisper/growl-hybrid vocals are readily audible though indecipherable. On paper it has all the elements necessary for me to like this but I don't seem to feel very enthusiastic about it. Kinda good Beherit-worship, grab it if you've fondness for such and generally neo-old school bestial stuff à la NWN!/Iron Bonehead/similar operators. When out vynil?!

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.

Goat Emperor - Live in Sepetiba 11/06/94

Goat Emperor - Live in Sepetiba, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11th June 1994
1) Satanic Blessing
2) Demons of Sex
3) Goat Emperor
4) Do Them What They Do for You
5) Theorems
6) The Powers of Evil

Reuploaded

Ok, Brazil as promised and since I'm off to Turku this weekend to witness the Turku Saatanalle IV-event I wanted to do a live tape for change. Goat Emperor were a black metal band with touches of death metal audible in their style which they called "Bestial Music" on their second demo, 1995's "Announcing the Neo-Aeon", dedicated to Mauro Cunha, Marcelo Motta and Aleister Crowley. Their first demo was released in '93 and called "Apopantos Kakodaimonos", featuring five proper tracks and intros/interludes. I got this and a good dub of the first demo from brother A.S. along with some other more or less exotic items the other year, thanks again! I'll need to rip the demo again, wonder if I should post it here too? There is a decent rip around so it does not seem very necessary. But back to this, good sound and I recall this was dubbed from a video. Of course no cover, I just ended up making another half-assed placeholder with the logo from the '95 demo. It'd make a nice shirt.

It's not a very long gig, possibly not complete either and whoever shot the video originally (perhaps an associate of the band?) edited it a bit so there's less of the usual breaks between. Four of the six songs are from the debut demo, Theorems appeared on the second and I don't know about the second track, could it be an unrecorded one or just re-titled? Since there are no intros, outros and interludes the songs are slightly more compact than usually. I said earlier the sound is good, but it does get a bit messy from time to time. That's only extra brutality, right? I would like a better rip of the second demo (or an actual physical copy) as the one I found online has this distracting, piercing hiss usually present back in the day on badly dubbed tapes. Of course it's possible they botched up and they're all like that, would like a confirmation if that's the case. - UPDATE: I discovered I actually have a very good dub of the second demo too, and Fenrirsson has also provided me with a rip/remix of his copy so it is no longer needed! - Ok, let's wrap this up, recommeded for people into more bestial, old schoolish sort of black metal and connoisseurs of the South American scene.

Runemagic - Fullmoon Sodomy adv. tape '92

Runemagic - Fullmoon Sodomy advance tape for EP 1992/93
1) Fullmoon Sodomy
2) Desecration of the White Christ
3) In Remembrance

Yandex / 4shared

Inspired by the advance section of the Exstinctio Sensus 'zine posted the other day I decided to do one here at the Coven too since I do have quite a few advance tapes ripped. First we have Runemagic of Sweden again, I posted their live tape just last month. See that post for crapload of background information on both the band and these recordings. Long story short, had ripped this as an unidentified tape B-side, got a revelation and remembered what it was, we're here. I've no proper cover for this version so used the Swedish tape version from M.A.

I believe this was sent as advance tape for 7"EP (the Polish bootleg version I suppose) but it is really just the demo recording with nothing done to it, except one song (Nocturnal Creation) being left out, most likely due timing constraints. Note that the Metal Archives tracklisting for the demo, or more like the song lengths therein, are incorrect. The source tape must've been this same which makes me wonder if the demo was ever actually released complete? That tracklisting divides In Remembrance into two and tries to pass off its second, keyboard part as Nocturnal Creation which as we learn from the quite recent Bandcamp release is actually 7+ minute song. Or perhaps the contributor had a dub of this and cover of the Chaos Productions version which was complete but circulated less? Who knows, I don't. Old era Runemagic in general seems to be more unknown than I expected.

This was supposed to be short but seems like this band drives me to ramble more than usual. Ok, contents quickly: sound is pretty murky but definitely much cleaner than the live tape, a little stuffy and with prominent low end. A lot of it has to do with tape wear obviously. Title track is a long one, over seven and half minutes, bouncy brisk midtempo effort with some breaks and changes in pace. Very good black metal rasp, grating and drawling at appropriate times. Robert "Reaper" Pehrsson was also responsible for the vocals on the first two Deathwitch albums as well as presently in Death Breath and some other projects in very different vein. I'm digressing again!!! Ugh, yeah so Desecration of the White Christ is a fast paced, shorter song in old school black metal vein and was reused for Deathwitch later and In Remembrance is another shortish piece divided into two parts; slower and epic metal half and a synth part that reminds me of vintage horror movies. Good stuff and I really like his voice, I just wish I had a slightly better rip or even better the Chaos Prods tape itself. If you have it, get in touch, rich rewards await. And I want the rehearsal tapes too. Very much recommended!

Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla 1992

Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla, Sweden 1992
1) Necro Metal
2) Fullmoon Sodomy
3) Desecration
4) Nocturnal Creation
5) In Remembrance

Mediafire / RGhost

This year is coming to an end. An era ended on the 28th of this month. I'm out of beer. Inspired by these feelings I felt a need to finish some outstanding projects left to lie in my notorious WIP folder and actually have gotten results. Here's one, a live tape by the Swedish (then) black metal band Runemagic, much better known from their second incarnation as Runemagick from '97 onwards. The "k" makes all the difference does it not? Also, going to play full on dark death metal before it got fashionable again was probably a more notable factor. However, first era Runemagic was black metal, with death metal touches sure but black metal still. I guess this was a more or less official live tape, recorded in their hometown. Unfortunately I have no covers and probably whoever did the Metal Archives entry didn't have either as the tracklisting was somewhat off, above should be correct. Would love a full scan if possible.

Why was this lying around unfinished for long, long time? Because of the rather challenging tracklisting and lack of material to compare to. I had misplaced my "Fullmoon Symphony" dub but fortunately identified it as an untitled B-side of a cassette I recently ripped so I got a kick to start sorting this out. If you remember the earlier "Runemagic" post here I'm now quite sure that is not the same band as it sounds almost completely different to other old material and actually everything else the guys involved had recorded (Deathwitch, who reused some old Runemagic material most notably track 3 here on their second album "Dawn of Armageddon" as Desecration of the White Christ which is the proper title anyways, Swordmaster, Sacramentum) or would record (The Funeral Orchestra, Necrocurse, Death Breath, Robert Pehrsson's Humbucker etc etc...). It would be really nice to know if there actually was another band called Runemagic (not very likely but possible), or if it was a band named something different but close enough to cause a mistake (slightly likely) or if it in the end was the same guys' unmentioned and/or -released demo (highly unlikely!).

Back to this item, the first track here was not that hard to identify as they scream the title aloud several times, the erronous Metal Archives listing has it as last track and "Runemagick - Necro Metal" which quite obviously carried over from someone's rip having been in the artist - song title format. Sloppy! The full title on "Alcoholic Rehearsal" of '91 was Dark Necro Metal. That rehearsal's tracklisting makes it seem a long song, over 5 minutes but this version here is just a quick burst not two minutes long so I went with the shortened title (I actually forgot to change the titles). Live versions may differ quite a lot (looking at you Mayhem and too short Pure Fucking Armageddons!) so that is not too surprising. Second track is easy enough if you have the demo of the same name and third one too. Fourth song was a bastard to figure out, especially as it was not on the most (? source? need to verify) versions of the demo. Fortunately he introduces the song in the beginning but unfortunately they somehow mess up or whatever else happens and it extends to an over ten minutes version with an awkward break in the middle. They don't quite restart it either so for a time I was under the impression it would be two separate tracks and tried hard to identify the second part unsuccessfully. After finally noticing their bandcamp had a remastered demo version up I confirmed it to same song. I originally intended to split it into two parts Noctunal Creation I & II but then decided against that. Last song was again a walk in the park. So there, not so easy, especially when I originally ripped it from a tape that had absolutely nothing written on it.

Fascinating tale of first world problems but how about the music? Getting there, this is old schoolish black metal with some death metal influences which I said in the very beginning but you might've already forgotten, has certain groove present that gives it personality, vocals screamy and good. Sound's not very good, elements get quite buried and somewhat messy but it's still listenable for the fearless relic hunter. Obviously not a soundboard recording, perhaps someone shot this on video and this is the audio of it? I still love it, old Runemagic has definite charm to it. I need the rehearsal tapes and you need to download this.

Behemoth - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992

Behemoth (sgp) - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992
1) Remembrance of the Crucification
2) Evil Lord
3) Cursed of God
4) Lord of All Gods
5) Doomsday
6) Church of Ghouls
7) Bastard Christ
8) Bleed Upon the Altars

Depositfiles / Yandex

One more from Asia and going back a bit, this is another Singapore kvlt with a familiar name, Behemoth, with their only(?) demo from 1992. Like several of their countrymen and Malaysian neighbours, Behemoth played pretty raw sort of black/death metal possibly and probably influenced by the likes of Sarcófago, old Mayhem, Hellhammer, Samael, Blasphemy, Beherit etc as well as their senpais Abhorer, Sexfago and Nuctemeron. That was a lot of names. Let's drop another, this was send by comrade Nefarious, thank you! He sent the cover scans as well, I suppose the dirty greyish image on M.A. is a xerox of the original red we have here. Or they might have run out of red paper at some point?

Eight tracks makes this look like it could be a full album but they're all quite short so the total run time is just short of 23 minutes. Almost exactly the opposite of the second Blood Angel demo that has four tracks for almost 47 minutes (you should check that band out too)! The title track is an intro, Nefarious had left it and the second track together as they blend into each other in a tricky manner but I saw fit to meddle again and separated them. Quite good sound, loud and clear enough, though it wavers a little which might be due tape wear. I like the crispy yet heavy sound the guitar has. Songs are mostly fast but have breaks and changes enough to keep them from being too linear and boring yet still remain simple and fluent enough for me to enjoy. Vocals are brutal growls and barks, executed with enough ill will to not sound monotonous. Wild solos flutter all around the park, bass can be heard and some mistakes are easy to spot but that's extra charm points for me. Great stuff, wonder when NWN! or someone is going to rerelease this. Recommended!

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal 1992

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal tape 1992
1) Cross of Blood
2) Ripped to Pieces
3) Reckoning Day
4) Fall of Man (cuts!)

Sendspace / Yandex

Let's do another Finnish post, inspired by The Nocturnal 'zine I decided to post the '92 rehearsal tape by Oulu's Mehazaer dubbed me last year or so by brother Grev, thank you! Unfortunately his dub was incomplete; the last track cuts and probably quite a lot too unless it was short to begin with. Alas, it appears this tape isn't that easy to come by as I remember seeing Mehazaer hardly ever in tradelists back in the 90's. Of course, that proves nothing about how much it was spread. I think this might be their only release as well, the interview in TNz2 mentions they were going to go to record their debut demo "soon" but no idea if this actually ever happened. They did at least five gigs too and I'm sure someone recorded at least one of them, so that might be a possibility to hear further material. Get in touch if you have a complete version of this or anything else!

My interest in this band back whenever sparked from a mention in some Impaled Nazarene interview, if I remember correctly, and the name was unusual enough to stick to mind. Funny how long it took for me to actually hear them. Yet again. So, was it worth the roughly twenty years wait? Not really to be honest. Five, ten years maybe. This is a rehearsal tape with pretty muddy sound, some hiss and it favours the right channel quite notably which is a bit distracting when listening with headphones (my default mode). It's not really too bad though, I should not complain when I listen to much worse sounds without blinking an eye. Music is pretty much just plain old death metal here but I suppose I can call it black/death metal since they did consider themselves a black metal metal band. The tempo ranges from mid to faster pace and it's mostly quite fluently flowing stuff without too many tricks and gimmicks to distract and bother grumpy folks such as myself. I would still want to hear the full version and the "Madaritza torezodu" demo if it ever got recorded or, well, anything anyone might have since I still find myself oddly fascinated with the band. Recommended for those who enjoy delving into the old catacombs of Finnish underground, Oulu-enthusiasts, old death metal fans or fans of old death metal and naturally those who got curious reading TNz2.

Bestial Warlust - Demo 1995

Bestial Warlust - Demo 1995
1) Blood & Valour
2) Death Rides Out
3) Wrath
4) I the Warrior
5) March of Hells Militia (+ Outro)

Sendspace / Mega

I decided to take a little breather after the last Black Flames festival before posting as the Mysticum gig made everything else seem futile and obsolete. Now that I've almost recovered from the impact I thought it'd be a good time to do a sending by brother Fenrirsson, further assisted by Wehrwolf who provided a cover scan, seeing that Deströyer 666 played the song "Bestial Warlust" at the warm up event it is somewhat connected to the festival. Thanks to both gentlemen for their parts, this is Bestial Warlust with the '95 demo, recorded in between their two albums in January '95.

The four songs and outro instrumental are all rather short, savage and speedy so the whole affair lasts eleven minutes. Fenrirsson had originally left "I the Warrior" and "March..." together as one track (they do blend together) but I felt compelled to separate them as the tracklisting demands. That's all meddling I did. All "proper" tracks were re-recorded for the second album, "Wrath" becoming "Legion of Wrath" there. These versions obviously sound different, the guitars are much more dominant here than on the album versions and naturally everything is slightly rougher. Good demo sound still, no rehearsal tape madness here. In case you're not at all familiar with Bestial Warlust and/or Corpse Molestation they played black/death metal in often chaotic and warlike manner though the later material isn't quite as wild as the earlier stuff. Satanic war metal I recall it was called at some point of time. Recommended for the fans of the style or bands mentioned, collectors of OZ underground material and general endorsers of brutality.