Forgotten Kadath - The Lost Book demo '95

Forgotten Kadath - The Lost Book demo 1995
1) Journey in the Eastern Lands (Intro)
2) The Book
3) Gregorius Philus
4) Via Giugoti
5) Yuggoth
6) Sanitarium (Outro)

Mediafire / Sendspace

Today we're having some Italian doom, courtesy of our comrade Profoundemonium again. Last time he contributed me the Dream Upon Tombs demo and this continues in the tradition of atmospheric and obscure stuff. Thanks for the rip!

As you may see from the cover art from above as well as the band name and song titles this is material inspired by master HPL and thus something young Velkaarn would've been very thrilled of. Well, I still enjoy most things Lovecraftian but not to the same fanboyish fervor anymore. Though I admit I got a strong urge to play Arkham Horror. And to listen to Thergothon which I'm going to put on right after this.

Could you please concentrate on this demo while it's still on thank you? Ok, not a very long one, slightly under fifteen minutes. We've an intro, outro and an interlude (Via Giugioti) each with roughly a minute to their name and three "proper" songs of which Gregorious Philus is an instrumental. Sound is pretty good, kind of obscure and with the guitar a little more distant than usual, with a very clear bass. It's not the muddled sort of obscure, don't get me wrong, more like perceived-through-a-veil-of-mist sort of obnuliated. And I just love the keyboards that come in on the second song The Book, just delightful and now I want to listen to Novalis instead of Thergothon. The effected vocal makes me think of some older Aarni material, or perhaps Umbra Nihil? I should probably check, but I don't really want to do that now. The instrumental G.P.  continues in similar vein and is a bit shorter, yet features some very catchy tunes that however have some sort of strange quality to them. The interlude is somewhat ominous and the last proper track Yuggoth is more guitar driven than The Book was. The vocals have less effect to them and seem a bit more aggressive and menacing instead of the otherworldliness earlier presented. General mood of the song is also more, well, driven and focused than before. The outro is desolate flutes, not quite crazy enough to convoke Azathoth but a nice way to end the tape.

I enjoyed this quite a bit and would really like to hear what little more there is to be found, namely the split/collaboration tape with their black metal side project Atropos (there's a rip of this around so should not be a big challenge to find) and "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" released in '95 when they were known as Kadath and played death metal though that probably isn't of similar style or quality. Recommended if you're into atmospheric (death) doom, a Lovecraft-connoisseur, fan of old Italian underground metal or generally very curious.

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.

Sirrah - Acme demo '95

Sirrah - Acme demo II 1995
1) Acme
2) Passover 1944
3) On the Verge
4) A.U.Tomb
5) Iridium
6) Pillbox Impressions
7) Panacea
8) Bitter Seas

RGhost / Mediafire

Some of you might not be too impressed with today's post, sure, it's not a TTF-relic dug from a sealed tomb but hey, at least we're in Poland again! Yup, it's melodic death/doom with touches of gothic, think stuff like earlier Paradise Lost (not "Lost Paradise" or demos early!) or perhaps more accurately bands inspired by their "Gothic" album? Anyways, Sirrah from Poland released two demos, two albums (first of which was a re-recording/-arrangement of this demo) and an EP on their few years of activity around the mid-90s, to apparently re-emerge in 2013 with two new songs released so far. And this is the demo II, though I think I saw it referred as cassette album too. The running time would allow it to qualify and sound is not at all bad either. Much better than certain economically produced albums. Some of the songs date back to the first demo from '93 already so they've taken their time to refine 'em.

I haven't actually even heard the re-recorded album version, though it did catch some attention being released by Music for Nations. Or actually I might've heard it whilst drinking at certain associate's place, pretty sure he had it. Well, whatever, I wasn't really into them after all back then, I had originally come across this tape while looking for replacements for Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Tiamat whom I considered to have wimped out, become all girly and/or sold out, to differing degrees. This must've been early '96 or so. I already knew several more or less exotic alternatives such as Dissolving of Prodigy, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy and Love History to mention a few Czech examples but sought more. For various reasons I didn't like this tape, possibly something as seemingly trivial as the odd song titles, can't be certain anymore. Now it doesn't sound bad at all, even the always difficult clean vocals work ok. The song Iridium is a bit annoying though. Too modern-metallish if you know what I mean. Might be about time I gave their albums a chance too. If you enjoy the bands mentioned so far you could do worse than giving this a listen. The rip was made from a traded copy so imperfections are inevitable. Pretty good overall and it features tasteful, artistic nudity on the cover so obviously it has a redeeming quality even if gothic doom isn't your bag.

Congestion - Live at Lutakko 07-05-94

Congestion - Live at Lutakko, Jyväskylä 7th May 1994
1) Intro (Cold Wind Blues)
2) Throne of Dominating Force
3) Bed of the Ancient River
4) Burnt into My Mind
5) When the Sun Rises in the South
6) Wind Convoys
7) Unblessed

4shared / Mega

More Finnish metal in co-operation with me and brother Grev (he dubbed, I ripped) this is once again Congestion, possibly the band with most place-holder covers on this blog. A gig performed at the well-known venue Lutakko in Jyväskylä, with a new keyboard player on board (trivia courtesy of stage banter, no actual personal knowledge!), they perform all the tracks from the '93 "Bed of the Ancient River" demo, two new (well, three if you count the intro which changed into an outro) songs which would appear on the '94 promo and an oldie Unblessed. Pretty good sound, though the start of the recording is a bit wonky but that gets better soon.

It's not a very long gig, I'm assuming they opened up for someone that Saturday or perhaps participated in some sort of event? Why am I making guesses, this is 2016, let's google... yeah, it was "Metal Up Your Ass" with Deceiver (apparently headliner? death/thrash), Scum (death metal, signed with Black Mark), our boys Congestion and Kansa Taisteli (an old punk band) and here's actually the poster:

Would be actually kind of neat to hear the rest of the bands if someone recorded the whole event. But I'm about to digress again so back to Congestion. If you've heard the demo material and/or Let Me Dream debut album you know what to expect: groovy and melodic doomy death metal with gothic touches (mostly the less-than-stellar clean vox and not-stellar-but-nice keys). It sounds quite pleasant live, I presume better still under the influence of intoxicants, mostly flows nicely. Not a horrible place to start listening to Congestion either if you're unfamiliar with them but got interested. After all I'm sure many people have gotten into bands with live albums, think "Alive", "Decade of Aggression" and "Live After Dead" for example. Not that this would be on par with those but you get the idea.

Black Autumn - Grief demo 1993

Black Autumn - Grief demo 1993
1) Intro
2) Demonic Incantation
3) Gates of Hell
4) Temple of Grief
5) Outro

4shared / Depositfiles

Death metal, from Sweden. So 90's! This is Black Autumn who appear to be quite obscure and seem to have recorded only this demo which was dubbed among tapes I acquired some time ago, thanks to the sender! Metal Archives' limited info includes a sligthly different, possibly incomplete or incorrect, tracklisting than my tape, having the last track "Temple of Grief" and outro together as "Untitled..." and obviously I'm more inclined to trust my version here. No covers I'm afraid and nothing is found online.

The demo has a bit murky demo sound which is still clear enough to hear all instruments very clearly and has this cavernous feel to it. Sounds actually at times quite powerful. Music is old school Swedish death metal with a slower, doomy tempo. Would actually go as far as just call it doom/death. All three proper songs are quite long, over six minutes, while both intro and outro are short. Vocals are exclusively deathly roars bellowed in a rather convincing, powerful manner. Another recording I find myself enjoying more on repeated listens, it appears! Somewhat repetitive, though. Unfortunately the sound quality takes a dip to worse for the last track, a classical case of uneven dub quality on sides A and B, I guess. Despite the repetitiveness and flawed sound quality should go well over in today's retro-friendly death metal-revivalist environment, especially to people who like slower and doomy death metal. I should probably dig up a rip with the MA tracklisting to see if the quality dive occurs on their dub as well.

Demoniac - Satanas 666 reh. 11-93 (audio only)

Demoniac - Satanas 666 rehearsal tape November 1993
1) Intro: Satanas 666
2) Intro: Sleepwalker
3) Brain, Entrails, Cannibal People
4) Cadaverous Mutilation
5) Carrie White
6) Cold Wind of Death
7) Drumsolo
8) Corpse Immunity
9) Dark Paradise
10) Rest in Peace
11) Skulls
12) Unability (to Live)
13) Guitarsolo
14) Return of the Satans Night
15) Sacrification
16) Symphonaire Et Servum

Yandex / Mega

More metal of death and about time I posted another of brother Baldemar's generous contributions, this is Germany's Demoniac which at this point was still really a death metal band with hints of black metal creeping into their sound. You might know Demoniac evolved later to Moonblood (not sure if a Moon Stone was involved), after turning to black/death metal from the more doom-speeded death metal their first form Purulent Obduction used to play. This recording was originally released as a VHS and was recorded live at their rehearsal room. This is (obviously) just the audio part of the experience, I'm afraid. It's also part a "live" album and part a compilation as they play a selection of old Purulent Obduction tunes as well as Demoniac songs. Quite a few of them, actually. At least tracks 3, 5, 8 and 11 as far as I know. No cover so I used the M.A. image of the video cassette there, even if it is a bit misleading.

There is a lot of stuff here, though "proper" tracks number 12. It's still almost an hour of music (!). I edited Baldemar's rip slightly to fix the tracklisting and separated the drum and guitar solos to their own tracks, like listed on the ever-reliable Metal Archives./sarcasm You don't see very many releases with two intros that follow each other, do you? The first one is pretty unnecessary piece but the second one is enjoyable, being the theme from the '92 movie "Sleepwalkers" (based on Stephen King's novel). I don't think I've actually ever watched that one... or have I? But to the point, the sound is pretty good whether you consider it a live recording or a rehearsal recording and the musicianship decent enough, the little occasional lapses just adding to the charm and "immediateness" of the recording. Not very impressed by the first proper song, but the next one's ponderous doomy pace is much more appealing. Nice how he introduces all the tracks, by the way. Very convenient. "Carrie White" has similar pace and since this is a Purulent Obduction song it makes me think I should try to find those demos, I dig this better than the faster numbers. Or fast parts, like on the next track lifted from the "Black Prophets" demo - the slow parts are heavier and much better than the messy fast bits. As a note, for some reason the title "Corpse Immunity" amuses me far more than it should. Does it imply the immune one is incorporeal, there for "immune" to corpse/having one? A more relevant note is that the sound fails a bit during this number, sort of fading out and back in, relatively briefly though. "Dark Paradise" has a fast part I actually do enjoy, with screaming vocals taking spotlight from the more growling main voice. But enough track-by-track nonsense, this release is way too long for such and you're downloading it no matter what I say if you're into Demoniac/Moonblood. Recommended also if you like (somewhat lo-fi) metal of death in general. Or just really love quantity?

Confusion Corporation - Confusion Begins demo 1994

Confusion Corporation - Confusion Begins demo I 1994
1) An Absence of Colour
2) Confuse
3) Rust Coloured Skies
4) Compassion
5) Intensified Tribulation
6) Existence

RGhost / Mediafire

I wanted to do some contributions again, this was sent by comrade grindfreak, thanks for your donations! Confusion Corporation hail from UK and made a bunch of demos which I haven't heard except for this one. And here they're performing in a genre not most familiar to me, death metal mixed with grindcore, reminding me of stuff Earache used to release. And probably still do? There are also bits and actually a general overall feeling to this that brings to mind early industrial metal acts, also from the same roster, such as Pitchshifter and Godflesh. It really moves quite a plenty around the yard instead of sitting just in the swing or making a castle in the sandbox, slow doomy moments, fast bursts, growling, screamy voice, clean vocals and other condiments aplenty. Quite interesting really, maybe I should try to get a hold of the other demos too.

Good sound, I suppose grindfreak had an original tape but for some reason included only a partial scan of the cover, judging from the Metal Archives image I compared it to. There's a little shift in sound quality on the fifth track, to better though, but in general it's good. Like I already said, it's interesting and I wouldn't mind hearing the other demos too. Not too sure how it would fare in larger portions but as a snack it's nice. Recommended for people into the umm, associated genres, other open-minded readers and the generally curious.

Congestion - Studio Rehearsal Tape 9.10.92

Congestion - Studio Rehearsal Tape 09.10.1992
1) Intro
2) Burnt Into My Mind
3) Bed of the Ancient River

RGhost / Mediafire

Let's end this month in a slightly lighter note: another offering from brother Grev's nigh-inexhaustible stash of Congestion / Let Me Dream relics. This is again a '92 recording with early versions of two tracks and intro from the well-known "Bed of the Ancient River" '93 demo. The rip is courtesy of Grev's co-plotter, as usual. Thanks for your contributions to the cause yet again! This one had no cover either so I resorted to a similar placeholder as used on the earlier Congestion posts.

This is a short tape, less than eight minutes and both songs are shorter and obviously less polished than the versions in the demo. Sound is pretty good, though there's still the certain recorded-in-a-bathroom echo present and the speedier parts clog up a little, vocals can be a bit unclear... ok so it's not a stellar, album grade studio sound but still reasonably good for what is basically rehearsal recording. If you're into Congestion material you'll want to hear these rough versions of the songs. If you're not into their other recordings... well you're unlikely to enjoy this either, I guess.

Dark Fire Dancing III (1998)

Various Artists - Dark Fire Dancing III ...it's only just begun Baltic Heathen Darkwave Compilation double tape (1998)

Sword Part (tape I)
1) Zpoan Vtenz - Jos brolis in Karelį
2) Tharaphita - Merekurat
3) Skyforger - Night of the Winter Solstice
4) Anubi - Kranklys
5) Ha Lela - Išjojo Bernelis
6) Manatark - Roosteitk
7) Maze of Cako Torments - The Shaft
8) Dissimulation - Mūšis Rūke
9) Menhyr - Amžinas Priešas
10) Winter Night Overture - Abysmal Winter Sky
11) Smolder - Ašarom Skausmo
12) Poccolus - Ir Aš Nueisiu su Tamsa...
13) Forgotten Sunrise - Blizzard

Amulet Part (tape II)
1) Girnų Giesmės - Veidrodis III
2) Skyforger - Sen dzirdēju, nu ieraugu
3) Laumė - Kur ėjo ji
4) Zpoan Vtenz - Voi ūžkit gauskit
5) King Lear's Convulsions - Mirror into Mirror
6) Siela - Šviečia.Kviečia.Šaukia.Laukia
7) Monkmort - Mother
8) Sala - live excerpt
9) Wejdas - 'Wejdas' excerpt
10) Sovijus - Liūdnas ir Didingas
11) Donis - Ateičiai
12) Akys - Nutolimas

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Today's post is a repost, which is kind of unusual, but people have been asking me for these compilations so I thought I'd post what I have here too, thanks to whoever originally ripped this double cassette and sister Borderline for reuploading it the other month! I fixed some of the tracklisting and stole the top image from Discogs. Sadly, the scans that came with the rip had only the covers for both covers, lacking the booklet with further information on the artists and the big cover itself. Then again, it's kind of fair since we did not buy this compilation, after all. Perhaps I'll get a copy some day.

There's a lot of stuff here so I am not going to go through them artist by artist, track by track. The total running times are kind of funny as the first tape totals a bit over 75 minutes, would roughly fit on a CD, and the second just under an hour. In case you didn't guess it by the tracklistings already, tape I, Sword Part, is metal and Amulet Part is ambient, darkwave and folkish material. Artists hail from all three Baltic countries and represent some of the best known names (Skyforger, Poccolus, Anubi, Wejdas etc) as well as some more obscure ones (well,at least to me, like Sala, Menhyr, Smolder and King Lear's Convulsions). Personally, the non-metal side is the more interesting here, even if the metal part does offer some great Baltic (heathen) metal and is somewhat more consistent. Most of the tracks have been featured on other releases by now, but at the time many were taken from upcoming albums, there's a bunch of live tracks as well as an exclusive track (well, the non-metal one is a remix) on both tapes.

Unfortunately there's a big fail on one of the tracks, most likely the fault of the ripped cassettes owner, hard to belive Dangus would've messed up that big: there's a stretch of silence in the middle of the Sala live excerpt, it even has the telltale noise of recording starting and ending. Other than that the rip would be good. I think I really need to find myself an actual copy of this. Oh and that's again a reminder of one more reason why I've always hated the tape format, I've managed to accidentally dub over a cassette myself back in the day. But enough words, even with the faults a great compilation if you're at all into the old Baltic scene.

Funereus - Into the Autumn Shade demo 1992

Funereus - Into the Autumn Shade demo 1992
1) Intro - Commence the Rites of Burial
2) Into the Autumn Shade
3) Interlude - Among the Whispering Spirits
4) Ascension of the Infernal Sephiroth
5) Outro - Eternal Judgement

Rusfolder / Yandex

Our journeys take us now overseas from Norway, but unlike the vikings we're not making stops at Iceland or Greenland this time, instead heading straight for USA and resume where I left off in December with Funereus and their demo '92. With another demo '92! Confused? Don't be, these are two different recordings, this one made in June and the other in July and were both spread by different band members, this one by Rob Robichaud. And seeing how it is less known I'd assume in smaller quantities than the one known just as Demo 1992. It's probably pointless to try to call one demo I and another II since the timeframe is somewhat vague. As my contributor Cyclades wrote: "...what happened then is that different guys in the band chose various recordings from these sessions and kind of spread them around independently in an informal way. Thus, we get two different demos from a mere month apart featuring similar (but subtly different) material." For further background details read the old post, thanks again to C for the rips and information!

Let's speak about the content then, as seen the "main course" consists again of the same two long songs, served with an intro, interlude and outro which I think serve well to build the atmosphere. Which is, as in the other demo, morbid and heavy. The sound here is a little bit less clean but that just adds a touch of otherworldliness to the music and I must say I prefer this recording personally. The end result isn't as severe as Demo 1992 was but more unearthly and atmospheric. Another notable difference is that "Ascension..." is a longer version here with a fast part in the end that was later left off. Speaking of versions, Cyclades had this story to share about the title track's... well, title, and history: "The title/lyrics date back to 1990, at the tail end of Cartilage Ripper, when it seems they had slowed down into a more doomy entity. It was then apparently brought over for Funereus, which is the version you are listening to now. They then used the title again (but with totally different music) in Asmodeus, which eventually became the version from the first Evoken release, even through Robichaud was long gone at that point. Then even later, Ceremonium used it as the title of their first album!" Ceremonium was a New York death/doom band whose original members Oscar Matter and Victor Rivera (who had also been in Putrifact with Orlando) were good friends with the Funereus guys and apparently hung around at all of their recording sessions. Actually the name sharing dates earlier as their rehearsal '93 already features a track titled "Into the Autumn Shade" which then reappears on the '95 album. Well, it's not as wild as the use of "Tormentor" back in the 80's!

Enough talk, download this if you're into funeral doom, the other Funereus demo or Evoken. Recommended and hopefully the Asmodeus recordings also eventually surface.

Whispering Forest - Darkest Side demo III 1997

 Whispering Forest - Darkest Side demo III 1997
1) Curse
2) The Doomed
3) Untitled
4) Darkest Side
5) Green Eyes
6) I Shall Return
7) Last Sunset
8) Path of the Dead
9) Shine of Lethe
10) Black Orchid

Mediafire / Rusfolder

I thought I'd stay in the neighbouring countries and this time we're going south of the border. No, that's not Mexico, for us Finns it is a few hours on a boat (getting drunk is optional) and we arrive in Estonia from where hails this atmospheric death/doom band, the late Whispering Forest. They made (at least) four demo tapes, an album (released twice) and a demo or a self-released EP in 2001 before calling it a day. I got this rip, as well as some other Estonian items burned on a disc from comrade Veiko last year in Steelfest, thanks again! And yes, I took my sweet time getting to post this but I had a very decent excuse for at least part of the delay. Sadly I've no covers for this (if I had, things would be different!) so scans would be very much appreciated. I made a (pretty nice) placeholder "cover" for this too, but decided against posting it in case I get the actual cover scan later.

So what took so long? Simple, the tracklisting was incorrect and it's a real pain trying to figure it out with a band you're not very familiar with. Unsurprisingly, Metal Archives' entry didn't match either and Estonian Metal's was just copied from M.A. so no help there. Looks like that tracklisting completely ignored the intro/interlude tracks but it also had the songs in wrong (or different?) order. Fortunately most songs reappeared on the debut album and had lyrics available so once I got to work it wasn't as impossible as it seemed. And some of the others which did not reappear fortunately included the song title in the lyrics so it was pretty easy to guess those out. Anyways, I was still left with one untitled track, the third one which is a just below minute long interlude sort of bit. I toyed with the idea of just adding it to the title track as intro but then again the other two similar tracks were named and identified so I just left it untitled and separate in hopes of someone with a scan or at least more accurate knowledge appearing. The band's email address was naturally a dead end after all this time.

But enough of me whining about how hard I have it, let's talk about the music. It's atmospheric death/doom with gothic touches. Can I go now? Maybe a few words more, the obvious name drop is always My Dying Bride but instead of the UK folks I'm thinking about the various Czech bands like Dissolving of Prodigy, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, Love History and what have you. Also the Norwegians The Sins of Thy Beloved comes to mind. Main voice alternates between bellowing death grunts and black metal-esque rasping croaks which is cool. The additional female vocals are, as expected, clear and ethereal and bring someone to my mind yet frustratingly I can't remember who right now!!! They're quite good, whoever it is I'm trying to think. There are some gothic touches overall but they get an extremely prominent front stage role on "Shine of Lethe" which is practically gothic metal/rock hybrid with vocals to match, unlike the album version they're male and the song is generally faster and a little "lighter" so to say. In general the versions here are refreshingly different from the later ones and the more I listen to this, the better I like it. Recommeded, especially if you enjoy atmospheric death/doom and related material. Now I want to hear the older demos too.

Funereus - Demo 1992

Funereus - Demo 1992
1) Ascension of the Infernal Sephiroth
2) Into the Autumn Shade

Zippyshare / Mega

It's xmas eve and time to end my little advent Coven folly, (almost) daily posting feels too much like work. And what better way to do so than with some funeral death/doom? Recently comrade Cyclades approached me with some contributions and this is the first of them, the 1992 demo by Funereus from New Jersey USA. Funereus is kind of a pre-Evoken but about that more little later. There's no cover unfortunately, I found a semi-decent one online but wouldn't mind a full scan. As a side note, Cyclades believes this demo was spread more by Nick Orlando (who continued on with Evoken and Funebrarum which would explain why a track from this demo ended up as a bonus track on "Quietus" re-release with Peaceville), much of it via tape trading.

So you noticed I said kind of pre-Evoken? Well, here's some background, I quote more or less directly what Cyclades wrote me. Rob Robichaud and Phil Wilson originally came from an oddly named band called Cartilage Ripper that was around circa 1988 to 1990 and apparently played insane death/grind like Nuclear Death and Prophecy of Doom. Nick Orlando came from the group Putrifact, which at other times also included Craig Pillard from Incantation. He formed the band along with Robichaud, trying out a bunch of local musicians, including guys who shortly afterward went on to be in other local groups like Deteriorot and Ceremonium. After a while they recruited drummer Vince Verkay, from a band called Body of Christ, which included Bill Venner who would form Disma many years later. They recorded a bunch of stuff in the spring/summer of '92, spread the recordings and went into a studio that autumn to record tracks for an EP. However it didn't go too well because the studio guys had no idea how to record something so extreme (typical story from back then!) and they basically got disgusted and took a break. Wilson left, and then they reformed as just a trio under the name of Asmodeus with new material, and recorded something around the spring of '93. This was the real "pre-Evoken", as much of the early Evoken stuff is said to originate from this period, whereas Funereus was really an earlier and quite different sounding group. Then, Robichaud left and the band almost broke up for good, but they managed to continue on, eventually became Evoken, and the rest is history as they say!

Ok, that was a lot of names dropped, I guess it's best to say something about the music too, it's funereal death/doom metal, but much more malevolent and severe than many of the contemporaries were or Evoken would later become. There's significantly more death here, that's partially why and closest comparisons would be dISEMBOWELMENT, Lord of Putrefaction and I do hear some Thergothon in places too, but this is more intense than atmospheric and laid back. Ugh, I'm just dropping more names here, better stop and let you listen for yourselves. I'll post another Funereus recording (yes there are more than this) later, with a few more background notes. For now, enjoy some terrifying vintage death/doom.

Coffin - Ritual Rehearsals tape 1991

Coffin - Ritual Rehearsals rehearsal tape 10th February 1991
1) Nocturnal Obsequies
2) Dark Carnival
3) Bells of Doom (Therion cover)

Mediafire / Rusfolder

After a quick trip to the dungeon we return to worship death and obscurity by this Coffin here and it is again a somewhat mysterious item. Ripped from a dub I got from brother Grev (thank you) it was marked on his list as a sideproject of master Sova (Barathrum) but I disagree, it would seem more likely to be the Swiss death metal band's recording. Having not actually heard them it's a little hard to be certain but I'm pretty sure this isn't Sova. Anyone with further info please get in touch, as always! No covers, would appreciate them too if they exist. Slapped the Swiss band's logo there for now.

What is this like? Two original tracks and an old Therion cover from "Paroxysmal Holocaust" demo with a bit murky, heavy rehearsal sound. Not the cleanest for sure but you can tell instruments apart and hear riffs and whatnot. Sounds old schoolish and kinda Swedish? Swiss Coffin is supposed to be death/doom but these two tracks here move along on a reasonably brisk pace even though slower, heavier parts are found. It would really help my comparisons if I had actually heard the damn band I presume this is. There are interesting interludes between the songs and in general everything is pretty cool, I just wish I had more info on this damned thing! Recommended for people into old fashioned and murky death metal, crazed necromancers and collectors of rehearsal recordings.

Kaamos - Demo -95

Kaamos [fin] - Demo I 1995
1) A Cry Sound Asleep
2) Lusting for the Sky

Reuploaded


Another repost?! Yes and this one is long due, I promised back in '12 to ask brother Grev dub me this one and only demo of Helsinki Kaamos, not to be mixed with the Swedish one, and that eventually happened, I ripped that and then buried it in the digital catacombs. Better late than never. Thanks to Grev for also providing a cover scan!

So what's different this time around? Well, being a dub of an original demo there's a bit less tape hiss and, oddly enough, a teensy bit more glitching on the first track, probably due the tape this was dubbed on. Most importantly, this has different running time, almost 18 minutes versus the 16½ minutes of the predecessor rip. Apparently the old dub ran at wrong speed, just a touch too fast. How I hate cassettes! Yeah, they've always been more trouble than they're worth, no matter what comrade SuuretMuinaiset or anyone says. But enough whining, have a listen to it at the speed (I think) it was supposed to run!

Exitus - Live in Pormestari 27.4.1990

Exitus - Live in Pormestari, 27th April 1990
1) The Metamorphosis - Black Heritage
2) Reprobate
3) The Scourge of War
4) Thanatos

Medifire / Depositfiles

I've made it back in one piece from Steelfest and I guess I could celebrate that by posting a live tape ripped by brother Suuret Muinaiset (attended the festival too). He also delivered the other Exitus tapes to the Coven, thanks for your work! This is the last of the batch and had no cover so there's a placeholder seen above with the later logo version.

SM's rip was all as one track, which I separated to four parts as seen on the tracklisting, but otherwise I have not tampered with his work. Good live sound though the guitars are pretty low and buried under just about everything else, though this is remedied later. Three of the tracks appeared also on the rehearsal tape and the demo while the last seems to have been played only live, another version appeared on the bonus tracks to the Svart Records re-release of the demo. Not really much to add, most of what I wrote about the music in the earlier entries applies here and if you liked them earlier you'll want to check this recording out.

Exitus - Reh. 23.10.-89

Exitus - Rehearsal 23rd October 1989
1) Tears of Despair / Hymn to Sorrow
2) Reprobate
3) Intro: The Metamorphosis / Black Heritage
4) Mannam (The Lord of the Dead)

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Another death/doomy contribution to the Coven, this is again from brother Suuret Muinaiset and the rehearsal tape I was referring to in the comments here. You can read more background info on Exitus on that post so I'm not going to repeat myself here. It looks like this rehearsal tape was one of the few around with a cover, SM provided images of it which are included in the download.

Looking at the tracklisting you may note that 3/4 of the tracks presented are included on the 1990 demo, these versions naturally sound rougher being both earlier and rehearsal recorded to boot. However the sound is good, most notable flaw would be the bass (I think) bleeding all over everything else occasionally. If you don't mind that too much this is another good slab of old death/doom with classic touch.

Forgotten Sunrise - Behind the Abysmal Sky demo 1993

Forgotten Sunrise - Behind the Abysmal Sky demo 1993
1) Intro: Sunrise
2) Rottening Art
3) Alive in the Grave
4) Indifference
5) Son of Sun / Knock-Outro: Solstice

Zippy / Depositfiles

Let's get back to metal with another contribution by brother Grindfreak, this is the first demo of the Estonian death/doom band Forgotten Sunrise. Nowadays they're apparently doing some sort of electronic/industrial thing, haven't heard any of that so no comment. But back in the day they made... I'm not sure to be honest, but at least two releases of atmospheric death/doom metal, this one and 1994's "Forever Sleeping Greystones" - judging from the track titles (yeah that's a scientific, fool-proof method) 1998's self-titled EP would already be in the new style or at least transitory piece. Maybe one day I will bother to do thorough research before babbling here. But not today! Includes cover scans courtesy of Grindfreak, thanks for providing those and the rip itself of course.

I say it's atmospheric death/doom but the emphasis is a bit more on death here as the tempo is rather sprightly. Dual vocal attack used sparingly for good effect, with the main voice being the cavernous death bellow and support a hoarse snarl. "Son of Sun" has also some clean vocals which are okay, main point for me is usually not how well they're performed, it's how little they annoy me - these don't. The third, shortest track is the weakest one of the bunch with some suspicious groove-ish elements. Just a bit of keyboards added for spice, very good sound with audible bass lines, occasional slight folk tones and an agreeable flow make this a pleasant if unchallenging listen. But I'm not keen on math metal or forcibly "unique" and artsy music anyways so I can easily recommend this if you like death metal with atmospheric and doomy bits. If you don't I suppose you'll wait for another post.

Putrefied Compilation Tape (1993)

Various Artists - Putrefied Compilation tape (1993)
1) Beyond Dawn - The Underworld / The Mourner
2) Solemn - Beautiful Surroundings
3) Organic Infest - Lust for Flesh
4) Absolution - In Eternal Service
5) Pleuritic - Endless Pleuritic
6) Cradle of Filth - The Raping of Faith
7) Impaled Nazarene - Condemned to Hell
8) Chapel of Rest - Intro / World Graveyard
9) Iconoclast - Apocryphal Sleep Gethsemane
10) Son of Dog - Crucify the Demi-Gorgon
11) Burial - Intro / Impending Writ of the Last Rites
12) Morbid Symphony - Evil Cares for Its Own
13) Cradle of Filth - As Deep as Any Burial / Franternally Yours, 666 (Outro)

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Another contribution today and a compilation tape which haven't been really too plentiful here I think. This was sent again by comrade Ruptured Souls (thank you) and I don't really have that much background info on it, expect that it's from (probably early) 1993, from the UK and features almost an hour of various sorts of death metal by a dozen different bands, most like Solemn, Burial or the rather well-known Cradle of Filth hailing also from the United Kingdom and the rest mostly European, from the Italian Iconoclast to Finland's Pleuritic and ImpNaz, the exceptions being Puerto Rican Organic Infest and US Son of Dog. Well, that's quite international already. I don't recall where RS had dug this up, but thanks to the original uploader. Alas, not much of a cover scan for this but an image is better than nothing. See an edited version above.

I'm not going to go in depth analysis with each track here, considering these are almost all originally demo material the sound quality is decent if a bit uneven, the rip is quite good with a little wear audible but that merely adds character, no? I said earlier this features death metal and that is really most accurate catch-all description here. Some lean a bit towards death/doom while others sound significantly more blackened. Should be a quite interesting listen if you enjoy old compilations and/or death metal.

Exitus - Statutum Est Hominibus Mori demo 1990

Exitus - Statutum Est Hominibus Mori demo 1990
1) The Metamorphosis / Black Heritage
2) Reprobate
3) A Light in the Darkness
4) Tears of Despair / Hymn to Sorrow
5) Thanatos

Rusfolder / Depositfiles

One more contribution, this one from brother SuuretMuinaiset, thanks alot for the rip! And yes, I know Svart Records just recently re-released a remastered version of this demo on vinyl but since brother SM went through the trouble of ripping me his copy I decided to post it anyways. Plus it's a pretty awesome demo if you like doom metal which is a little underrepresented genre here in the Coven is it not? Exitus was a pioneering Finnish band active around 1989 - 90 who played doom metal with touches of death and thrash, think Celtic Frost, Winter early Cathedral and so on, but leaning a bit more to the classic doom side. Ripped from an original tape, which I already mentioned but no cover scan as SM has no access to scanner at the moment, he did include a pic of the cover though, see below for a smaller version.

Very good sound, quite powerful but "airy" enough to sound really more like proper doom than death metal. I'm honestly not sure if remastering is even necessary but on the other hand I haven't heard the LP so let's not go there. Long tracks, as befits a doom band except for number 3 which is a brief, one minute interlude and as you might notice from the tracklisting, there are two more instrumentals that blend in with "proper" tracks and we didn't separate them here. I don't really have much to say here except that this is a pretty damn good demo and surely worth the re-release. Check it out if you like doom and if you have a vinyl player and won't get bankrupt by madly expensive postal charges buy the Svart release too!