Grimm's Journey - Promo 1999

Grimm's Journey - Promo 1999
1) Intergalactic Cadillac
2) Epsilon A
3) Subcreator's World Spin

Mediafire / Zippyshare

Let's do another CD promo though this one is ripped from a cassette dub. Grimm's Journey from Finland, have you ever heard about them? No? Well, they did at least this promo back in '99, played at Sararock in '00 and have recorded an EP titled "The Carrion Game" according to their Myspace. Some of the members also played in Sotajumala which I presume is a bit better known band. At least in Finland. I ripped this from one of the tapes brother Grev lent me back some months ago, thanks for humouring my curiosity!

Three songs, first two fairly long at almost six minutes each and last one a bit shorter, very melodic "death" metal. As the strange songtitles probably give away this is melodeath of the sort our neighbours in Sweden peddled after mid-90's, think In Flames around "The Jester Race" or so (probably, I don't really listen to 'em) and ...other similar things, maybe Dark Tranquillity of that era... no I actually listened to them every now and then and it's not like DT at all. Ugh, this is not my genre. I'll just say it's like blending In Flames, Children of Bodom and a handful of random late 90's melodeath bands together. I don't really like this. Well, it's better than the EP on Myspace which is mellowed down dull sort of stuff. Like slightly later In Flames crossed with all those Finnish bands I kept ignoring all those years, festivals and drinking sessions at poorly chosen locations. My, that was enthusiastic. Ok, so this isn't that bad, the vocalist does decently harsh voice and there are some nice moments. You know, instead of struggling to find something to say here I could be watching Urara Meirochou which is exactly what I'm going to do!

Orion Nightfall - Eye of the Snowstorm demo '07

Orion Nightfall - Eye of the Snowstorm demo V 2007
1) Mankindslayer
2) Hail the Old Hate
3) Wolf of the Wrathmoon
4) Spiritual War
5) Eye of the Snowstorm

Yandex / Zippyshare

I decided to post more Finnish material but cut the re-runs to the previous post for now. This is an unusually fresh cadaver to examine, mere decade old. Fifth demo of the Finnish band Orion Nightfall, released as a CD-R and recorded in August '07. I was handed a copy at the Mayhem gig in Kuopio, same year November I think? They did a little tour of three shows back then, which I recall was a bit challenging experience to the fellow organizing it. Odd venue at Kuopio too, very unusual but sort of nice if you don't mind it being kind of far away from the centre. Our adventuring party fortunately included a driver so it was ok. It was an enjoyable evening though I spent most of it outside smoking and chatting with more or less random people. And didn't really see shit when Mayhem played, barely the top of Attila's head. I'm digressing like crazy. Anyways, ripped from an original copy, covers scanned and included within.

Five tracks for seventeen minutes here, moderately melodic "black" metal (well, I suppose the themes and lyrics are vaguely black metalesque enough if you're lenient but I'd say it falls in dark metal region - then again it's not too dissimilar to various popular Poles who still get counted as black metal) with hints to the bands roots as dark melodeath unit still audible. Quite heavy and dominant guitar sound, though it all blends into an aggressive wall if walls could steamroll all over you - wait, they can and will do that, Final Fantasy VII Demons Gate (Demon Wall) never forget! Back to this, it's not all just in your face aggression, they can slow down a bit too. Vocals are hoarse screams and yells and quite good, at least when set snugly within the fluffy grim dogpile of other instrumentation. I kind of like this now, second time playing through while typing and again wonder how I keep forgetting to dig up their other demos to check out. I noticed some of them have really, really long songs and wonder how they pull those off. That's it for now, next something older again and probably a contribution.

In My Veins - Demo & Rehearsal '95

In My Veins - The Red Sky at Dawn demo 1995
1) Shrouded in Darkness and Despair
2) Black Vault of Heaven
3) The Red Sky at Dawn
4) Snow in My Hand

In My Veins - Rehearsal Track 1995
1) Black Vault of Heaven

In My Veins - Rehearsal 1995
1) Flaring Ground
2) Enwrapped in Thought

Sampo / Sendspace

Another repost?!? Yes, but this was also somewhat justified, seeing that I originally managed to mistitle the first track and the rips themselves were a little lackluster. So once again here's In My Veins, hailing from Pirkkala and they played melodic death metal, ripped anew in... '15 summer already? What have I been doing? For consistency's sake I kept the dark metal tag I had assigned them back in '09 when these were originally posted but I'm not quite sure it's really that relevant as it's essentially very basic Finnish melodeath of the era. The old cover scan included, it's a very simple affair anyways.

I crammed all the material into one folder and added one previously unreleased item, the rehearsal track which wasn't a new one at all, it was the second song off the demo as you may see. There was no date for it but obviously the rehearsal version is rawer and noisier than the studio take, sounds more aggressive too. I'm thinking it was recorded later but cannot really say that for certain. The rehearsal with the two new songs is the roughest and most in-your-face of the selection. A little unfair, the subdued sound of the demo makes it seem more lethargic than it really is when compared to the rehearsal songs. Nothing groundbreaking here but pretty good, melodic dark/death metal so if you're into that and missed this before grab it now and if you picked it up earlier I still advice to check the new rips out.

Sanatorium - Necrologue demo '98

Sanatorium - Necrologue demo III 1998
1) Necrologue Written in Forest
2) Bloody Wounds
3) Desolated Areas of the Forgotten Pain
4) Cemetery of Memories
5) Rivers of the Black Sun
6) Č. Č. K. Č. Č

 Zippyshare / 4shared

Death metal for change. Ok, today's item is not really that exciting as there have been rips of it available online since people started digitizing tapes I guess, but I still decided to upload mine as it came out pretty okay and I had bothered to make it in the first place! Not really purposefully though, this third tape recording of the Slovakian death metal band Sanatorium was the second item on a tape I was ripping in ...late '13 apparently! You can also pick up a copy quite cheaply on Discogs or somewhere and if you do, scan the covers for me.

Right, enough of your piteous attempts at justifying today's post, just get on with the program. As said, third release of Sanatorium and last before their debut album which was also the last in their old style of... ugh I hate trying to subcategorize death metal with my poor grasp of its nuances, well someone said thrash/grind mixture with touches of black/death metal so let's go with that! This incarnation of Sanatorium was notable for the atmospheric parts and melodic bits amidst all the technical wankery prowess and that stop-and-go zigzag stuff... breaks.. whatever as well as the lyrics being more on the if not poetic at least introspective and gloomy vein. On the second album and the subsequent ones, all released post-millennium, they went full-retard gore-soaked juvenile misogynic dumb brutal death metal which as you might guess I do not think very highly of. Not that I'd actually heard anything after "Internal Womb Cannibalism" but I possess just enough mental agility to at least leap very nimbly into conclusions. I must admit the indecipherable sewer gurgle vocals are amusing in scarce doses, now that I revisit IWC but it's still not my thing.

Back to what we have here, six tracks in ye olde 17ish minutes playtime which was oddly common among demos, meaning some of the tracks are quite short and actually I see the last two marked as bonuses, Rivers... being from the first demo "Subcultures" which I haven't heard and Č. Č. K. Č. Č is... special. The sound is quite good, very airy even returning to this after crawling through the mucky sewer tube of IWC, a bit light but that gives more room of the instruments to do their thing and fits the more melodic moments better. The ample fast parts also do not sound cluttered and messy which is a bonus. I must admit it goes a bit more bouncy and Primus than I really care for from time to time. And beginning of Desolated... is pure Maiden until it isn't. And then again it is, if Iron Maiden used raspy black metallish vocals mind you. Gallop gallop gallop. Now that I think about it more, this is actually pretty cheery when it's not too complex or melancholic. Schizophrenic and all over the place? Enough rambling, have a listen if all that made you curious. I don't know whom to recommend it really but I guess various kinds of people may get something out of it. What a horrible way to end a post.

Moonstruck - Under Her Burning Wings demo '96

Moonstruck - Under Her Burning Wings demo III 1996
1) Under Her Burning Wings
2) Falling Through Silent Skies
3) Where Hope Lies Dying

Sendspace / Mediafire

Melodic death metal from Sweden,  mid-90s. Hey, come back, we're not done yet! Ok, in case someone stayed let's continue. Moonstruck were a less known death metal band hailing from Bjärred, apparently formed back in '93 and this is their third demo, recorded in October '96 and released... somehow I'm thinking it was actually released early '97 but the present public opinion seems to favour 1996 so let's just go with that. Anyways, I got this while tape-trading in the olden days and can't really remember why I picked it, seeing as I wasn't into melodic death metal at that time (either). Probably liked the name or some similar well established and researched reason. No cover, I've borrowed the small image from their Metal Archives entry. Released by Supremacy Records, which I suspect was their own label, the cover was all shiny and fancy. Or so I recall from a flyer I had (possibly still have).

Besides the quasi-professional look, the sound is also quite polished. Compared to the average German rehearsal room recording of the era at least. Anyways, it still sounds obviously like a demo recording while you can hear they have some experience under their belts by this time. Music is, uh, melodic death metal. Made by Swedes. In Sweden. So you know, it sounds like that. Though I do imagine hearing traces of more Finnish sort of melodeath on the first track now as I listen to it through second time today. Slightly folky tones, don't make me drop the obvious name. Still active, name starts with an 'A'... Right, this isn't going to lead anywhere; it has become a well known fact that I can't say anything clever when it's melodeath, but I know there's an audience for this material and I was quite surprised not to find a rip of this at higher bitrates. They made an album too in '99 so pick that up if you like this demo. Not that I'd actually heard it, but they did record all of these songs for it too so I presume it continues in similar vein.

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.

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.

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997
1) Bedimmed Grey
2) The Soothsayer
3) Of Dream and Reality

RGhost / 4shared / Sendspace

Today's post also has a very, very slight connection with the BFoB festival, it is a request made last June by an anonymous commentor on this post where I was able to provide a little information (with assistance of brother Grev) and kind of left the rest for the future. By chance while we were drinking beer and falling into Mysticum psychosis / Xibalba ("they're the Darkthrone of Mexico!") mania at brother Suuret Muinaiset's place I spotted this in one of his cassette boxes, remembered the discussion about it and borrowed the tape. So thanks to SM, I've now scanned and ripped the '97 demo by Helsinki melodeath band Bleed Me Tears. I suppose I'll return it... next year or so, maybe at Profanatica?

Grev described this, in a rather unenthusiastic manner, as "more melodic death metal" in the Gothony comments and Suuret Muinaiset wasn't exactly thrilled about the demo either so I braced myself for the initial listen. As expected, typical for the era melodeath metal, less all over the place than Gothony was and with longer songs. More straightforward, easier to listen approach and I now find myself thinking this actually sounds a bit Swedic to my ears. Main vocals are a raspy half-roar found often in the genre, ok but not outstanding or very distinct in either way. Unfortunately they also feel necessary to employ half-assed clean vocals which pretty much ruin the second song. Good studio sound, it was recorded with Hiili after all in the M.D. studios. I find myself not coming up with much to say, as I've probably made already clear this is not my field of expertise. Well, the samples (?) in between the songs are mildly amusing and make me want to listen to Karjalan Sissit. Recommended to people into old Nordic melodeath and collectors of somewhat obscure Finnish demo recordings.

Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo 1998

Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo II 1998
1) Faces Behind the Mirror
2) It Hurts Again
3) With Brush of Madness
4) The Last Reflection
5) Somewhere in the Deep
6) Under the Dreams

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Let's do some (probably) easier listening today, this is a demo I bought as a victim of false advertising from a distro back in '98 or possibly early '99, the second tape by Hungarian band Dying Wish. It was supposed to be similar to Moonspell's "Wolfheart" which I was quite the fanboy of back in the day. It was not. It's labeled as melodic death metal on the Metal Archives but when the first song kicks in you're probably thinking "gothic metal" or possibly something I'm too refined to type here. It's really closer to Paradise Lost when they decided to turn girly metal back in the early mid-90's except with some growls tossed in. Not a very good name drop to be honest, but I'm not so fluent with these melobands. Think Century Media/Napalm (mid-90's onward) roster stables or Swedish melodic metal bands. Ripped from an original cassette so the sound is good. It's not like I had worn the tape thin on this one. Covers scanned too.

So I was dissappointed with this when I got it and as you probably read between the lines already I'm still not very wild about it. But I suppose I could try to say something more, the tape runs easily into album length as most of the six songs are pretty long. The main clean singing voice is decent enough not to be annoying and isn't too high on the mix. It's decidedly amateurish too but that's not really a problem. The occasional death grunts are pretty standard fare, deep unlike the main vocal. Playing is competent enough, music mostly quite fast paced and upbeat. I'm running out of things to say, I still don't really like it but neither do I hate it. I guess you'll know if you want this.

Gothony - Hidden Thoughts demo 1997

Gothony - Hidden Thoughts demo 1997
1) Infinity
2) The Temptation Still Remains
3) Crystal Dream

RGhost / Mediafire

I decided to follow up with another Finnish contribution, almost as obscure I suppose but metal this time, sent by master Sorvali, thanks for the scans and rip! This is Gothony of Helsinki and their only demo as far as I know, though the covers do mention a rehearsal tape that they dubbed to people. They played melodic death metal, very popular at the time, you know stuff Napalm Records started to branch into around then (and Nuclear Blast, Century Media and so on and on...). Wait, don't leave yet, look at the pretty coloured cover and stay a bit longer! It has a very good studio sound, too!

Ok, let's move on quickly to the music of which there is fifteen minutes here spread over three tracks. No intros and interludes then, just... uh, "pure" melodeath? Don't think old Gothenburg now, this is Finnish after all. It has plentyof stuff thrown into the mix so I don't know how pure it then really is. You've got your standard (quite amateurish) clean male vocals, female support vocals, some folkish riffs, fast parts, slow parts, raw (quite good!) main vocals and whatnot. Besides the sound already mentioned in the previous paragraph also the musicianship is pretty good. This isn't really my thing, I was initially going to say I don't like it but additional listens seem to improve my opinion a bit. Have a listen for yourself if melodic (death-ish) metal, especially semi-obscure, Finnish and 90's is your thing.

Nocturnal Winds - Demo II 1998

Nocturnal Winds - Demo II 1998
1) Son of the Winterstorm
2) Instrumental
3) Warrior of Light
4) My Angel

Mega / Zippyshare

Ask and ye shall receive, here is the second Nocturnal Winds demo posted unusually fast. Like the previous one, brother Grev dubbed, I ripped and uploaded. Thanks as always! For this one we did not have a cover though so image borrowed from Metal Archives. It's... colourful.

Four songs again, for slightly longer playtime and the second one, titled "Instrumental" (guess what kind of a song it is) is easily the longest of the bunch at almost ten minutes. Perhaps that could be taken as an indicator of the lads' confidence in their skills. I suppose the playing is somewhat tighter and music perhaps a little more ambitious and uh, complex? Not Yngwie Malmsteen stuff but there's a certain amount of increase in the instrument intercourse here. Some thrashing riffs, power metallic bits and all sorts of knick-knacks have been added. Also the lyrical topics seem to have shifted away from what was almost like weather report black metal stuff to uh, whatever they are about, at least the titles indicate a change for worse; ok the first one seems to more or less carry on from where they left off, but "Warrior of Light" causes slight shiver run down my spine in its powermetallishness (stop making up words!) and gives me an involuntary Tolkki flashback while "My Angel" brings at first mind old Arcturus (yay) and then, overriding the positive association, terrible, syrupy power ballad or perhaps gothic metal abomination of some (possibly German) kind. And that's just the song titles, what horrors the actual songs contain!? Well, they're not nearly as bad as the mental images my tormented subconsciousness seems fond off conjuring. WoL is a pretty lively tune and more straightforward than expected while MA is more power metally and radio-friendly, somewhat forgettable melotune rather than a performance of poor man's avantgarde or the diabeteous, gothic simulacrum I secretly hoped it to be. Surprisingly enough the very end of the track gets suddenly much better, but that's just not enough for such a long track.

I'm sure many people will welcome the musical development, progress and slight changes here while some will end up enjoying the first demo better. Note that all but the instrumental appear again on their debut album, as well as "Frost Divine" from the demo I which would've been only my third pick from there. Recommended (obviously) for the fans of the band, of Finnish melodic death metal and long instrumental songs.
 

Nocturnal Winds - Demo I 1997

Nocturnal Winds - Demo I 1997
1) Frost Divine
2) Infinity Prevails
3) A Path to Forest Unknown
4) Ride with the Winterwinds

Yandex / Depositfiles

Melodic death metal is something that ends up used as a curse word rather than a description quite often in certain circles, perhaps unfairly, sometimes deservedly. But the Coven is fair, just and above prejudice so let's give another representative of the countless horde of later 90's melodeath bands a chance today. This is Nocturnal Winds from Finland and their first demo, ripped by me from a tape dubbed by brother Grev whom we also have to thank for the cover scans.

Looking at the band name and song titles one might expect black metal, perhaps in the weather report genre and maybe even with thick layers of delicious, cheap synth dressing on top. Nope, we get three long and one shorter songs of slightly rough sounding melodic death metal in the time-honoured 90's Finnish vein. You know what I'm talking about, don't pretend not to. If you actually don't, think '94/'95 Amorphis, same period Sentenced and, ugh, I can't think of anything reasonable and well-enough known right now, but anyways with slightly cruder performance, rougher sound and less frills all around. I'm kind of reminded of the Frozen Tear demo by the sound and performance, and congrats if that says anything to you. Funny enough, this also sounds pretty enjoyable, mostly due the things mentioned which probably will be a negative point to seasoned, jaded meloheads. Despite what I said earlier there are some wee little touches of black metal here and there and I think I heard Satan mentioned too in the third track. Yay! Sometimes this kind of stuff is fine too and it works here well enough, except for the cover picture that really does not lead one to think "frost", "winterwinds" or "nocturnal winds" either, more like Midsummer and booze at a lakeside cabin. The last track is pretty awful with the c'mon! c'mon! - shouts and they were doing so well in the third song too! Still, it's good enough with three pretty good tracks out of four, slightly recommended.

Adornment - ...And Love Perished demo 1994

Adornment - ...And Love Perished demo 1994
1) ...And Love Perished
2) The Birds Have Gone
3) Touch
4) Daughters of Dawn

4shared / Mega

The tour ends in Finland and in moods not that far from where we left off with the previous post. This is Adornment who hail from Vantaa and their only demo dating to 1994. My rip from comrade passetiermes' cassette that was among those I borrowed last summer, posted this late as I was initially disencouraged by the appearance of a rip of the demo, just about when I had scanned the covers, at Raf's blog. Then after a bit of time passed I decided to post this rip anyways since I had already done it, scanned covers and sent the tape back to p. Didn't download the other rip so no comment on the quality, but at least this has higher bitrate and generally good sound.

The music on the quasi-controversial tape is melodic death metal. Yeah, it's that simple, I'm not going to be overtly elaborate. Well, perhaps I could mention the occasional dual-vocals, or the slight English death/doom influences or other details, but nope. Just download it if you enjoy melodic sorts of death metal, you'll like this.

Enchanted - Breed My Sorrows demo 1995 ('97 version)

Enchanted - Breed My Sorrows demo 1995 (Vox Mortiis Records 1997 version)
1) Breed My Sorrows
2) Starfall
3) Carven Dreams
4) The Words of an Ember

Mediafire (full scans) / Yandex (only cover image)

Let's stay in Norway for another post and another contribution, this one was sent by Chris already months back so about time I post it! Thanks for the rip and (massive!) scans to him. Enchanted were a Norwegian band formed in 1992 with a quite scarce discography, besides this demo originally released in 1995 they recorded an official rehearsal tape in '94, with two songs that appear on this demo too and an EP in 1998 with two new songs. These give a grand total of six songs in as many years, they apparently split up after the EP was released. Not a whole lot. Anyways, you see them labeled as black metal in Metal Archives and actually in the mp3's here as I forgot to change 'em but do not let that fool you. The vocalist has a screamy voice, yes, but musically this is much closer to melodeath of Swedish school and obviously their lyrics aren't black metal. Let's go with dark metal for this one again, shall we?

They took over two months to complete the recording and mixing process so the sound better be good after that much time used on a demo recording! And it is, clear and quite powerful even. The low end is over represented but I suspect this would really be Chris's doing, I'm quite sure it wasn't this bassy on the dub I have. As I've already mentioned, this is very melodic, at times almost slipping to flowery power metal stuff but narrowly avoids the full tumble. It's well enough performed and all, but this isn't really my favoured poison. Recommended if you enjoy either nwosdm, melodeath in general or melodic dark metal. Oh, I should probably mention, even if it is written next to the links, that the Mediafire download is the full package with the enormous scans (7-zip packed) while Yandex is without the big scans (Winrar). Pick whichever options suits you better. Next post will be a request and I'll try to get to sometime in the evening! Maybe.

Nightside - Oneiric Reign demo 1998

Nightside (ita) - Oneiric Reign demo II 1998
1) Sorrow of Remembrances
2) Nocturnal Vision
3) Comet
4) Obliteration of Conscious Ego
5) Destiny
6) Black Tears (Edge of Sanity cover)

Depositfiles / Mediafire (smaller download without scans)

Still in the realms of death, we will now stray a bit from the path of true death with this contribution by Chris, thanks for the rip and (huge!) cover scan. It's not that long a way from Switzerland to Italy but this second demo, third tape by the Italians Nightside (not likely to be mixed with the Finns featured on the blog earlier) is from entirely different continent compared to Coffin's content in the previous post. Somewhat technical and melodic death metal and now that I think about it my "different continent" wording is really off since this is obviously inspired by the Swedish bands who played this style, especially later At the Gates who they covered on their '96 demo.

Five songs of their own here, one of which ("Destiny") is labeled as a bonus track and a cover of Edge of Sanity which I've never really listened to much so no comment about that band's potential influence to their songwriting and sound. Melodic death metal was for me something mostly other people listened to in the 90's so I'm not an authority with all the nuances and probably miss a ton of name dropping chances here, I'll just say if someone had told me this was a Swedish band while playing a track I'd probably believed them. It's not bad, I suppose, their skills seem adequate to task at hand, the songs have some variation to them and the sound quality is suitable for a demo. I think the bonus track sounds a little different, so it seems safe to deduce it was recorded in a later session. Since they practically have to be mentioned when discussing this sort of stuff I'll just say In Flames (earlier, not nowadays!) and Dark Tranquillity here to get done with that and recommend people into bands mentioned so far (well, maybe not fans of Coffin) and similar music to give this a go.

UPDATE: Added a Mediafire link without the enormous cover scans for peasants with sluggish internet.

Faethon - Far to the North demo 1995

Faethon (fin) - Far to the North demo 1995
1) After the War
2) Scarlet Tears
3) First Snow
4) Far to the North
5) The Wizard from the North
6) The End

Mediafire

Finnish material and this rip, by me, is another result of my pact with brother passetiermes as he sent me a couple of tapes besides the 'zines I've scanned thus far. Thank you again for assisting the Coven! Here's a rather obscure band called Faethon, very different from the current Greek one, and their probably only recording. As an interesting bit of trivia, Jerry "Serpent" Kurunen of Nightside / Annihilatus / Imperiumi - fame is credited for the lyrics. Cover scans are included.

What is this like then? Sounds very much like older Sentenced is really pretty much enough to say, it's melodic northern death-ly metal. Think back to "Amok" or "Love and Death" and you've got a pretty good general idea. The main vocal is not really a proper death metal growl, grunt, roar or scream, more like very rough singing voice. Clean vocals are also used and both are definitely amateurish and rather crude in a very sincere way. Am I making any sense here? I was having a little hard time with the track division at first as it seemed to have only five tracks, but I then decided the title track and "The Wizard..." blend into each other with the former being the longer instrumental part in the beginning. Which is, actually, the best track to my taste as I'm not really into the vocals. That is all, I must hurry off for now. Have a listen for yourself if the description or the relative obscurity intrigued you.

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo 1995

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo I 1995
1) Crossing the Lands of Shadows
2) Distant Valleys
3) Whispering Souls
4) Secrets of the Mystified Dreams
5) Under the Sun

Zippy / Media

Here's a "real" post again and this one was dubbed to me by Grev, to replace my shitty nth generation version, thanks bro! He sent me scans of the covers too so this time we've got that bit covered. I should mention the covers don't look as dark as what you see above, I was editing the image and playing with the settings while that came up and I thought it looked cool enough to use as an image for the post here on blog.

I suppose I should talk about the demo and the band too. Celestial Empire was one of those numerous bands that appeared in the mid-90s, did a tape or two (they did two) and disappeared. Music on this debut demo was melodic death metal, the Metal Archives entry says death/black metal but I'm not picking up any black metal here, I can agree to dark metal if I must. Perhaps the vocalist's style (harsh half-scream half-roar, which really is more typical of melodic death in my opinion) might have mislead the contributor, or the track titles? Whatever, this is a pretty typical demo of the style, with a good sound (Tico-Tico studio), reasonable performance and ok songwriting. It's not just very memorable or remarkable, but if you like dark metal, 90's Finnish metal and/or melodeath you should give this a listen.

Everlasting Reign - Obscuritatis Terram Dominat demo 1996

Everlasting Reign - Obscuritatis Terram Dominat demo 1996
1) Intro - Something to Follow
2) Chaotic Eclipse
3) Inner Eternity
4) Doors of Perception
5) No Sense
6) Symphony of Agony

Mediafire / Rusfolder

More death metal music follows, this one representing a subgenre not very often seen in the Coven's vaults: melodic death metal. This is the apparently only demo by the Italian band Everlasting Reign which, according to Metal Archives entry, featured two young men Francisco and Cesar Zavattari - my educated guess is that they're brothers - who later would form a thrash band called Aghast Insane with a couple of other fellows. No, I haven't heard that one either. I got this dub from one of my traders basically on a whim, the demo title was pretty cool, but wasn't too wild of it to be honest. He didn't send me covers and there don't seem to be any around the internet so unless someone contributes we have no decoration for this post.

Like I already mentioned this is melodic death metal. Think certain 90's Gothenburg bands, or old Children of Bodom and such, but played by two young guys with a drum machine. Yeah. The sound isn't bad and they got some pretty good bits and whatever but this isn't my chalice of poison. So I'm not going to spend any more time making vague comparisons, give it a listen if you're really curious, morbidly obsessive about melodeath or absolutely must hear every obscure 90's metal demo.

Shadows Of Sunset - Fires of the Soon Dead Sun demo 1996

Shadows of  Sunset - Fires of the Soon Dead Sun demo 1996
1) Images of the Darkest Nature's Wrath
2) Until the Fires of Dawn
3) Beyond Emptiness
4) Craving of Pleasure

Rusfolder /Yandex

Bio sheet circa MCD (1997)

A Finnish demo today and another contribution sent in by brother Grindfreak, thank you! Shadows of Sunset was a Finnish death metal band, originally formed under the name of Imposed Silence in 1993 and released a demo called "Torn Angels of Divine" (pretty cool title) in 1995 before changing the band's name to this one. They released this demo and a MCD "Reflection from Afar" plus possibly another demo "Mirror of Bestiality" in 2000. After changing their style to a heavier, more brutal style of death metal the band name changed to Torn. This last incarnation released an album in 2002 and a demo in 2004. Grindfreak's rip includes cover scan so we're all set, are we not? - No we're not, I found a bio sheet which I decided to scan. Not going to reupload to add that, so click the image.

Okay, to the music. I'm not going to compare this to Imposed Silence demo as I don't remember how it sounded like. But I'm going to get that one from brother Grev so we'll return to it another time. The sound is quite good and so is the rip quality, decent studio demo production with quite a heavy and audible bass and more than enough clarity to hear all the instruments. At places you can hear some sort of hissing or piercing, whiny background noise but fortunately that's either a passing phenomenon or drowns out so effectively that my half-deaf ears fail to note it for most of the time... no, it's there constantly, I noticed it now. Well, it's not really bad, but please note that if it manages to drive you insane or cause other issues the Coven is in no way responsible for your condition. The style is melodic death metal, you know the sort, with quite a lot of speed, some atmospheric breaks and vocals more reminiscent of black metal than death grunts. The vocalist is better than I remembered, giving slight variation to his output while thankfully avoiding embarassing "clean" singing and/or spoken parts. I guess calling it blackened death metal wouldn't be utterly out of question except that the themes don't cross over to actual black metal so let's stick with death metal. I actually like the overall sound here better than the MCD which isn't bad either. From the Torn era I've only heard the demo and that's really completely different thing, not to mention the vocalist is different. But I suggest you give this a listen if you enjoy or at least tolerate melodic (very slightly blackened) 90's death metal.

Northern Darkness Records Advance - Promo 1996

Various Artists - Northern Darkness Records advance-promo (1996)
1) Godfuck 93 - Tomb Desecration XXX 192
2) Godfuck 93 - 172: Whore Remix (Heroin Control)
3) Entirety - Intro
4) Entirety - Monolith
5) Entirety - Deserts of Vast Eternity
6) Handful Of Hate - Prophecy of a New Assiah's Supremacy
7) Handful Of Hate - Undicies Ah-Qlipha
8) Love History - Intro - From Bohemia's Woods and Fields
9) Love History - Labyrinth of Love
10) Love History - Desires
11) Novgorod - Through the Seven Gates of Kur
12) Novgorod - From the Flesh He Was Created

Depositfiles / Mediafire

Looks like it's been a bit over year since I last posted a compilation tape, time to remedy that I suppose. This item here is actually probably more correctly called a sampler as it was a promotional/advance tape sent around by the Italian underground label Northern Darkness Records in 1996 for free, mostly to distros, 'zines, other labels and people who ordered stuff from them. Came with a xeroxed cover and an ordinary tape with stickers on them. Scanned the cover, not the tape itself. Side A is called "...the Northern Side" and contains advance tracks, unmixed raw versions and side B is "...the Darkness Side" and has tracks from two preceeding releases, Love History MCD and Novgorod demo.

The first two tracks are sort of industrial black metal by Godfuck 93, an Italian project featuring the Necromass vocalist at the time whose name is not mentioned on the cover but I presume it'd be Charles Blasphemy. The music on these two tracks is still mostly pretty straight black metal with drum machine, samples, effects and such. Though the second track has some almost danceable beats, guess later Samael meets Aborym wouldn't be a too far-fetched comparison. I remember being quite intrigued and even excited by this back then. Entirety are also Italian and have a bit cleaner sound than Gf93... for their intro, once the metal kicks in it gets rather muddled and strangely quiet compared to the nice intro bit. Well, like the cover says material on this side of the tape is raw recordings without editing & mastering. Music is melodeath with ample background synths. Think about the Swedes in the 90's. Last on this side of the tape is Handful of Hate, Italian black metal band who are still active and released an album this year. Much clearer sound here, quite fast black metal with typically Italian occult touch and some tempo changes and atmospheric breaks, fortunately. The line-up for the album credits a J.M. for drums but this sounds like a machine here. Might be the sound. This sounds better than I remembered, I guess I have to take another listen to their albums. And that demo.

Side B opens with the intro of the only non-Italian group here, Czech Rep's Love History who play atmospheric death/doom with dramatic touches and different kinds of vocals; whispers, growls, spoken bits and so on. You're thinking My Dying Bride, aren't you? Well, fortunately they've got something of their own going there too, some slightly folksy, Slavonic-sounding (though I suppose these should be Bohemian) melodies for example which sound very nice, reminding me of Gods Tower. The cover doesn't mention their second "proper" track at all, probably due oversight. It's an instrumental piece with almost jazzy parts, showing again another side. They also sound better than I remembered, I recall preferring their country mates Dissolving of Prodigy as if I couldn't listen to both. That's a second band here I need to listen more to. Last is, wait for it, Italian Novgorod with two long tracks taken from their demo. Synth-driven gothic sort of black(ish) metal with a slightly low sound. Not very impressed with them, the songs are a bit too long for their own good and some of the transitions and playing sound very awkward and not in the good way. Annoying as there are some pretty cool moments too. The total duration of the sampler is a bit over 47 minutes and I've written enough about it, I'm hungry.