Weakling - Live Practice '98

Weakling - Live Practice 25th May 1998
1) No One Can Be Called as a Man While He'll Die
2) Disasters in the Sun
3) This Entire Fucking Battlefield
4) Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein

Depositfiles / Sendspace

I decided to do one of my own tape rips for today, this is Weakling from USA and their 1998 rehearsal tape or "Live Practice" as they labeled it. There have been rips around before but since this turned out quite nicely enough I decided to share. And no, it's not ripped from an original copy, it's from a dub I got from an American person. Cover image from Metal Archives if you didn't guess already.

Weakling is best known for releasing an album in 2000 with five staggeringly long tracks and four of them appear also here, meaning this has a running time comparable to most albums at over fifty minutes. The long, long instrumental songs combined with the rehearsal/live sound which is very clear, I must mention, even with all the feedback and so on present, can make this a bit hard morsel to chew, swallow, digest and eventually defecate. I like the sound here though and the unedited nature of the recording with the false start, little screw-ups, feedback and all. The drums are slightly more subdued than on the album and everything seems to have a bit more space and room to breathe. I said instrumental but one can hear some sort of screaming in the background occasionally, perhaps as a result of getting carried away? I tagged this progressive which might be a little misleading, but it feels somewhat justified. Recommended if you like long instrumental recordings of somewhat black metal nature and are not afraid of being stamped as a late-to-the-party hipster by people with callous, embittered characters.

T.O.L.K - Entropia demo 1996

T.O.L.K - Entropia demo 1996
1) Raspi
2) Simpance homous

RGhost / Mediafire

And now something different, still Finnish but really quite different. This is another sending of master Sorvali, thanks for the scan and rip! I don't remember it but I was told I'd been looking for this or asking about it. Must've been drunk. So, it's a demo by the... I don't know what to call it, progressive weird ass project T.O.L.K which apparently recorded two (not 100% sure about that) demos and at least this one is instrumental and features the trio of Santeri Saksala of Alamaailman Vasarat on drums, Nipa Ryti playing bass (don't really know him from elsewhere) and an Aleksi Laiho from Inearthed on guitar. That band split up pretty soon after getting a deal in '97 but he started a new one, you might've heard of it. They actually played live with this, there was a clip from '97 on Youtube which I'm now too lazy to look up again. But it was there.

Enough stalling, to the music. Only two songs but both are of moderate length so there's ten minutes of stuff to chew. I still don't know what to accurately call this, progressive metal I suppose might be a suitable catch-all description I can shove this under and flee. The people obviously are proficient with their instruments and I suppose they know what they're doing. I wish I could say the same. Well, it's not that outrageously bizarre but still outside my usual palate. Recommeded for people into progressive music, interested in the involved parties other bands or fans of apes.

Neglected Fields - Sansara demo 1996

Neglected Fields - Sansara demo I 1996
1) Sphere's Rhapsody
2) Eschatological
3) Sansara
4) Living Structures

Mediafire / RGhost

Looks this is going to be the last post for this year, thanks to all supporters and contributors and let us keep reaping the tombs next year as well. Today's offering is again by Henri and it is the first demo of the Latvian Neglected Fields who played progressive and technical death metal. No, I don't think they sound like Opeth. Or do they? I'm by no means an expert here. Cover scans are included and these are unusually colourful, which is kind of neat for change. Festive and all that.

This is not the sort of music I am personally very familiar with, nor do I really much care for technical sort of metal in general, but this is staying within fairly reasonable bounds instead of full-blown instrumenstrual orgy and I kind of like their Orientally flavoured esoteric concept, at least in small doses such as the rather standard seventeen minutes this demo runs for. I haven't heard any of their three albums, or any other later output either but as these tracks seem to reappear on the debut I'd assume at least that one is in similar vein to this tape. Progressively technical but still rather agreeable "death" metal, not at all brutal despite the vocalist exclusively utilizing his grunts yet quite interesting and not too fluffy. I'm not sure if I could really stomach a full album of this stuff but a little snack is fine occasionally. Hear for yourself and next year I promise to post more moist, rotten filth scraped off the sacrophagi long forgotten in the dreariest catacombs.

Korova - Live in Rockhouse Salzburg (13-01-95)

Korova - Live in Rockhouse, Salzburg Austria 13th January 1995
1) Awakening from Perpetual Contemplation (Yellow Mahogany Tomb I)
2) A Kiss in the Charnel Fields
3) Entlebt in tristem Morgenblut
4) Latin Dreams in Turpentine
5) Nordsciltim - In the Filth Where All Cull Perambulates Pain
6) Sálømeh, des Teufels Braut

Rusfolder / Mega

Break over, back to business and this is a live tape contribution (which I would like to see more) which I actually intended to post already before departing for Black Flames V last week but didn't have time to. Anyways, thanks to the contributor for the rip! This has obviously no real cover, I just felt like making one so there.

I should probably say something about the performer too, this is Korova from Austria which a few people might actually remember while others might know them by the later name Korovakill. This live recording predates the debut album's release on Napalm records (who used to be a pretty interesting label in the early to mid 90's) in May '95 but as it was already recorded in late '94 these are final versions of the songs, well, adjusted to the live situation of course. Korova at this phase played avant-gardish black metal that had some odd elements but wasn't quite massively annoying. Though I'm not really fond of the nu-metallish, bouncy bits that occasionally pop up. I think I took a listen to the second album and immediately fled the record store so excuse my ignorance for their latter development. This live tape features a good sound, you can hear all the instruments without them cluttering the soundscape up and no element seems overtly dominant. Possibly a soundboard recording? Yes, the music is all over the place but still manages to stay together well enough to remain listenable and even enjoyable to yours truly. Recommended for the curious, the Austria-oriented and the handful of people who liked "A Kiss in the Charnel Fields".

Messier - Live at Võit Cinema, 4.4.1997

Messier - Live at Võit Cinema, Nõmme, Tallinn Estonia 4th April 1997
1) Ohverdus hingekopsude toojale
2) Kopsud ja valu ja saatuse raskus
3) Surm neile kel kõrv
4) Püha osmidus armastab loomi
5) Iisraeli rahva kõlbeline laostumine

RGhost / Yandex

Following the previous post I decided to upload right away another Messier item, this is a live recording, also from 1997. The line-up for the gig was same as for the first demo, minus Pallisõber (I think) and added our contributor Mihkel Kleis playing the synth. Mihkel recalls Messier performed live only two times. The venue was in a suburb of Tallinn and was quite popular for rock and metal concerts at that time. No cover, the pic up there is the Messier guys sans Känd hanging around at Harju Mägi, Tallinn - there was a record market every Sunday. Mihkal in the middle, Noka to the left and Lauri on the right.

The five song performance lasts a little below 17 minutes and has a pretty good sound in my opinion. Vocals are a little high on the mix but this might have to do also with the nature of the instrumentation. Some of the tracks don't seem to appear elsewhere, including the first one which sounds quite like progressive rock with the synth and guitar doing what they do. The second and third track are among the more bizarre and noisy sort and live especially so. An interesting performance for sure. I had something else I was going to write but now I'm kind of in a hurry so just download it. Or don't.

Master's Hammer - Rehearsal 1993

Master's Hammer - Rehearsal 1993 (actually 1992)
1) Instrumental Jam
2) Já nechci mnoho trápiti...
3) Kol prostírá se temný les...
4) Ten dvanácterák zmizel v houští...
5) Mezi kopci cesta je klikatá... (1st version)
6) Mezi kopci cesta je klikatá... (2nd version)
7) Mezi kopci cesta je klikatá... (3rd version)
8) Že vše je podle mého přání... (1st version)
9) Že vše je podle mého přání... (2nd version)

Reuploaded

Here's one of my own rips for change and one of my favourite bands, the Czech cult band Master's Hammer which I hope is familiar to most of my readers. If not, go and listen to their first two albums immediately. Then the demos & new album. Ok, this thing here is a rehearsal tape I got from one of my traders, titled rehearsal 1993 and without a tracklisting. However as you noticed already I figured them out and I believe this to be rehearsal session(s?) for the 2nd album, in which case it'd be 1992 really. Not sure though so I kept it labeled as I got it. I know there is a rehearsal tape called "Hash-Influenced" dated for 1992 which I for some bizarre reason never had dubbed which might or might not be this same recording. If you have that tape get in touch with me right now.

As you've probably figured out, I'm a big MH-fan so anything I write will not be neutral. I'd be likely to listen to an hour of Franta practising a single riff. Keeping that in mind, I'll start by saying this has mostly an excellent rehearsal sound, demo quality easily. The first track might be a bit off a turn off for many as it really is, like it titled it, an instrumental jam. At least I could not identify it as any of the actual songs. The rest of the material are "proper" tracks but tend to sound quite different from the album versions, obviously. Vocals and most of the instruments are present. There are several takes of two of the tracks and all sound quite different. Might not be to everyone's taste, even fellow Master's Hammer fanboys', yet I still recommend it as it is an interesting listen even if things occasionally get a bit out of hand and some elements are missing/different.

Gallows - The Butterfly promo 1993

Gallows (isr) - The Butterfly promo 1993
1) Here the Flying... Flew... Already Gone
2) The Butterfly
3) Children
4) Testimony of a Sanguinary Generation
5) ...And No One Made a Sound
6) Optimistic End

Reuploaded

Here's a bit different item, again, this time still metal though. The Israeli band Gallows isn't very well known, I think, and I don't have too much info on them either. Metal Archives lists another tape before this one, neglects this completely and then mentions the re-release in 1995 which also appears to be the last release. I have somewhere a flyer for this tape, I'll scan it add to the post if I find it. As you probably guessed by now, I got this from a trader and have no covers. Would appreciate a scan if you happen to have them.

The music is sort of progressive metal with death metal vocals and both death & thrash metal leanings. It sounds quite jazzy to me in many places, throwing in some semi-mandatory middle eastern folk influences in the mix as well. Lyrically it would appear to lean towards life metal, but I suppose that can be excused. Personally I have somewhat mixed feelings about this... I like some of the proge parts and especially the keyboards on 4 & 5 (which the tracklisting I got seemed to list as "Testimony of a Sanguinary Generation - And No One Made a Sound" but it has a clear break at 6:30, dividing it into two tracks) and the harsh vocals come out quite well. Musicianship, sound and tape quality are very good too. This just isn't my favourite sort of music in general. But as said, I like 4 & 5 and the rest is okay too so I suppose I can recommend this to open-minded readers.