Siren - The Calling... demo 1995

Siren (ger) - The Calling... demo 1995
1) Blessing of the First Snow
2) The Troll and the Spirit of the Wood
3) My Queen
4) The Calling
5) Der Wolf

Depositfiles

German assault time, going to post a bunch of German demos next which probably makes comrade THE DECEASED happy. Or not as the quality varies a lot. First off is the debut demo of Siren, who released a bunch of tapes and an EP on Silencelike Death. The Absurd connections of the band might be of interest to some of you, on this effort Wolf does the vocals on the last track "Der Wolf" which is also dedicated to him. I have an original copy so I've scanned the covers and included 'em in the upload.

Ok, this demo contains five tracks of... kind of black/pagan metal with... a different sound. The first track starts off promising enough with a very prominent and interesting bass sound and obvious programmed drums, the semi-clean vocals strongly remind me of some older Absurd material. Overall, this song is quite intriguing. However things start to go immediately worse from here on, the next bit is a short instrumental with AWFUL keyboards and the following track is a LOVE song?!? I mean, what the FUCK?! It's an extremely clumsy effort with awkward performance and embarassing lyrics. If you must make a song to your wife, you could at least use some metaphors. Or just not put it on your supposedly black/pagan metal demo. Of course it also happens to be the longest track on the tape. Horrible. The title track that follows isn't much better to be honest so hopes sink pretty fast I guess. It's just crude, badly written and performed. The last track is again slightly better, mostly due Wolf's vocals. This is probably one of the worst demos I've bought for some time. So why post it? Well, it has of course certain historical value and maybe someone actually enjoys this. I'm kind of curious to hear the rest of the efforts Siren released so leave a note if you know a link or have them. Recommended for people mad about early Absurd material, masochists, diehard German demo collectors and the morbidly curious.

Malitiae - Azazel demo 1995

Malitiae - Azazel demo 1995
1) A Shadow of Sorrow (Darkness Falls Over Ptlomea)
2) Tears of Ice
3) INFERNO

Depositfiles / Rusfolder

My second part of summer vacation has come to pass and it is back to work. I want to share misfortune with my loyal readers, so behold, I give you Malitiae from Sweden! Again another demo I picked based on the band name (and the overall look and feel of the cover bringing Infortunium releases to mind - how wrong was I) and assumption it would be Swedish black metal in the underground vein, just somehow overlooked and possibly a hidden gem. Wrong. Ripped from an original tape, cover scan included.

By now you must be anxious to read what is going on with the recording, or some of you have already downloaded it and experience it first hand. It's amateurish, strange, poorly performed and just awful. A generous person will call it black metal as it vaguely sounds like some things associated with the genre. The guitar sound is... remarkable, vocals shoddy, drum computer absolutely hideous, sound clear but poor, songwriting abysmal and not in a excluding demonic menace-way. Sound level changes suddenly in the last, looooooong song, bizarre synths (/flutes?) occasionally overpower everything else and it's just sort of haphazardly random, like combining the worst elements of Sacrilegeous and almost everything of Siren. It is also morbidly fascinating, like an out of body experience helplessly, spellbound watching an accident take place where you most likely end up horribly mauled in an interesting way. For masochists, obsessive demo collectors, the very curious and the utterly insane.

De Occulta Philosophia - Obscura Simphonia

De Occulta Philosophia - Obscura Simphonia demo 1995
1) Seventh Poseidon's Siren
2) Shadows Dancer in the Night of Plenilune
3) Marsh of Agony
4) Mortiferous
5) Frosty Breath Rides Under Mystic Moon (of Midnight)

Reuploaded

Italian symphonic black metal influenced by (in their own words) Cradle Of Filth plus Slayer and Rotting Christ might sound more controversial than nsbm in today's standards but do not worry, it is actually quite listenable and even while the main influence is old COF I'd say second comparison would be the fellow Italians they greet on the covers; Necromass, Opera IX, Mortuary Drape & Vladimir. Especially the two in the middle are an influence I welcome heartily. This is as far as I know the only release by this band.

My copy was dubbed (from an original I guess) for me by one of my traders, but it has a very good and clear sound. I have a xerox of the cover which I decided not to scan as M.A. had a decent scan of it so that's enclosed. Recommended if you enjoy old Cradle of Filth, Italian black metal or symphonic/melodic bm in general.

Paymon - The Way of Knowledge demo '96

Paymon - The Map Way of Knowledge demo 1996
1) Intro
2) My Eternal Dream
3) Cauterized Soul
4) Scongiurazione a Diana
5) Christ's Death
6) Outro
7) Labyrinth der Einsamkeit

Mega / Rusfolder

Let's do something different from short Finnish rehearsal tapes for change... how about awkward, lo-fi German black metal/ambient? Yes! But only if it is at least album length with a strange and half-assed track division!! And boy, do we deliver. This is Paymon of Germania and their(/his?) only demo, "recorded in a Dirty Black Summer MDCCCCXCVI" as the cover states. Not exactly Danzig-influenced though. Well, maybe if one crossbred "Black Aria" with a mixture of old Mjölnir, Sorg and Siren, perhaps with a pinch of Fulgor thrown in for good measure. Nah, it's not really a good comparison. I've a scan of the charming xerox covers this time, both it and the rip again courtesy of brother LKS. Thank you! The probably inaccurate track division was my fault, I think... this has been sitting in Limbo waiting for quite a while already.

UPDATE: Damn it I thought the name was a bit odd and then finally had a good luck at the cover scan, tilted and what do you know, the accursed title is "The Way of Knowledge" not ...Map...!!! I should know better than trust Metal Archives' half-literate contributors, how can I be so blind?!? Reuploaded with the corrected title, so annoying!

The sound is quite low, both in volume and quality and as I've already hinted the music is kind of haphazard, lumbering slower stuff that I guess should be somewhat generously categorized into black metal. There are both short and loooong tracks but it's pretty hard to accurately say where one bit actually ends and next begins. I really need to get to bed soon so I think I'll stop my writeup here before it too wanders into the murky haze, not to be seen again. Certain parties will enjoy the display while others will add it to the list of obscure German crap best avoided. Have a listen and pick your side!

Svartalfheim - Well of the Highest Knowledge demo 1998

Svartalfheim - Well of the Highest Knowledge demo 1998
1) The One with the Ravens
2) Dawn of Ragnarok
3) Well of the Highest Knowledge
4) Norder reser sig igen
5) Väinämöinen and Joukahainen
6) Two Ravens

RGhost / Mega

The previous two posts were examples of what I consider good sort of viking black metal. Unfortunately as we today move to Finnish soil the case isn't so and I know this item can quite readily be found on the inter nets, but since Henu sent me a good rip of it I couldn't resist ending my little -heim trilogy here. I suppose I could've picked a different, more ascending sort of order for it, though. This is Svartalfheim, from Finland (which historically isn't known for vikings), a project of Azaghal leader Narqath and comrades Wind & Kalma who have been recently featured with other projects here. This is the first and only demo released under this name, they started as Calm, changed to this and then swapped for Hin Onde around 1999 and kept that till the end. I suppose it is safe to assume they called it quits as the last release is from 2003. Cover scans included and this tape was released on Elven Witchcraft's sub-label Engwar Creations.

The more keen readers might have already picked from the previous paragraph that I'm not very impressed with Svartalfheim. And that is indeed the case, I've never liked them. I still don't, which considering history might seem odd, seeing that I liked Perkele's "Pohjola" demo for example. It's just that this sort of viking metal got old really soon and by the time I heard this it had already done so. Having a song about Kalevala heroes Väinämöinen and Joukahainen just makes all the other viking content stick out even more. The first proper track "Dawn of Ragnarok" actually reminds me of some RAC song by its end. This might be a sales point for some people but leaves me still quite cold. The sound isn't very powerful either, vocals are poor and amateurish, musician's performance at times struggling and, and... I realise there have been demos here where the points I've mentioned have actually been positive things but I just don't like this, ok?! Awful, awful stuff. So bad it's horrible. Makes me want to listen to Siren instead. However, feel free to enjoy this and disagree with me, I won't judge you.

Infernal Destruction - Death, Violence, Satanism demo 1996

Infernal Destruction - Death, Violence, Satanism demo 1996
1) Satan's Anarchy
2) Song of Satan
3) End of God
4) Christ Is Drunk

Mega / Sendspace

It's been a bit quiet at the Coven this month as I have been preoccupied with other things. But to show we're not completely on a summer vacation here's a curious contribution sent by master Mihkel Kleis (you might remember him from the Messier items of the other year) a little while ago. And this should be pretty obscure again, a demo tape by Tartu's short-lived (1996-97) Infernal Destruction. He found the tape in a thift store among a pile of other demos and got curious, to our benefit. Scans of the covers are included and the rip quality is very good.

The music here sounds... unique. It's black metal, sure, but more like old Venom, first album Bathory and such rather than the peers of their era, Scandinavian or Estonian. The extremely lo-fi but clear and crispy "production" brings also to my mind some German stuff like Siren or Sacrifice Slaughtered Jesus. But this has more punky vibe to it and once again the enthusiasm level is much higher than skills. The guitar distortion is raw and strange, drums extremely bizarre and stripped down, but definitely played by human hand. Vocals are as crude as the rest. There is certain attractiveness to their cooking that really even should not be there but just happens. I should probably drop Sacrilegeous here also as a reference, though these are younger, eager men fumbling about. Fascinating.

Mihkel managed to get in touch with Sven Reimaa who was credited on the covers by his full name and got further information that enabled him to reach Satanizer who apparently still is active, not with metal though. He had played in a few other bands between 1997 and 2002. Apparently this was recorded in an apartment with a dictaphone, considering that the sound is quite good! Mihkel wanted to know what kind of equipment they used for recording and here's what Satanizer told (in rough translation): "...It is possible that at that moment I didn't have proper guitar amp and instead I played directly through home stereo and for distortion there was an old soviet tape recorder where turning up the recording volume caused the effect of overamplification. But maybe I already had Peavey 10w trans amp and DOS FX58 Metal Maniac pedal. The "drum set" was nothing but two so called pioneer drums made of saheet metal and pot lids for cymbals" - which does explain a lot! Gotta love their ingenuity. He also asked how many copies were made, after all the demo had full lyrics on sleeve and was dubbed on exact length tape, instead of standard TDK, Maxell or whatever. Satanizer replied there were about 20 copies made and mostly spread among friends, never really advertised or distributed. It was played once in radio though - in Raadio 2 metal show "Metallion" hosted by Enrico Kaljurand with whom our contributor used to trade with. So there, this is obviously for people into rarities, lo-fi enthusiasts, collectors of Baltic obscura and maybe even for people into punk. Thanks again to Mihkel for both the contribution and the detective work!