Lord - Demo 1995

Lord (fra) - Demo 1995
1) Shadows of Massacre
2) Calling from the Deepest Darkness
3) Gates to the Blazing Kingdom

Reuploaded

A quick post before I'm off to travel to Nummirock, here's the first demo of French black metallers Lord who could have really picked up a bit more original band name. Ripped from a copy I got by tape trading once upon a time and again decorated with a Metal Archives image. The dub is decent quality and music is, like on their debut album, of the more symphonic/atmospheric kind of black metal with lenghty, melodic songs backed by synths and operating mostly at mid tempo paces. It's not too "sweet" or upbeat, if not very necro either. Approved, even if I prefer their current style (for once I say this!) and wouldn't mind a new album.

Moonspell - Live in Charneca do Lumiar 06.11.1993

Moonspell - Live in Charneca do Lumiar, Lisboa Portugal 06.11.1993
1) Prologue
2) Goat on Fire
3) Wolves from the Fog
4) Ancient Winter Goddess
5) Opus Diabolicum
6) Imperium Lusitanum
7) Tenebrarum Oratorium II / Drum solo
8) Tenebrarum Oratorium I
9) Serpent Angel
10) Hymn to Lucifer / Grand Final

Depositfiles

What a surprise, I'm posting another Moonspell live bootleg! Well this one is different being a show from 1993 which means it features all the demo songs (including "Serpent Angel" from their Morbid God-days) and early versions of tracks that appear on their MCD "Under the Moonspell" released in 1994. The versions played here naturally differ from the MCD versions and "Tenebrarum Oratorium"(-s) lyrics appear to have been expanded/re-written. Fernando's vocals are naturally not quite as refined as later. There are also several screw ups every now and then but the enthusiasm and energy makes up for a few mistakes, agree? The sound is actually good, much better than I remembered. I received this dub from one of my tape traders long ago, my first Moonspell live recording actually. Ok, not much more to add, recommended download not only for Moonspell fans but also to anyone interested in old "southern" black metal.

Actually, I'd be pleased to receive confirmation of the venue, so if you know anything feel free to share.

EDIT: Received information on the venue from the person who videotaped the show back then, this was also the first Moonspell performance! Thanks for the infos! Venue info corrected on the current upload.

Barathrum - Rehearsal 01.10.1993

Barathrum - Rehearsal 1st October 1993
1) Soaring up from Hell
2) Sinister Autumn

Depositfiles

Barathrum should be a pretty familiar name to all readers by now. If not, then you haven't been reading this blog for long and/or haven't been listening to black metal for long enough. Not going to add much, this is a two song rehearsal tape dubbed to some people by Sova (including me) and then spread in the tape-trading circles. Pretty bad sound, very much leaning to one side but I decided against ripping it as mono (which might increase listenability - let me know if you want so). Early 90s Finnish cult black metal.

Enthrone - Black Winds demo 1992

Enthrone (nor) - Black Winds
1) The Forest (Intro)
2) Ave Sathanas
3) taoG dedooH ehT
4) Impurity
5) Summoning
6) Vampire
7) Black Winds
8) Under the Moon
9) Seed of Belial (Outro)

Reuploaded

This one is for comrade Barghest aka colehawlins - though I was planning to do this one "soon", honest. It's not my rip, received on a CDr from a trader and then ripped to mp3 by yours truly. I'm afraid the sound is a little murky (even if I upped the volume a little bit) but what can you expect from an early 1992 underground demo?

Plenty of tracks here but many are "just" intros - and oh yeah it's about time I mention Enthrone is pre-Carpathian Forest, huh? Well this stuff is quite raw and recalls their early influences, but on the other hand it is very much valid for friends of early CF material, since there's only months (I guess) between this and first Carpathian Forest demos. Old school black metal from Norge, what more can you want? Covers/logo/anything probably, but alas none were found so contact me if you happen to have 'em!

UPDATE: Reuploaded. There's also an old picture up there to decorate the post and yes, I know it's an old Carpathian Forest pic, not Enthrone but it's the same guys anyways.

Perkele - Summernight (Rough Mix 1995)

Perkele (fin) - Summernight advance rough mix track 1995
1) Summernight (Rough mix)

Mediafire

A quick & brief post now, while ripping some other stuff I received from master Honkonen back when most of the readers did not have a driver's licence/could not yet walk/whatever implication to writer's aging crisis you want to use, I stumbled upon this semi-forgotten advance track for Perkele's promo tape. Unusual for most advance stuff, this actually is different enough from the final product as it is a rough mix of the song. So without further ado, go and grab it.

Tales Of Ancient Lakes - Compilation Tape Volume 1 (1998)

 

Various Artists - Tales of Ancient Lakes compilation, volume 1 (1998)
1) Crypthowl - Of Seductress In Obsequal Attire
2) On Wings - My Page
3) Vigilia Mortum - Creature at the Threshold
4) Skyforger - Night of the Winter Solstice
5) Insania Trivium - My Jesus is Dead
6) Con Dolore - Test to Freedom
7) Heaven Grey - Shadows in Rain
8) Valhalla - Lost in the Forest
9) S.C.A.L.P. - Till the Clouds Fly
10) Grenouer - Wakening of the Lords
11) Nightsky Bequest - Enchanted Name
12) Poccolus - Kirsk, Medeine, Kirsk
13) Promontory - Unknown Person
14) Apraxia - Northern Wind & Black Sky
15) Maze Of Cako Torments - Niavi Gavs Cechls (Remix)
16) Postmortem - No Peace

Reuploaded - 2022

I wrote I'd do some compilations too so I guess it's about time I post one. I thought I'd start with this compilation tape from 1998 released by Ancient Lakes Productions of Belarus, containing almost 90 minutes of death, doom, black and folky metal from the former Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance-countries. Mostly good sound and content ranges from the quite well-known and excellent to the never-heard and less than interesting. Overall it leaves a positive feeling and in many cases an urge to hear more. Speaking of which, I want more Maze Of Cako Torments so leave me a note if you have their demos. The compilation was ripped from my original copy which I got from who knows where, so it is a decent rip and scans of the covers are enclosed.

Dalmerot's Kingdom - Promo 1997

Dalmerot's Kingdom - Promo/Advance Tape 1997
1) The Fall Of The White Light
2) Invoke Thy Enchanted Dreams
3) Satisfaction In Belagror's Ancient Form

Reuploaded

Symphonic/melodic black metal from Israel, this advance tape from 1997 contains three songs which were supposed to be rough advance versions of tracks from the band's first promo "Tower Of The Black Rose" but they never completed and released that tape (as far as I know) choosing instead to record their debut album. These advance tracks were copied to people on normal tapes, so no covers available. This is an early generation dub so the sound is good.

I haven't been really listening to the more symphonic black metal bands for some time so I'm not feeling very well qualified to make comparisons. The first two songs are quite long at 8 and 7 minutes and both have many parts of varying tempos etc. while the third song is a little shorter at 5 minutes and mostly slower with many sorts of vocals employed, with shall we say varying degrees of success. Overall, this has more of that elusive Mediterranean quality than some other symphonic efforts made around the same time, maybe due the more restricted use of synth. Not bad really, give it a shot if this sort of material at all interests you. I'm still kind of tired after Hammer Open Air so you're not going to get much more out of me.

Morningstar - Inside the Circle of Pentagram demo 1993

Morningstar - Inside the Circle of Pentagram demo II 1993
1) Intro (Ultima Thule)
2) Under the Unholy Ground I Laugh
3) Vampire
4) Goddess of Witchcraft
5) Power in My Pagan Heart
6) Eternal Darkness
7) Before the Dawn (Old Song)
8) Outro (Sad, Nocturnal Longing)

Reuploaded - 2022

And here is finally the second demo by Morningstar. I should have posted this ages ago but my otherwise very good dub of it was missing the outro and I was unable to find it anywhere in the net. So I finally decided to buy a copy of the damn cassette from eBay to get the outro. I was surprised to discover the copy I got was not as good as my dub, the tape (or dubbing) gets dodgy on the intro for quite a bit so I decided to use the rip of my old tape till the missing part which I then took from the eBay tape. So there, finally a complete piece with decent quality, cover scan enclosed.

Musically this is like all old Morningstar old schoolish black metal and I enjoy it very much. The sound is very clear like on the previous demo and everything is very audible. The stuff about the Pakana distro LP applies here as well. Enough writing, grab this essential demo already.

Morningstar - Obscure Aurora Above Us demo 1992

Morningstar - Obscure Aurora Above Us demo I 1992
1) Ancient Crypt
2) Throne of Doom
3) Twilight of the Paradise
4) The Truth

Reuploaded

Here is the first demo of Morningstar, a band you should be familiar by now if you've read this blog for any longer time. I know this one can be found on various places already, but this is a different rip and at 320 kbps for those who care about such things. Old Morningstar material is still very black metallish in an old school way and the demos obviously are in this vein.

Morningstar mainman Honkonen dubbed this to me with various other things but unfortunately didn't include a cover. The sound & rip are both very good in my opinion, the instruments are very audible and clear and there isn't much tape failure on this one either, minor wear only. Like mentioned on the rehearsal 1991 post, this material was re-released on LP by Pakana distro so you'll want to grab that one if you happen to find it somewhere. Recommended for all metalheads, demo collectors and Morningstar fans.

Damnation (usa) - Volume II demo 1992

Damnation (us) - Volume II Demo 1992
1) Catatoniac
2) When Nightmares Consume

Mediafire

Death metal again, this time the 1992 tape by Canadian Damnation, called a demo on Metal Archives and a promo by my source. I'm siding with my source here and call it a promo too. Notable that the Damnation MySpace makes no reference to this release at all, either as demo or promo. I have no cover scan so no proof from that, but neither did the M.A. contributor upload one. So it might be that this was again different Damnation after all. It was:
UPDATE: I was informed that this is (one of the) USA's Damnation, NOT Canadian. Well, that explains a lot. Image above updated and demo reuploaded with corrected tags. Sorry about that original misinformation!
I have to say I was quite dissappointed when I received this dub back whenever it was (1996?) - not that it would be particularily bad, but I was led to believe this would be a recording by the Swedish Damnation which I was very fond of (and still am). Back then you couldn't check everything on the internet so mistakes were more likely to happen.

I suppose I should say a little more about this recording's contents than it's death metal, but to be honest there's not whole lot to say - well, the sound is ok as is the music. It's just death metal from 1992 and that's really all I have to say about that. Not bad, nor great. But death metal freaks and old demo enthusiasts will still want to check this out.

Götterdämmerung - Furor Teutonicus demo 1995

Götterdämmerung - Furor Teutonicus demo II 1995
1) The Temple
2) The Gate
3) Furor Teutonicus
4) Götterdämmerung

Reuploaded

Some more Teutonic metal in the form of Götterdämmerung's 2nd demo which is also the only one I have, dubbed to me by a trading comrade around 1996. So no cover, only M.A. image. The dub wasn't of the topmost quality but I think this rip turned out very listenable.

Metal Archives lists Götterdämmerung as death metal with (Germanic) paganism as topic and I guess pagan death metal taking clues from thrash and maybe also black metal might be a pretty accurate description. I can't remember what Nyar called his music himself in the old interviews. As far as I can hear, he's using a drum machine here and probably plays all instruments by himself. Don't be scared by the drum machine; it's quite obvious but pretty well used with varying bits. The songs manage to be quite complex and catchy at the same time and have many, many cool parts. The audible bass is a nice touch too. So if you're interested in Teutonic pagan death metal with old school vibes you should give this a shot. And if you have the 1st and 3rd demo, I'm interested to hear them too!

King Of Souls - Give Me Your Soul demo 1997

King Of Souls - Give Me Your Soul demo 1997
1) War And Blood (Intro)
2) Death Got His Victory
3) Lost Hopes
4) God's Punishment
5) War And Blood
6) The Dark Forest (Outro)

Reuploaded

Today's post is the second demo by the Greek metal band King Of Souls who play a very Greek sounding hybrid of death, doom & black metal with the emphasis on primarily death and secondarily on doom parts. Bits of it sound actually kinda thrashy so it reminds one of the old day when genres were not so defined. Sound is ok even if the vocals (done by Nikos of Mortal's Dream)are quite heavily on top of everything else. His main vocal is a deathly growl which he pulls off quite nicely, the accent sounds cool. He uses a clean voice too, but that's a bit so-and-so. Instrumentation sounds quite basic with some fumbles every now and then, but that's not an issue for me.

This is a rip of my original tape, so the sound is good and the tape in very good shape so no problems in that department. Cover scans included. Not really one of my favourite demos but has its moments. Recommended for fans of Greek metal, collectors of obscure demos, Russians who upload everything I post to Metalarea (yeah I mean you Абигор & co) and the usual weirdos.

Svartsyn - Rehearsal 1997

Svartsyn (swe) - Rehearsal 1997
1) The Bloodbank to the Prince of Darkness
2) The Great Mysteries of Death

Reuploaded

Back to black metal and a little better known band this time, Svartsyn might be familiar name to fans of Svensk svart metal having been around since the early 90's and have featured personnel from Unpure & Malign in their line-up. First known as Chalice they released two tapes in 1993 before changing name to Svartsyn which I think was a good decision as that name was much more original (even though the Norwegians Incitatus also switched to the same monicker in 1995, our Swedes here were first) - most one-word band names in English tend to be used by a bazillion other bands/artists which is annoying. But I'm rapidly starting to drift off here so let's focus on this tape again, shall we?

Only two songs presented on this rehearsal tape and of these, "Great Mysteries..." was already on their demo "A Night Created by Shadows" although this obviously sounds different. I got this from a trader friend of mine who acquired it from who knows where, maybe even the band itself, him being Swedish and all. Not that I'd think all the Swedes in the black metal scene knew each other even back then. Pretty good rehearsal sound and the dub isn't bad, some minor faults are present. Of course it is still a 90's black metal rehearsal tape so primitive, crude and raw describe the content well. You know if you want to try this or not.

Charon - Dies Irae demo 1995

Charon (fin) - Dies Irae demo 1995
1) Maleficium
2) Tempestars
3) Nocturne
4) Omega Vortex

Mediafire

Some of you who follow the more mainstream music media might know the Finns Charon, who play gothic metal of the girly sort, similar to Entwine and heavier than HIM. Well, not on this demo, here they still play death metal of melodic and technical sort. I haven't heard their other demos, just have this one I ordered in late 1995, but they should be quite similar in style.

As mentioned above all four tracks are in melodic yet technical vein of death metal and I guess their later development can be seen as a more or less logical continuation from this material. Ripped from the original tape so the sound is quite good, they recorded it in a studio. Not really my favourite type of music but I thought someone might enjoy it.

Gilles De Rais - Tiffauges demo 1996

Gilles De Rais - Tiffauges demo 1996
1) Feeding the Flames
2) A Monolith Garden
3) The Second Blood
4) Exhausting the Soil of Faith
5) Fading Fears
6) Bloodking
7) The Abyss Above

Reuploaded

First upload for June is the only demo of the German black metal band (or project) Gilles De Rais which features some Herodes members - most of you probably haven't heard of Herodes (also spelled Herodez, I think correct was with 's - NO! HERODEZ IS CORRECT!!!) either, but those who have: I need their demos, leave me a note if you have them. Comrade THE DECEASED provided me with a better image of the cover and a scan of the flyer, thanks bro! I still need a scan of the covers if anyone might have it. The Metal Archives image was really awful (included in the rar for your displeasure). See below.


Underground German black metal with a rough but well audible 90's demo sound. Some touches of synth are used every now & then in the background to reinforce the atmosphere. There's more effort to songwriting than just full speed ahead, it might not be the most avant garde & original material ever but I enjoy it. I don't know if the demo's concept is based around the charming personality and deeds of Gilles de Rais himself but I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. I recommended this to people into underground German black metal, old 90's black metal demos in general and so on.