Sverd Storm vol. II (1995)

Various Artists - Sverd Storm samlekasett volume II (1995)
1) Absurd - First Winter of Bloodred Snow
2) Beyond Dawn - Teardance
3) Isvind - Over Blaamyra Steg Kongen
4) Nattvindens Gråt - En avlägsen stjärna
5) Vacuum - Deep in the Sea of Grief
6) Grimm - The Embrace of Cold
7) Carpathian Forest - A Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern
8) Tumulus - Wodans Jagd
9) Perdition Hearse - Cerberus Lead Us Through
10) Shadow Dancers - God Wanted Dead or Alive
11) Katatonia - Scarlet Heavens
12) Manowar - Kings of Metal
13) Bathory - One Rode to Asa Bay
14) Sacrifice Slaughtered Jesus - Son of the Endless Night
15) In The Woods... - Tell de Døde
16) Carpathian Forest - Outro (Exerpt from Through the Black Veil of the Burgo Pass)

Depositfiles

A compilation fra Norge, made in 1994/1995 by a guy called Arild Breland who also made a zine or newsletter, can't remember. I haven't seen the first tape so no comment/comparison to it. This is a 90 minute compilation and features an interesting mix of mainly atmospheric stuff from genres ranging from black to death/doom to gothic to avantgardish. There are some oddities included like completely out of place and obviously filler tracks on side B by MANOWAR and BATHORY! Yeah I'm sure he likes them and Bathory's song isn't at odds with the rest of the material here (much of it already being atmospheric and/or Norse/Viking/Heathen/whatever oriented) but they certainly break the flow of the compilation which already suffers from the ever so common issue of varying sound volumes - these tracks really jumped on the listener. I somehow doubt he got permission to use the songs anyways. I think the tape was late or somebody's contribution was cancelled and he just needed to fill up the 90 minutes. The other thing that sticks out, not so glaringly though, is the extremely raw and primitive black metal of Sacrifice Slaughtered Jesus, which in case you didn't know is an Absurd sideproject. It's not as obvious though as there is already other raw sounding material presented like the old tracks by Grimm and Perdition Hearse. The compilation came with two covers, which are both included and one is seen above, the other below:



He managed to get a much more interesting line-up than usual, I'll give him that, there are tracks that were exclusive for the time: the songs by Absurd, Beyond Dawn, Nattvindens Gråt and Katatonia which would all be released later officially. The sound is ok, the dub isn't perfect as there are some minor flaws around but it doesn't really bother at least me much. I already mentioned the varying sound levels, which I slightly adjusted but I'm no sound engineer and dislike using normalize-functions so certain amounts of difference remain. It's a homemade tape compilation anyways so it should sound like one! There was a two sided A4 info sheet serving as the booklet, it's been scanned & included too, see a small resolution version below:


Ok, I've now bitched about most things that came to mind, maybe I should continue with how the In The Woods... and Beyond Dawn tracks featured here were also included in a dozen other compilations? Won't do that this time, all said and flaws noted this is a very enjoyable tape and the "filler songs" I ranted about don't really stick out that bad. Ok, Manowar's track does. And S.S.J. is really really crude and primitive, think old Absurd stuff. No, older and really primitive. But it still isn't that out of place... well maybe it COULD be placed somewhere else, instead of being sandwiched between Bathory and In The Woods... Recommeded if you enjoy atmospheric dark music but can also stomach raw production!

PS: I need Vacuum's "Digest of Dreams" demo 1994.