Black Spirit Compilation (1994)

Various Artists - Black Spirit compilation (1994)
Blashemous Side:
1) Desulphurize - Intro / Darkness in the Deep of the Burning Light
2) Sorath (us) - Black Holocaust
3) Thou Art Lord - The Era of Satan Rising
4) Belphegor (us) - Blessed By the Lord of Goat Excrement / Annoint in Jehovah Blood
5) Catacomb (ita) - In The Shade of the Cypresses
6) Katatonia - Intro / Without God
Sacrilegious Side:
7) Twilight (gre) - Intro / In Wisdom of Darkness
8) Gorgoroth - Sexual Bloodgargling
9) Impaled Nazarene - Sadogoat
10) Grand Belial's Key - Shemhamforash
11) Funeral Urn - Prophecy of the Dead
12) Estuary Of Calamity - My Castle
13) Archgoat - Rise of the Black Moon

Reuploaded

Time for another compilation, this is the one I mentioned at the Belphegor post. And does feature the "whole" Belphegor demo as one track. Made in Greece by a guy called Kostas who apparently made a 'zine too (the cover - which is included - mentions it) this is a black metal compilation even though it features stuff that's not really black metal like the death doomy bands Italian Catacomb and Greek Desulphurize. Ok, the rest are various forms of bm, ranging from the classic Greek style of Thou Art Lord to the raw usbm of Sorath and the Norwegian 2nd wave defining Gorgoroth. Not to mention Katatonia's essential classic "Without God". Too bad they quit.

Unfortunately this 60 min compilation suffers from its sound. I don't know if its due the tape or the equipment the guy used while making and dubbing these but somewhere along the line it got a little screwy and the volumes fucked. And no, it's not due my rip thank you. I know a bit better what I'm doing by now. Anyways, I cut out most of the extra clicks, snaps, crackles and pops. Didn't do much else with it though, so it still hisses and crackles some. And now that I listen I left quite a few in after all. Fear not, it is still listenable quality and hey, this is authentic feeling! Except you don't have to turn the tape around and all that.

Technical details aside, this is a pretty cool tape. The mixture of bands is interesting enough, with some very well known (I.N., Katatonia, T.A.L.) and some obscure (Funeral Urn, Estuary of Calamity, I guess Twilight too) names included and styles ranging from the atmospheric and doomy (Katatonia, Catacomb) to the raw black (Twilight, Sorath) and still onto grindy punishment (Belphegor, Archgoat). It must be mentioned almost all of the "proper" black metal here is on the raw side, which is of course fine by me! Many very good, even excellent tracks, included like my old faves 3, 6, 8 & 10. Actually the only ones I don't like are the Belphegor and Estuary Of Calamity contributions. First is shit and second doesn't seem to connect with me... though I like the slow part. Maybe it'll grow on me, I need to try their demo out. But you check out this compilation already, I don't think you came here to read.