Semen Datura - Demivierge 1999

Semen Datura - Demivierge demo-CDr (?) 1999
1) Wine of Bacchus
2) Finaler Geist
3) Instrumental
4) Bishop of Blood
5) Land ohne Horizont
6) Quellen
7) Die Rache ist mein

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Here's a curious release by the Germans Semen Datura - it is not listed in their discography in M.A. nor on their homepage. I got this CDr with xerox covers and the band members' signatures when I bought a lot of black & dark metal CDs a year or two ago and I can't remember for the life of me what the seller had written about this, probably CDr. I'm assuming it's either a demo or a promo of new songs as some of these tracks appear on their debut album "This Love Is Dead" and none are featured on the "Black Wings" EP they released also in 1999. So probably this would've been released between the two. Possibly just spread to a few people, I don't know. If you do, feel free to enlighten me! Scans included.

It's quite obvious this is a demo/promo sort of recording, from the roughish sound (for this type of music, mind you) and production to the quite minimalistic xeroxed covers and CDr. It is full album lenght at 39 minutes. The sound changes a bit half way, so it was probably recorded in at least two sessions. The music is the sort of dark/black metal quite common to the latter part of the 90's, probably influenced by the various symphonic bands and comparable to melodic, more at-the-time "modern" Norwegians like late-90's Dimmu, Obtained Enslavement, Old Man's Child, Morgul and whoever else there was. Just check out some old Century Media, Napalm & Nuclear Blast ads. I suppose you know pretty much what to expect by that? Obviously it has a German touch, whatwith big part of the lyrics being in the language and all. Synths are obviously used, as well as some okay (they sound better on first half) clean vocals too. Not bad, but this sort of dark/black metal hasn't been my favoured sort of poison in years. I do like some of the tracks, like the second one and overall it seems to grow on me a bit with repeated listens. Enthusiasts of the style should be warned that the demo sound might make the music a bit messy at places and makes it a bit uneasier listening.