Convulsion - A Pickled Feast demo 1993

Convulsion (nz) - A Pickled Feast demo 1993
1) Lobotomized Whores
2) Bits of Dog
3) Pickled in Pus

Reuploaded

Another contribution by Fenrirsson, this is a demo from the NZ goregrind/death metal band Convulsion. Ripped from his original copy, the sound is obviously of the underground demo sort but quite good and fitting, slightly murky and heavy. Cover scan enclosed.

Even if this is goregrind/death metal, don't expect all-out blasting, there is a good share of slow, heavy, ponderous mauling on display here. Especially the first track is more like Visecral Evisceration than Dead Infection. Pace picks up on the second track but it's still more midtempo than anything which was a pleasant surprise for me on the first listen. There's some dual vocals thrown in for good effect as well and I'm actually reminded of Germany's Mangled Torsos on their debut "Drawings of the Dead" even though it's a later release. Last track continues pretty much where second left off, with a slightly briskier pace. I like this. Recommended for people into heavy and cavernous, murky death metal with a vile atmosphere.

UPDATE: Well, to prove even us ghoulish figures at AC are human it appears the original upload was not correct and tracks 2 & 3 were switched around. Oops. No excuses, just download it again, it's corrected now.

Octinomos - Demo 2 1995

Octinomos - Demo 2 1995
1) Still Those Stars Shine
2) From the Sky
3) Iniuria
4) The Demiurge

Reuploaded

I know this post is sort of waste of time, but I decided to upload my rip of Octinomos' demo 2 (I'd like to see demo 1 very much but I guess it was never released) here. Pretty much everyone and their mother has already done this but since I bought this tape last year from Stratia and I am a fanboy I wanted to rip it for myself. So here it is, recommended like the rest of Söderlund's material I've posted so far.

Lamentation - Promo Track 96/97

Lamentation (gre) - Promo Track 1996/1997
1) Whispers from Carmilla's Tomb

Depositfiles

Non-metal post and a quickie, here's a single promo track from Greece's Lamentation which was later renamed Nachtkaiser and featured Der Stürmer personnel. This track was also released later under Nachtkaiser monicker on a compilation tape, which I haven't heard so I don't know if it's the same recording or different somehow. Anyways, this one I got from my trader around 1997 I think.

There's some hissing on the background but otherwise the dub is of good quality, in a way this is more like "Fullmoon..." and "Eine Symphonie..." than "As ShadowKingdom..." as it is fully instrumental, without the vocals which I personally found more a flaw than a strenght on the third demo. It's synths and piano again, but that's really all you need sometimes. The atmospheres remind me of ancient Ultima IV and weltering in nostalgia is something I enjoy. I think this might be my favourite Lamentation recording (can't comment on the Nachtkaiser material as I haven't heard any!). Let us hope the CD compilation of Lamentation/Nachtkaiser material becomes reality soon. Until then enjoy this track and don't forget the second demo either.

Lacerated Gods - Night of Pain: The Satanic Bloodspraying live 1993

Lacerated Gods - Night of Pain: The Satanic Bloodspraying official livetape 1993
1) Crime (The Glorious Way To Dark Satan)
2) Desecrate The Female Plague
3) Subhuman Christianity
4) Rigor Mortis (Recreate Auschwitz)
5) Into Thy Forest Of Retaliation
6) Your Punishment Is To Be Raped

Reuploaded

Here's a very elusive item, the official live tape, also called demo 1993, by Germany's infamous Lacerated Gods. Ripped by brother Fenrirsson from a cassette sent him by Count Leichenschrei, it came with only a note with tracklisting and line-up which he also scanned. There's also a second version which includes an additional studio track and probably has a cover too.

I wouldn't really call Lacerated Gods black metal, the music is more like death/thrash with anti-christian themes. And some good old misogynism and nazi references thrown in. The sound of the recording is a bit primitive but very audible. The vocals are quite high on the mix and occasionally the sound kind of fades to lower volume but these are not really issues. Should be an interesting listen for many. I'm curious to hear the old Opferblut material too so get in touch if you got it!

Nephilim - Black Earth CassEP 1996

Nephilim (usa) - Black Earth Cassette EP 1996
1) Upheaval
2) The Timeless Void
3) Tehom

RGhost / Rusfolder

Here's another cassette EP, this one metal and USBM, related to this old post as the project shares a member, Mikai Tepesh who does everything but the lead guitar on this tape. It appears there were two versions of this tape as well, the dub I had contains also the instrumental/outro track "Tehom" while the version I got from eBay omits it and they've blacked over the title on the cover (as you'll see from the enclosed scan). I don't know what's the deal with it, was Tepesh unhappy with the track later or what? Anyways, the rip here is a combo of both tapes, the metal tracks are from the original and "Tehom" from my old dub so the quality differs a little. Speaking of quality, the sound is good if very underground but there's a little shift in the volume in the first track. Minor annoyance but it's there.

There's also another little issue with the tracklisting, being the fact that the two metal tracks blend quite seamlessly into each other and I had very hard time guessing where to cut 'em apart. So I sort of gave up and made an educated guess. I'm pretty sure it's wrong. Don't know if it really matters as most will probably listen to the whole tape all the way through, it's only a bit over 11 minutes after all. I should probably say something about the music too? Well, it's USBM of a grimy yet sort of atmospheric vein, borrowing from Nordic bands as well as having touches of Blasphemy and co. to it. Mostly it speeds ahead with a good momentum, though there's time to throw in some quite chaotic leads as well. Audible bass is a nice touch. The last song "Tehom" is dark ambient outro bit, not bad. I like this better than Tepesh's other band Enkil and would like to hear the 1994 demo too. Recommended for black metal enthusiasts and seekers of obscure recordings.

Elfen - To Eldamar from Minas Morgul CassEP 1999

Elfen - To Eldamar from Minas Morgul Cassette EP 1999
Eldamar - The House of the Trolls
1) Mirkwood
2) Lothlórien
3) Minas Morgul
4) Isengard
5) Moria
6) Uruk-Hai
Minas Morgul demo 1997 (bonus)
7) Lothlórien
8) Moria
9) Isengard
10) Minas Morgul

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Tolkien related material today, this tape EP/compilation was released by Elven Witchcraft back in 1999 and I was thinking I'd be getting Summoning-style metal as I ordered this tape. That's not the case even if there are some slightly metal-esque parts, this is more correctly black/ambient and/or dungeon synth. You know, lots of keyboards, some percussion here and there, vocals ranging from whispers to narration to almost black metal style rasping. Not to forget assorted sound effects. Some people apparently manage to see this as a nationalistic or Hellenistic project. Well, whatever you say, the lyrics are included and they are quite standard Tolkien fare. I'm not sure if their later texts could be different? Probably the connections of the project make people go for that assumption.

So how's it like then? Well it's really an uneven sort of affair, ranging from ridiculous to cool parts. I refuse to call it metal even if some tracks partially resemble it. I'd put it somewhere in between black/ambient and dungeon synth categories. The sound of the cassette EP portion is supposedly better than on the demo bit but what it gains in clarity it loses in atmosphere. Both are firmly in the plastic, cheap synth sound department which is not necessarily a bad thing. The demo versions of the tracks are longer, slightly more ponderous and clumsier yet somehow I seem to enjoy them more. I guess their poor-man's-Summoning feeling is enough to amuse me. But enough of my long-winded babbling, download it and listen for yourself.

Absu - Pagan Ritual bootleg 1995

Absu (us) - Pagan Ritual bootleg 1995
1) Intro
2) Cyntefyn's Fountain
3) Apzu
4) Feis Mor Tir Na N'og (Across the Northern Sea to Visnech)
5) Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle

Mediafire

Another tape traded bootleg tape, this one though a bit more interesting as it is a 1995 (don't know the date and venue though!) live show from my old faves Absu. I think this is the complete performance, not very lenghty covering just a bit over half an hour. Unfortunately missing a cover as well, so if you have it a scan would be very welcome!

Like pretty much all the 1995 Absu live tapes I've managed to dig up, this has a great setlist which leaves me hungry for more. This one even more than some of the other ones as it has only four proper tracks along with a pretty long intro. Fortunately all songs are good even if I'm still longing for "The Sun of Tiphareth" and "A Quest into the 77th Novel" - probably they didn't play those back then. The recording has a quite good live sound, better than the average bootleg I dare say. Quality of the dub is rather good as well. Solid performance, with plenty of vocals from Proscriptor too this time. Very much recommended.

Mayhem - Book Made of Human Flesh bootleg 1996

Mayhem (nor) - Book Made of Human Flesh bootleg tape 1996
1) The Freezing Moon 
2) Chainsaw Gutsfuck 
3) Deathcrush 
4) Funeral Fog
5) Necrolust
6) Life Eternal 
7) Pagan Fears
8) Buried by Time and Dust

Reuploaded

Disclaimer: This post is pretty much waste of everyone's time. Now that it has been said, let's move to the item at hand, "Book Made of Human Flesh" is an obscure Mayhem bootleg I got from one of my traders back in 1996 or early 1997 and I have very little knowledge of it. I assume it was a tape released by someone and possibly had a cover of some sort, which my contact did not have. So I made a cover of my own, the book is a photo of a prop Necronomicon I stole somewhere. To my dissappointment back then, the material here is a compilation of Mayhem tracks from various sources ranging from the 1990 studio session (The Freezing Moon) to "Live in Leipzig" and so on. I can't readily identify the source for all the tracks but am sure they've all been released before. So why post it? Well, aside wanting to share the old dissappointment with you, I thought it'd be prudent to post it before someone pays ridiculous bucks for a copy on eBay without knowing what he gets. And I guess if you haven't heard Mayhem at all, this wouldn't be a bad compilation to start with, even though I can hardly imagine such a scenario. That's pretty much all I have to say about this.

Deicide - Live in Bradford 04.12.1990

Deicide - Live at the Queen's Hall, Bradford UK 4th December 1990
1) Sacrificial Suicide
2) Lunatic of God's Creation
3) Dead by Dawn
4) Oblivious to Evil
5) Carnage in the Temple of the Damned
6) Blaspherereion
7) Mephistopheles
8) Day of Darkness
9) Crucifixation
10) Deicide

Reuploaded

A live tape from a well-known name today and an item that is not one of my rips! This rip was made by Matt Witchclan for Balbulus' blog The Woodman's Axe. His rip of the gig was all as a single track, which was the only negative thing about it. I split it into separate tracks for my own use and after a while thought I'd share it here too. So, thanks to Matt (and B) for this and check out it his band Witchclan too, UKBM.

What we have here is a gig by young and hungry Deicide, certainly from my favourite era of them. I liked the first two albums and "Amon - Feasting the Beast" but then lost interest in them around "Once Upon a Cross" and haven't really gotten into any of the later albums. This live recording has a very good sound, of course an excellent tracklisting and extra amusement value as Benton is very pissed off by someone stealing his bass guitar and apparently some xtians appeared on the venue to diss the band. Great stuff, get it if you too enjoy old death metal and give it a try even if you're not much into Deicide as it sounds different.

Dark Prophecy - Promo Tape 1992

Dark Prophecy (por) - Promo Tape 1992
1) Intro (The Evocation)
2) False Church
3) Intro (The Possession)
4) The Judgement Day

Mediafire

An older item today and a traded items, but for change one I got a cover for. Portugal's Dark Prophecy is probably an unknown name for most, yet some might recognize Celtic Dance formed by some of the members after the split of this band. They seem to have been quite fond of intros as the first Celtic Dance demo also featured an intro and outro for each of its two "proper" tracks. But enough about that.

This tape was recorded at their rehearsal place (except for the intros which are taken from movies I can't identify, help appreciated if you can) which is quite obvious. The sound isn't really bad, just very... stripped down and neither very powerful or evil. Certainly old schoolish and crude, sloppy playing, errors and all. So if you enjoy southern style old school black metal with a primitive rehearsal sound check out this tape.

Tunrida - Rehearsal Tape 25.03.1997

Tunrida - Rehearsal Tape 25th March 1997
1) My Finest Hour
2) The Second Coming
3) Praising My Immortality
4) "Astral Majesty" Chapter I. - Pathways to Cosmos Opened
5) "Astral Majesty" Chapter II. - The Calling
6) "Astral Majesty" Chapter III. - Astral Majesty Revealed

Reuploaded

One more rehearsal tape and back to black metal. Tunrida should be a familiar name to the blog readers and this is a rehearsal tape from the vaults of brother Grev who got this directly from Seth back in the day. So the quality of the dub is good and the recording itself has a very good and clear sound for a rehearsal. No cover art.

The first three tracks here would be included on the debut album "Hierarchy" in slightly different versions (and 2 & 3 were retitled as "Your Second Coming" and "Preacher of Immortality" respectively) and the last three tracks are from the second demo "Astral Majesty" these versions of course differing a little from the demo recording, "Astral Majesty Revealed" is also instrumental here for unknown reason. I find myself enjoying these rehearsal versions of the first tracks more than the album. Not much to add, if you're familiar with Tunrida you know what to expect. If not, this isn't a bad place to start from. Very much recommended!

Son Noir - Bloodtears rehearsal 07.10.1996

Son Noir - "Bloodtears" rehearsal 7th October 1996
1) Bloodtears
2) Queen of the Darkest Pit

Reuploaded

I didn't have the heart to break the current rehearsal streak, but I thought it's still time for a bit different release so here's something quite obscure again. This is a two song rehearsal tape, dubbed by one of my tape traders and it was one of those extremely random picks to be used as filler. I think there was at least one rehearsal tape more but probably no official demo. All the info I have is that it was a Canadian project and that's it. I don't know if this supposed to be an official release or not (being named and all) and if there was some sort of cover for this. At least I don't have it. More info would be welcome.

Musicwise we've basically a piano/keyboard and voice combo here, similar to Dutch Christs Nails and later Lamentation material. The longer title track is for me the better one here, using simple piano and a raw, anguished black metal voice. He sounds quite extreme at times and I wonder if he did vocals for any black metal band ever. The second piece is again moody piano but this time accompanied by a half-spoken, half-sung clean voice reciting the lyrics. This does not work as well as it doesn't sound very convincing. And when he goes to singing mode it's quite awful, as are the (fully) spoken parts. This is partially due his accent. Shrieks still work. However, this drops the overall rating for this recording. I suppose I should say something about the sound, which is quite good and clear. Well, it's just the keys and voice(s) so you don't need magick to make it work. I'm not 100% sure what to categorize this, I guess black ambient goes closest to home. I recommend the ambient and dungeon synth listeners to give this a try.

Blasphemous (swe) - Rehearsal 22.04.1995

Blasphemous (swe) - Rehearsal 22nd April 1995
1) Whispers from the Woods
2) Hacked Out of Ice
3) Hidden of Black Clouds

Reuploaded

I decided to stick to the rehearsal tapes and here's more black metal sent me by brother Grev. Thanks & praises! You may remember Blasphemous from this earlier post and much of what was then written applies to this recording as well. I personally think this rehearsal sounds slightly superior to the promo tape as it's less murky (even if this has its flaws and age showing too) but as it is an old rehearsal tape it might sound like white noise to the casual listener. The music is here "more obviously" black metal than the old material, cold and harsh like northern wind in January. Tracks 1 and 3 are familiar from other releases, their 1995 demo and 1994 rehearsal/demo respectively and track 2 seems exclusive to this, unless renamed. Recommended and I'm interested in hearing the reh/demo 1994, "The Obscurity Over Golgotha" demo 1995 and a better rip of "The Eternal Journey" demo would be also welcome.

Thus Defiled - Rehearsal 28.04.1994

Thus Defiled - Rehearsal 28th April 1994
1) Darkness Rape the Tranquil Shore of Eternity
2) The Final Sunrise

Re-reuploaded

Another rehearsal, this one was contributed by brother Grev, thank you! Thus Defiled is one of the UK's longest running 2nd wave black metal bands yet has always remained somewhat unknown, at least compared to certain landmates of theirs. Here are two rehearsal tracks, first of which appeared on their debut album "Through the Impure Veil of Dawn" and second... nowhere, unless they changed the name later (likely). I'm personally more familiar with the older Thus Defiled material, but not intimate so I don't recognize it as something else. No cover for this one, I used the 2nd demo era logo here.

The recording has a pretty good rehearsal sound, though I have to say the (growling) vocals bleed unto everything quite a bit. Or actually they sort of sink into everything else and kind of mingle... well listen for yourselves, I found my ear adjusting to this rather quickly. Other than that I'd say it sounds better than many rehearsal demos. And better than several demos too. The first track is melodic and quite melancholic, while the second one starts a bit more bombastic and turns fast and ferocious, brutal even. Now I feel like listening to more Thus Defiled and writing less so end here. Recommended for both black and death metal listeners.

Emperor - Rehearsal 19.10.1992

Emperor - Rehearsal 19th October 1992
1) Intro
2) My Empire's Doom
3) Witches Sabbath
4) Forgotten Centuries
5) Ancient Queen
6) Moon Over Kara-Shehr
7) Lord of the Storms
8) Night of the Graveless Souls

Depositfiles

To start off another December I decided to go with something that might be readily available but it's something I very much like myself. I suppose all of the readers are aware of Emperor. If not, I'm amazed and not sure if you have the right website in the first place. Anyways, this is an old rehearsal from Emperor and the era I like best myself. Raw and evil-sounding Norwegian black metal played by an enthusiastic and hungry young band, without pretensions of high art, just total darkness. Ripped from a traded copy, this never had any sort of cover in the first place I believe, the one seen above is just a placeholder I whipped up.

I can't recall the exact source for the date, I think it was online on a site that had some old items for trade, I just matched what info I had from my trader source with theirs. Still I'm sure this is now correct. As it is a rehearsal tape you should know what to expect if you've heard other old Emperor rehearsals or the demo. Raw as hell, not at all sophisticated like the latter work and delightful. As I see it, this is black metal in it's purest form. Very much recommended.