Dogmeat - Revolution Paradise demo 1992

Dogmeat - Revolution Paradise demo I 1992
1) For the Gods Above
2) Blood Purified
3) Colossal Althar
4) Revolution Paradise
5) Gnomus Variation
6) Doom Mood
7) Dogmatic Hypothesis Evidence
8) Fuckin' Lullabye

RGhost / Yandex

And now something little different again. Don't let the cover fool you, this is not nsbm or even neofolk, or punk. Dogmeat from Finland was a one-man project that released two demos and two EP's between 1992 - 95. This is the first one and brother Suuret Muinaiset was once again kind enough to sate my curiosity by ripping his copy as well as providing a cover scan, thank you!

Eight tracks which are all quite short, the whole demo lasting less than nineteen minutes and as far as I'm concerned that is a positive thing. I've seen this compared to Godflesh a lot, which I'm not really a fan of, as well as Celtic Frost circa "Into the Pandemonium" (mostly to the atrocious "One in Their Pride") and things as far apart as grind/noise and Black Sabbath. Let it be noted I haven't and won't compare this to Sabbath and would like to apologize to master Iommi & co. for mentioning them together with this thing here. You might have read between the lines I'm not too excited by this and you're right, this is in my humble opinion awful crap. Well, the guitar sound is quite nice. The effected vocals are so annoying I want to throw my headphones out of the window and smash the monitor with this keyboard right now. Fortunately they're not used in every track. I might not be the leading expert in industrial metal so you probably should check this out if you're a fan, I'm off to get some coffee and some z-rate German black metal from 90's to clear my head with. Handle with care!

Vague - Ikei demo 2000

Vague - Ikei demo 2000
1) 紫焔 (しえん)
2) This Wisteria
3) A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit

Reuploaded

Today I'm posting the third demo of the Japanese solo-project Vague, the sole member of which is Touko, an ex-member of 凶音 (transliterated Magane, have two albums out) and currently playing multiple instruments in 身殺 (Mïsogi) who have released a couple of demos and an album in 2010. He's also released a few demos under his own name 東虎 (Touko, if you already forgot) and Universe Tachyon, neither of which I've heard. Most of these projects deal with Japanese folklore and mysticism, though this one seems more personal on concept. Ripped from an original tape which I got from a distro probably in 2000. By the way, it was really a pain in the ass to dig up correct kanji & hiragana for the first track title!

Three songs, the lenghtiest of which is the Burzum cover, for a little over 22 minutes. The sound is quite unrefined and pretty raw but everything is audible. If you've heard the other projects he's been involved with you might be prepared for this, it's basically black metal but with some odd ingredients thrown in the soup and taking some unexpected turns along the way. I would be curious to hear the other two demos (1999's Lapis-la-zu-li and 2000's One Way Journey to the Moon) so let me know if you have them. Recommended for the curious, the open-minded, the Burzum-obsessed and those who like all things Japanese.

Moondance #4

Moondance Magazine, issue 4 (1998)
Interviews:
Antichrisis
Nagelfar
Desaster
Gorgoroth
Tunrida
Abigor
Primordial
Waylander
Varathron
Helheim
Wallachia
Decoryah
Lacrimas Profundere
My Dying Bride
Nordlys
Menhir
Usurper
Circle of Jormungandr
+Irish scene report (yeah, yet another!), Nomicon article, A tribute to Ernst Jünger & reviews

Reuploaded - 2022

Zine post, this is another item sent to me by comrage Kurgan, thank you! Oversized images sloppily scanned by me. This is the fourth issue for the German quite well-known Moondance fanzine, sorry magazine, spanning over 70 pages with a quite nice semiprofessional lay-out which fortunately remains readable instead of going utterly crazy with font experiments and crap under the text things. Despite the main editor Timo Kölling gradually slipping into the artsy, unique snowflake route on his preferences (most notable in the reviews section, "jewels" part of which especially) I actually quite enjoyed the 'zine. Two contributors for the issue, first Maírtín Mac Cormaic of Waylander who, predictably enough, provided the Irish scene report (possibly the most often featured scene report target in the 90's or at least so it felt like) and Francesco Parmigiani, who used to do Savage Garden/Vampiria 'zines interviews Tunrida & My Dying Bride. Most interviews are good and well-enough answered, even the Varathron one has quite long replies. Recommended if you like later 90's 'zines and/or have interest in the scene of those days.

Sorath - The Darkness Returns CassEP 1995

Sorath (us) - The Darkness Returns cassette EP 1995
1) The Darkness Returns
2) Winter Black and Sorcery Beyond
3) Dark Tears of Thy Past
4) Frozen Mountains Under Forboding Skies
5) Thy Bestial Winterland
6) Wings of Darkness
7) Spirits Floating Beyond

RGhost / Mediafire

Satanic Saturday sorcery! Sorath returns, with the very hard to find 1995 tape we discussed with comrade Fenrirsson in the comments for the 7" I posted here. Thanks to my anonymous contributor, this item was unearthed much sooner than I had dared to hope. According to him this was a cassette EP and I think I've seen it referred so elsewhere too so let's go with that description here. Unfortunately no covers and no luck finding them on the inter nets either so I made a placeholder cover using an old flyer printed on Pure Fucking Hell 'zine. It's supposed to be like a cassette cover though I probably have wrong proportions. Let's see how soon people who don't read these walls of text think this is an actual cover. Scan of which I'd naturally appreciate!

Seven tracks might momentarily delude you to think this'd be almost album length, but four of the tracks are short intros/interludes while the three longer tracks all clock over five minutes, bringing total time to an EP-appropriate 22 minutes. Sound and rip quality is ok, if a little muffled. I doubt the original is exactly hifi stuff either. Overall sound manages to come out quite clear, it is the low end that is mostly muddled into sort of nigh-impenetratable wall of audio fog, billowing and fluffy. There's an omni-present hiss which hints at an unknown generation dub origin of the source tape. The vocals are mostly an echoing, whispery half hiss half shriek which at best sounds quite chilling. Some kind of clean choirs are used in few places. I find myself enjoying this and wish I had an original copy of the tape. If you have one, send it to me, you don't need it. Recommended if you're a connoisseur of the good Baron's work.

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo 1995

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo I 1995
1) Crossing the Lands of Shadows
2) Distant Valleys
3) Whispering Souls
4) Secrets of the Mystified Dreams
5) Under the Sun

Zippy / Media

Here's a "real" post again and this one was dubbed to me by Grev, to replace my shitty nth generation version, thanks bro! He sent me scans of the covers too so this time we've got that bit covered. I should mention the covers don't look as dark as what you see above, I was editing the image and playing with the settings while that came up and I thought it looked cool enough to use as an image for the post here on blog.

I suppose I should talk about the demo and the band too. Celestial Empire was one of those numerous bands that appeared in the mid-90s, did a tape or two (they did two) and disappeared. Music on this debut demo was melodic death metal, the Metal Archives entry says death/black metal but I'm not picking up any black metal here, I can agree to dark metal if I must. Perhaps the vocalist's style (harsh half-scream half-roar, which really is more typical of melodic death in my opinion) might have mislead the contributor, or the track titles? Whatever, this is a pretty typical demo of the style, with a good sound (Tico-Tico studio), reasonable performance and ok songwriting. It's not just very memorable or remarkable, but if you like dark metal, 90's Finnish metal and/or melodeath you should give this a listen.

Raven - Alone in the Mist demo 1998

Raven (fin) - Alone in the Mist demo 1998
1) Calls in the Cold Winternight
2) Shadows Beyond a Stone
3) Joining the Gathering of a New Kingdom
4) Woundheir
5) Alone in the Mist
6) Outro

Yandex / Zippy

Here's something I don't do too often, but since I promised to re-rip this demo to Pete back in October (yeah, not very fast I know!) I thought I'd make a new post of the fixed and hopefully better version of the rip. See the original here for notes and background babble. I didn't include the scan of the note with tracklisting this time, simply because I don't have that scan anymore and didn't want to dig it up again. Instead I had too much time in my hands some time ago and tried to whip up a cover for it, using someone's photo (sorry I forgot whose) that came up googling "in the mist" or whatever search I used back then. Couldn't decide which version to use so I just dumped all four into the folder and used scientific method to choose one here (rolled 4-sided dice). Which looks kind of lame.

Anyways, it's the music we're here for, right? Except for 'zine posts I suppose. Yes, so, what I wrote back then about the music hasn't changed, it's still gloomy and doomy and there's still tape wear but the disturbance is fixed and overall the thing should sound a bit better. If you didn't pick up the old version try this out if you like your music like a thick blanket; heavy and suffocating yet strangely comfortable.

Cradle Of Filth - A Pungent and Sexual Miasma Split 1992

Cradle Of Filth - A Pungent and Sexual Miasma ½ Split tape 1992
1) So Violently Sick (From Demo 2)
2) Funereal (Ipswich 13-03-92)
3) Dawn of Eternity (Reh 03-03-92)
4) Circle of Perversion (From Demo 1)
5) Chewing on Your Guts (Reh 03-03-92)
6) Loathsome Christ (Ipswich 13-03-92)
7) Darkly Erotic (From Demo 2)
8) This Fetid Dank Oasis (Ipswich 13-03-92)
9) Our Father Which Art in Earth (actually "Foul Winds Threaten" from Demo 2)

Mediafire

Here's some more old COF sent by comrade Ruptured Souls, thank you. Unfortunately this is only a half of the "A Pungent..." tape, side B being Malediction's part which he did not have. I don't think I've ever heard Malediction so I can't say if we're missing much but it's a matter of principle so if you have their part of the tape please get in touch! The folder includes various images of the covers so that's covered.

As you may see from the notes, COF's tracks are compiled from the first two demos and from a live show and a rehearsal from March '92. Malediction's part would've been compiled from a live show and a rehearsal from '91 so in essence this split was a compilation. Death metal era COF so fans of their black metal or symphonic extreme metal periods might not be too enthusiastic listening to the content. On the other hand, those who can't stand later stuff and love more brutal and crude metal might enjoy this. The sound ranges from the good demo sound to slightly messier but still listenable live to crude yet (barely) audible rehearsal. Nothing sounds utterly horrible, at least if you're a seasoned listener of old tapes. Material itself ranges from good to pretty boring, I'm no death metal specialist after all. Cautiously recommended to those who think they like old COF.

Erevos - Shadows of Storming Nyx demo 1996

Erevos - Shadows of Storming Nyx demo II 1996
1) Swords in Flames...
Part I - Black Shadows of the Endless Skies
Part II - ... In an Aeonic Circle of Death
Part III - The Final Battle Begins... The Sign Come...
2) Nyx Amolgos (to be continued)

Depositfiles

Almost two years ago I posted the 1994 promo of the other and in my opinion more interesting Greek Erevos and finally, not too long ago, a contributor sent me his rip of the second tape. Thank you, you know who you are! A photo of the cover was also included, see above. Sadly it looks like there is no other material from this project to dig up, Metal Archives contributors had managed to ignore the title of this tape and got my hopes up of there being three releases. Well, at least this chapter is complete now.

This recording is divided (very unevenly I might add) into two tracks, of which the first one is a huge mammoth of three parts and over 21 minutes while the second is a quickie at less than two minutes and is more like a preview of things to come or something. Too bad it wasn't continued. As far as I know that is. I contemplated if I should divide the epic "Swords in Flames..." into parts but as there were no clear breaks where to split it I decided to keep it in one piece. I'm not going to spend more time describing the music as it really is more of the same so just check what I wrote last time or better yet listen for yourselves. Recommended.

I still would like original copies of both these tapes so let me know if you want to sell or trade 'em away. In reasonable prices that is.

UPDATE: I got this one, but still want the first one. See here for an updated version!

Holocaust - Our Kingdom demo 1997

Holocaust (pol) - Our Kingdom demo IV 1997
1) Witch / Intro    
2) Kingdom    
3) Wizard
4) The Gate Among the Stars
5) The Final Battle / The Return of Tyrant
6) Storm

Yandex


UPDATE! I got a better rip of this which you can find here.


Back to the 90's and the murky dungeons of Poland, here's the (I think) fourth demo of the black metal band Holocaust which was a much fancier affair than the earlier tapes, being more or less professionally released by Drakkar. Or that's what I gather looking at the image provided by Metal Archives, my copy is a dub I got from comrade Triv already a while ago (thanks, Triv!) and unfortunately I haven't found decent scans of the covers. Assistance required there again.

To content, this is almost half an hour recording with the first and last tracks being intro and outro, both rather long and the tracks proper each clock between 4:05 and 5:48. The sound is very stripped down but clean enough. Odd guitar sound is somewhere between Veles' "Black Hateful Metal", Graveland's "Following..." and Countess' first album. Or was it the second? Percussion and vocals are the most noticeable and dominant elements. The main voice is an almost hysteric shriek which also brings Countess to mind and percussion is just barely on board. Some clean-ish singing vocals are used, fortunately briefly and they're not that bad in such small dose. There's a folkish feel to the demo, partially due the guitar almost sounding like a Jew's harp. Tempo is mostly in the mid range, from the more leisurely first proper track to the almost urgent parts of "Wizard" which does have slower parts too. I had something more in mind but now I need to get into kitchen and rescue my food from the oven so I'll just leave you to listen to this. Recommended for collectors of Polish demonology, people into odd guitar sounds and sloppy drumming and to whoever it was who requested this band's material in the first place!

Koito #7

Koito 'zine, issue 7 "The Seventh Seal" (1997)
Interviews:
Blood Stained Host
Paradigma
Enslaved
My Dying Bride
Malevolence
Lux Occulta
In the Woods...
Windham Hell
Absu
Night in Gales
Retalliation
Sinister Footwear
Mortiis
Journey Through the Dark
+ reviews

Mediafire

It's been a while since I last posted a 'zine and the cover for this one seemed fitting for a Saturday morning - it has cleavage and the way she's holding her head brings hangover to mind. Also, I was supposed to do this one much earlier. Remember Koito #6 here? I had hidden this issue quite well but eventually found and scanned it. Also this one has an editorial (first for the 'zine?) and therein we discover the main editors were Max Cocco and Seb Leoni, assisted by Emidio Tribolati & Luca Di Matteo. Much of what I wrote concerning the previous issue applies here as well, the look is improved, review sections separated into various segments like European, videos, US & R.O.W., Little Italy, compilations etc. The background graphics are still there but this time they're not as disruptive to reading as in the previous issue. Due to a little mishap the Mortiis interview starts on page 56, continues on 60 and ends on 58. Likewise Journey Through the Dark interview starts on 58, continues through 59 to end at 57. Pages mixed up obviously, wonder why they could just fix it? That aside, still quite a good read like the previous issue and can be recommended.

Hierophant's Descent - The Secret Doctrines of Unearthly Delights demo 2012

Hierophant's Descent - The Secret Doctrines of Unearthly Delights demo 2012
1) Abstract Visions of Sordid Blasphemies (Preludium)
2) Ancient Rites to the Catachthonian Entities
3) Shapeless Horror on the Pathless Sand
4) Abominable Echoes of Vile Mysteriis
5) The Final Descent in Dismal Abysses (Exodium)

RGhost / Depositfiles

One more un-Covenlike post, though this one is unfitting only if you look at the release year. Hierophant's Descent come from Hellas, have recorded a 2011 promo tape, this demo and an EP recently released on Under the Sign of Garazel and sound like early 90's Greek black/death metal. You know, old Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Lemegethon, Thou Art Lord and so on. I'm also reminded of the Godblood demo on the third track here. The sound is rehearsal-like and manages to be both murky and clear at the same time? Probably somewhere between "Passage to Arcturo" (just listen to the synths!) and "The Cult of the Horned One" would be close. Three "actual" tracks plus an intro and outro for a bit over twenty minutes, the middle three tracks all run over five minutes but are rather slow paced in both build and speed. Most of the time anyways, all have their fast parts too. Quite atmospheric yet brutal and overall a tasteful enough pastiche of ancient Hellenic style and sound. The MCD sounds more refined but is even more direct old RC rip-o... worship. Haven't heard the promo tape, would like to.

Not ripped from an original tape, unfortunately, but from a dub I got from brother Goatprayer, thank you and I believe his copy was an original. He included a copy of the covers which I've scanned and included in the download. I think I need to get an original of this. Anyways, recommeded for people into old school Hellas sound and not afraid of rehearsal sounds.

Ormgård - ////\ (2012)

Ormgård - ////\ Cassette album 2012
1) Séta
2) Rúnir
3) Blót
4) Skáldskapr
5) Galdr
6) Ákalla hin dauðu
7) Óðr
8) Seiðr
9) Sjálfsfórn

Mediafire

I thought I'd do another unusual post in the current activity spree and it is not unusual for being a non-metal release by a black metal band, or for being a cassette album. Being a release from 2012 is what makes this untypical for the Coven but as it is an interesting release and there have been requests for it I decided to rip my tape and post it. Ormgård is a Swedish band, or project, that had released two tapes of raw black metal before this cassette album which is purely dark ambient. Ripped from my original tape and the cover scans are included.

This is a conceptual piece in nine parts (the release title means 9 to those too lazy to google) of ritualistic dark Teutonic ambiance, consisting of voices accompanied by synth and some effects. Also some electric guitar, but mostly keys. It's pretty close to dungeon synth at times as well. Or neofolk, now that it was mentioned in the comments. The moods shift from very somber to soaringly triumphant and vocals range from chanting of the runes (Rúnir) to "clean" singing to shrill shrieks (Galdr). Due the problems with mediafire this post was delayed by several hours, not counting me drinking at the local bar, so I'm at loss whatever else I might have had to say so I just leave this as it is and recommend those of you with interest in Germanic anti cosmic music and creed, or just neofolk and dark ambient, to check this out.

DAI - The Advent (1993)

DAI - The Advent CD 1993
1) The Advent
2) Squir Akyz
3) Beasts of DAI
4) Celebration of Second Sun
5) Drink Black Water
6) The Temple
7) Guard of Nobody's Land
8) DAI
9) Attack of Black Bears
10) The Monk
11) 443 Statues of DAI
12) Expedition of Screaming Serpents
13) Prophecy of DAI
14) Born of Harpy
15) World War
16) Marhovly
17) Squir Akyz (Alternate version)

Depositfiles

Today I've decided to post an album I've been looking for a long time but with very little success as I loathe to pay ridiculous amounts of money, which I could invest in booze and Touhou merchandise, for old CDs. Even if they're obscure Czech releases like this. DAI was a Czech band that started in the late 80's like better known, legendary countrymates Törr, Master's Hammer and Root. Early demos were pretty much first wave black metal but the sound and music evolved quite a bit over the years, much like Root. Finding this online was very hard too for a long time so I eventually decided to rip my cassette dub which was made from CD. Of course shortly afterwards brother raf posted a rip in his blog. I left mine laying unfinished for a while but then I thought I'd get it done since I had already started and the end result was ok. Seeing how little known this band and album are I wanted to upload it here as well.

The album has an intimidating tracklisting but since many of the songs are quite short the total duration is less than 55 minutes. I had somewhere a sheet with the lyrics as well as copies of the covers but I've been unable to locate them. Shame. This is a concept album with a quite bizarre fantasy story if I recall correctly. Musically they blend Czech black metal with southern bm style, death metal and some more progressive solutions. Vocals are mostly in the deathly grunt vein, similar to many Greek bands. I could write more but I really want to stop, get up and go to bar so have a listen for yourselves. Recommended.

Oh yeah, the album has a silly ending.