Corvus Neblus - Chapter I - Strahd's Possession (1999)

 

Corvus Neblus - Chapter I - Strahd's Possession Cassette EP 1999
1) A Break in the Silence Sets a Mission in Time
2) Chasing the Bandit, Retrieving the Symbol
3) Forever I Shalt Dwell in Ravenloft
4) First Encounter - Fhalken the Merchant
5) Confronting Barovia
6) As Night Falls, for Helm I Fight...

Mediafire / Depositfiles

I think it's reasonable to deviate from the Danish black metal for a bit, here is some dungeon synth for change, this is an Elven Witchcraft release from 1999 and first one by Greek project Corvus Neblus. CN was a one-man effort by Alexandros "Evil Dark" Antoniou, best known from the bands Macabre Omen and The One. I wouldn't mind another Macabre Omen album, as a side note. But yeah, this is based apparently on his AD&D character Neblus' adventure in Ravenloft, the booklet includes further details, scans are included as this is dubbed from a more or less original copy.

The six songs have a running time of slightly over 25 minutes which makes this well into EP or mini-album length. Individual songs vary from the shortest "First Encounter..." at 2:23 to epic "Confronting Barovia" which clocks almost eight minutes. The music is keyboard based, quite nostalgic and reminds me of soundtracks to some half forgotten CRPG's of good old days before all this massive multiplayer shit. The first track has harpsichord-like sounds on the forefront and has generally an introductory / main game screen feel to it. The second one is a little more active in nature, though not as much as its title would suggest, seems like the chase would be conducted in a more leisurely pace on foot rather than galloping high speed pursuit on horseback. Third one is slow, melancholic and somehow introspecive in nature. I like it quite a bit. The next song is the shortest one, more upbeat and again very game soundtrackey. "Confronting Barovia" is the longest piece, like I mentioned, and feels darker and more dramatic after the rather light-natured interlude before it. I'm sort of reminded of Lamentation on their second demo here. Which is a good thing. There's an unfortunate but very brief glitch around five minutes, kind of a squeaky bleep that repeats later again - I'm not 100% sure if it's an issue on the recording or possibly a feature supposed to be there but it jars my ear. Last track is shorter and again more active in nature, striving to portray a ravaged village and an encounter with the bloodthirsty marauders. The demo is completely instrumental, what seemed at first glance to be lyrics on the booklet are descriptions of events associated with each song. This is a good, working solution. Recommended, obviously most to people into dungeon synth, those who liked the Lamentation posts and with restrictions to fans of Macabre Omen.