Mons - Dreams of Serene Beyond demo 2001

Mons - Dreams of Serene Beyond demo I 2001
1) Intro
2) Heretics of Orleans
3) My Sign
4) Host of Grand Spirit / Divinity
5) Into the Serene Beyond
6) Voyage into the Distant Dreams
7) Outro

Mega / Yandex

Here's another obscure Finnish offering which has been standing ready in a folder for longer than necessary, an item brother Grev dubbed me months ago, this is the first (and only) demo of the Gehinnom member Mons' solo project, unsurprisingly named after himself. Or actually it looks like he had this band before joining Gehinnom. Anyways, one-man effort and Grev included scans of both cover and lyrics sheet, so thanks again!

If you look at the running time, this could easily be a cassette album at over 40 minutes. And yes, it means long tracks, numbers four and six both are over 9½ minutes long. The neat cover adds to the illusion, but once you start listening you'll notice the sound is definitely in the demo tape category. Not bad, really, but very clearly not a studio product. Music is of the melodic/atmospheric dark metal school which means here plenty of synths and slowish midtempo pace. Programmed drums and harsh black metal vocals which sound surprisingly good and make me want to hear his performance with Gehinnom. The synths dominate most of the time, fortunately they don't have that annoying circus sound so no problem for me. The drum machine is a touch more annoying, especially the really dodgy bits on third track. Songwriting is a little challenging as there are many pretty clumsy bits and then again some really cool moments, like the almost-oriental flavours on the fourth track. If you're not a seasoned veteran of cheesy, practically synth-but-still-sort-of-metal solo projects you might cringe more than a few times listening through this. If you're like me and have a soft spot for these things, grab it and enjoy!