Serpent Lore - Brandishing Damnation Sword demo 1998
1) Grimstone Craved
2) The Night Neverending
3) Sears Within the Soul
4) The Freezing Moon (A Tribute to the True Mayhem)
Yandex / 4shared
Another black metal demo from Portugal is upon the alter today, also supplied by master Sorvali, this is Serpent Lore and their '98 tape which also seems to be their only release. Several band members have since continued with a number of black metal bands, all firmly in the never-heard department for me. Ripped from an original tape with cover scans included.
A bit longer songs again this time, though no quarter hour mammoths here, the Mayhem tribute (=cover) has the longest running time of the lot at six minutes. Good enough sounding demo, quite balanced. First thing I noticed on the first track was the pretty traditional heavy metal riffs. Then there are synths. And solos. And more heavy metal. Not very kvlt and grim sort of black metal here, but that's okay you know, better they have more of that Mediterranean touch to proceedings than trying to sound northern, frozen, cold and fake. At times they do stray a bit more into power metallish territory than would be necessary but in general it stays closer to Mortuary Drape than Stratovarius so I am condoning this. The songs aren't exactly catchy, close to that but slightly staying out of grasp, just a bit, fingertips graze but cannot quite reach them. I need sleep, you might want to take a listen to this. Oh yeah, the Mayhem cover is clearly based more on the DMDS-version than the older which would more accurately be called "The Freezing Moon" but I'm completely fine with that as DMDS > anything else by Mayhem. Form small groups and discuss.
5 kommenttia:
I've been away from this blog too long, glad to see it's still going strong and now I have all these obscure demos to hear. I like the reviews/stories you post with them too, that always put this blog a notch above the others.
@pagan:
Welcome back and glad to read you've enjoyed the content too. There's certainly a bit to catch up as recently I've been posting more than I usually do, partially due the large amount of contributions I got the other month.
“DMDS > anything else by Mayhem. Form small groups and discuss.” Excuse me for being a prick by replying to that part of your post, but: why discuss this point with anybody, since it is obvious that the only true Mayhem full-length studio album stands above anything else by Mayhem (although I appreciate their earlier recordings, whereas the band without Euronymous are not Mayhem for several reasons as far as I am concerned), and also is “the best Black Metal album ever, due to it's undeniably strong spiritual content” to quote Erik Danielsson (see Horrible Eyes interview); well, besides some of the Swedish religious or Norma Evangelium Diaboli releases (like Funeral Mist, Dissection, Malign or Katharsis [to name one non-Scandinavian band]) that is, if you ask me, for the same reason Erik gave.
Back to Serpent Lore: I didn’t know them, am listening to them as I am writing this (still the first track, patiently listening to their own compositions before I get to the Mayhem cover), and appreciating the music and the comment “better they have more of that Mediterranean touch to proceedings than trying to sound northern, frozen, cold and fake” (and your weblog in general, of course), being a person that always liked the sound of Mediterranean bands like early Moonspell, Rotting Christ and Mortuary Drape.
@Someone:
Heh, that was a long comment and I didn't expect anyone to actually pick that up but appreciated anyways. Looks like we're quite like-minded here so no further debate should be necessary. Not that'd I'd be running a forum here. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the recording too.
Referring to the first sentence: I tend to do that a lot, and a lot of people hate that. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Referring to the last one: sure did; both their own material and the Mayhem cover were worth a listen. Thanks again.
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