Various Artists - Chronicles of Elven Witchcraft - Scroll One: Through the Dragon's Orb (1998)
Side Lion:
1) Utumno - Orkferd
2) Keep Of Kalessin - Skygger av Sorg II
3) Hypnos - A Lost Piece Through the Mist of Time
4) Zavorash - Return from Grace
5) Valar - At the Gates of Mordor
6) Warloghe - Witch-Song
7) Enid - An Myrrddhinn
8) Raventhrone - The Three-Faced King of Dominion One
9) Maze Of Cako Torments - Kalakiai Opiumis Sizmarshi
10) Horna - Outro
Side Unicorn:
11) Cernunnos - Dasos Ton Tragopodaron Daimonon
12) Heresiarh - The Cruel Bard
13) Slovisha - В лecy
14) Azaghal - Tuonelan porteilla
15) Rakoth - Return of the Nameless
16) Skyforger - Virsaitis Nameisis
17) Svartalfheim - Well of the Highest Knowledge
18) Urospuu - The Black Forest, Part II - Evil Nazgul
19) Kharadrai - My Void Is No More
20) Across The Scarlet Moat - Gold Elvish Tea
21) Trolltjern - Efterord
4shared / Mega
Ok, let's start this year off with yet another compilation tape, but this might be again a bit more interesting as it is the first Elven Witchcraft compilation (though released on the sublabel Engwar) which was sent to me by comrade Eugene who would like us to know this is available due to efforts of two Discogs users, from Finland and Lithuania. So thanks to these people! Cover scans are included. And yes, I recall I promised vile oozing black muck this year but all in good time!
We've come across Elven Witchcraft already several times here in the Coven, usually in connection with fantasy-inspired metal and dungeon synth. Obviously the compilation contains both as well as folky tunes, emphasis more on metal though a few of the metal bands (three to be accurate, Utumno, Horna and Cernunnos) contribute ambient tracks (intros/outros). The music ranges from rather pure black metal (Warloghe, Zavorash - who sound really like Immortal here) to more bombastic fantasy metal stuff (Enid, Rakoth) to folkish/heathen sounds (Hypnos, Slovisha) to pure ambient/synth (Kharadrai, Trolltjern). And as an oddity Urospuu's black/grind. Standouts include Trolltjern's still excellent closer, Zavorash and Cernunnos (I want that cassette album) from the good and the ever-awful Svartalfheim plus Heresiarh (which I used to like but nowadays their female vocals grate my nerves really badly) from the bad. Across The Scarlet Moat suffers from having much lower volume than the rest of the stuff, otherwise the volumes are fine enough and things flow rather well together. Recommendable compilation even though most of the material might be familiar to long time devotees.
8 kommenttia:
Thanks for posting, Vel! I'm glad to help you in collecting Elven Witchcraft tapes. Feels like it was the best label for dungeon synth and fantasy metal fans back in the 90s.
Actually we've been looking for Slovisha stuff in Russia, we even contacted a guy behind it, but he's no longer the owner of his own tapes, yeah. It will be really great if you'll find his "Skazki" demo tape. We belive that Slovisha is an important missing link in history of russian dungeon synth or "folk ambient".
@Eugene:
Thanks to you and the involved people for ripping and sending this! Yeah, EW was quite special in their (well, his) dedicated selection though I recall he did also pick up some, generally East European or former Soviet, non-fantasy related items. I wish I had ordered more items from him.
I've added Slovisha to the sidebar's wishlist, that'll help me remember to keep an eye for it and perhaps someone who has it will notice and rip their tape. It's unfortunate that many people don't seem to have their old bands' tapes anymore.
I've been after a physical copy of this for a while. Hopefully one pops up for sale somewhere. For now, thank you and all involved for the rip!
@anon:
I'm still unhappy with myself for not picking this up back in the day, if I remember right my reasoning was "not enough unreleased stuff" or something similar. My younger self should've spent more money on tapes and albums and less on beer, booze and smokes. Fuck off young Velkaarn you stupid punk!
Right, but you're welcome and I'm sure eventually someone puts a copy for sale on Dicksucks or Jewbay, probably laughably overpriced. Then again maybe you can get a lucky score at reasonable rate.
Hah, "reasonable rate". I guess the sad part is I'd bewilling to pay dumb prices which probably adds to the price-gouging, hah.
I'm sure you probably noticed this already, but one of your want list items popped up:
http://metalarea.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=236664
@anon:
Actually I had not noticed that, thanks for the heads up! Heh, I don't actually remember why I wanted it anymore but let's check it out.
Personally I'm not willing to pay much for cassette tapes and no-one should either. They're way too easy to forge to be really worth anything. Of course if it's something you just can't find anywhere then I suppose it's ok paying a few bucks for what is likely to be a dub anyways. But that's me.
Another amazing finding. Thanks for your work.
@DM:
Thought you might enjoy this. The contributors are to thank here.
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