Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo 1998

Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo II 1998
1) Faces Behind the Mirror
2) It Hurts Again
3) With Brush of Madness
4) The Last Reflection
5) Somewhere in the Deep
6) Under the Dreams

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Let's do some (probably) easier listening today, this is a demo I bought as a victim of false advertising from a distro back in '98 or possibly early '99, the second tape by Hungarian band Dying Wish. It was supposed to be similar to Moonspell's "Wolfheart" which I was quite the fanboy of back in the day. It was not. It's labeled as melodic death metal on the Metal Archives but when the first song kicks in you're probably thinking "gothic metal" or possibly something I'm too refined to type here. It's really closer to Paradise Lost when they decided to turn girly metal back in the early mid-90's except with some growls tossed in. Not a very good name drop to be honest, but I'm not so fluent with these melobands. Think Century Media/Napalm (mid-90's onward) roster stables or Swedish melodic metal bands. Ripped from an original cassette so the sound is good. It's not like I had worn the tape thin on this one. Covers scanned too.

So I was dissappointed with this when I got it and as you probably read between the lines already I'm still not very wild about it. But I suppose I could try to say something more, the tape runs easily into album length as most of the six songs are pretty long. The main clean singing voice is decent enough not to be annoying and isn't too high on the mix. It's decidedly amateurish too but that's not really a problem. The occasional death grunts are pretty standard fare, deep unlike the main vocal. Playing is competent enough, music mostly quite fast paced and upbeat. I'm running out of things to say, I still don't really like it but neither do I hate it. I guess you'll know if you want this.

Tears of Misery - Demo '95

Tears of Misery - Demo '95
1) At Bath Woods
2) The Depths of Emptiness and Sorrow
3) Shadows of Reality
4) Before a Vision
5) Fallen from a Dream
6) A Grand Eclipse
7) Across the Black Horizon
8) The Twilight Zone

Mega / Sendspace

Another dive to the non-metal pool, this is actually one of my requests fulfilled, thanks to the sender! I got curious about this demo after reading the vaguely positive review on Petrified #4 and added it to my wantlist and to my surprise it was among the things my contributor ripped and sent me. Cover scans included too.

I said non-metal but that's not really accurate at all as this is sort of metal for well over half of the time, the review compared this to Abruptum but little more melody and metal parts to Hellhammer which is going too far in my humble opinion. The first track with metal, which also is the first proper track, "The Depths of Emptiness and Sorrow" does at times take me to Abruptum, sounding a bit like "De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet" in some points and a little like Windham Hell at others. But definitely not like Hellhammer, it doesn't have that sort of drive or groove, it's more in a meandering, haphazard semi-doomy vein. Most of the time thankfully instrumental but there are some vocals too which are mainly of the demented, warped bellows school but there's more like silly, bubbly screaming and other pleasantries. Last track features spoken female voice which apparently was enough to distract Thorns to ignore the male noises. Which reminds me, Petrified's reviews really sucked, didn't they? There are even male vocals on the same damn track! Sheesh!

Right, crude ambient metal with suitably crude yet clear sound. I really really disliked this on initial listens but strangely enough parts of it are starting to sound more interesting to me after a bit of time. It could be sleep deprivation too. And the kind of neat cover. As usual, for the adventurous souls.

OfDoom - 03.08.09 demo 2009

OfDoom - 03.08.09 rehearsal demo II 2009
1) Christ's Death (Sarcófago cover)
2) Mayhemic Damnation
3) Black Mark of Doom
4) Demonic Baptism
5) Seventh Desecration
6) War Command (Blasphemy cover)

RGhost / Mega

Today I again felt like making an exception and post an item practically from the future, all the way from 2009 yet at the same time it could as well be recorded in '91 the way it sounds. Yes, it is the lads probably best known from the Beherit-worship of Black Feast (a compilation LP of demo stuff was just recently released by NWN!) nowadays operating under the name of Witchcraft and performing more metal of death oriented material. This is their first incarnation, OfDoom which should be considered a different band from Black Feast and the second demo recording. Brother raf who is either on a lengthy hiatus or in retirement released the first and third tapes on his Modern Sounds of Death blog. Ripped from a tape I got from a trader with very good copies of the covers.

OfDoom plays black/death metal in old school, primitive style. Just thought to mention that if you could not guess from the song titles, connections and the two cover songs displayed on the tracklisting. All songs are on the more compact side of things so the six songs are over in under fifteen minutes. This particular tape sounds very much like demo-era Beherit, not very surprising I suppose, as well as their ancient influences. Rehearsal sound is a bit chaotic in an appropriate way. Entertaining material if you're into old school bestial blackened metal of death, or in their own words: sepulchral Satanic death metal. That is all.

Jarowit - Za dawne dni demo 1996

Jarowit - Za dawne dni demo 1996
1) Zew umarłych legend
2) Płomień
3) Za krew naszych przodków
4) Wicher

4shared / Yandex

Let's do some non-metal material again, this is a contribution, from the same source as the Brunei stuff posted earlier - thanks you know who you are - and a rather obscure project from Poland called Jarowit with a four song demo released in 1996. As far as we know, that is. Seems legit, considering that quite a few similar projects appeared around that time in Poland. Most likely inspired by Perunwit who were among the first to pioneer a sort of mix between (neo-)folk, ambient and some metal elements with a pagan and often nationalistic ideology. Well yeah Lord Wind obviously did something similar too but I feel it's a bit different from what most of these sort of projects put out. Sadly no covers nor is there anything online that my extremely lazy and half-hearted search would've discovered.

You might've noticed I approached describing the music herein somewhat cautiously but I suppose best short description might be low-fi pagan folk/ambient. This is a pretty long demo, that is it feels kinda long running 23+ minutes spread over the four parts here. First song consists of quite monotonous and slightly erratic guitar strumming and tape hiss for almost five minutes. Second one features more guitar, slightly muted clean-ish singing, some sort of percussion (he might be drumming on his guitar case with his hands for all I know) so there's more going on there. It's still kind of sparse and most likely performed "live" or "rehearsal" so to say, whatever he (they? but it's probably, almost certainly, one guy) used to record this just set up running and capturing the result on tape. Third track seems to follow in same vein but has variation by adding what I guess is supposed to be a wolf howling (I'm almost certain it's the artist himself) as well as harsh black metal rasps for more aggressive parts. Those moments make me imagine this as some sort of extremely stripped down pagan metal solo performance in street corner or small square in less-than-presentable part of town. If this was properly recorded in a studio it would have none of the oddly compelling charm present in this forme, though it's a very trying listen, mostly overstaying its welcome and demanding a certain amount of patience from the listener. I'm not really sure whether to recommend this or not as my own reactions seem to vary from one listen to another. I suppose if you're into old Perunwit, Svantevith, Nirnaeth, or other of the several similar projects I can't seem to recall now when I'd need to you'll want to check this one out too. Though those are really not very good name drops as they're so much more, um, refined? This is closer to Messier than December's Fire, to offer some perspective.

Altar of Perversion - The Abyss' Gate Re-opens demo 1998

Altar of Perversion - The Abyss' Gate Re-opens demo 1998
1) At the End of Their Slumber
2) Recalling Old Nights...
3) Land of Ancient Evil
4) Black Magickal Suicide

Zippyshare / Mediafire

I have been frustratingly short on time recently. In that light it is strangely appropriate to post a contribution comrade unholydeath sent already last year, this is Altar of Perversion from Italy and they're a quite well known name in certain circles. If you're not in those circles, no, they do not play any sort of goatwarrape metal, cyber sado-grind or anything such the name might bring to your mind. Those in the knowing will associate the band to raw black metal and Order of the Nine Angles. And almost certainly already have the demo. To be honest, most people likely to appreciate it probably possess a copy or rip but since ud shared his good quality rip (and cover scan) I decided to feature it. So, thanks to him.

This is the first AoP release and with four songs for a bit less than twenty minutes looks pretty standard. However, they do sound untypical both to the era it was released and to a lesser degree present as well. Acoustic guitar opens the first track and features quite prominently in it despite the general pace being brisk and rather violent. It is not a gimmick throughout the whole demo though, so if you expect that you're going to be dissappointed. Considering the militant paces, dissonance and raw, hostile atmosphere perhaps it isn't really that inaccurate if one thought about bestial war black metal upon hearing or reading their name. Recommended for people into vicious black metal or Italian bands.

Ymir - Trollsword demo 1999

Ymir - Trollsword demo I 1999
1) As the Spring of Light Fades Away
2) Trollsword
3) Fields of Mightly Battle
4) Shadowages

Yandex / RGhost

I wanted to commemorate the Cirno day with something released either '99 or '09 (which would more resemble ⑨ but it's too late now) and after a short deliberation I picked this, the first demo by Finnish Ymir from 1999 titled "Trollsword". Thanks to the nameless apparition who manifested during a séance to contribute the rip and scan! As the title might give away, this is not true Satanic black metal even though it features the Mäkinen boys Ossi (also known as Lord Sarcofagian and probably best known for Baptism and his boyish good looks) and Anssi (Vrasjarn in his more black metal related endeavours, nowadays fronts the funeral doom band Profetus which is recommended if you haven't heard 'em) along with a third fellow credited on the cover as T. Pölkki.

While the second Ymir demo, recorded in 2002 (see also: Trotzreich from '02) and released in 2006 flirted with NS (yeah sure, "flirted") themes and aesthetics, this one is wading in the dark fantasy side of the somewhat murky "pagan black metal" pool... no, pond fits better, and compared to the later tape the sound is somewhat thicker, fuller, meatier while still clearly in the Northern black metal tradition. The music is more melodic, even folky. The vocals are a little buried in the whirlwind of instrumentation but audible enough. Note that it's Anssi doing them here, his screams and shrieks sound a bit more hoarse than Ossi's and he also spices things up with very limited use of clean vocals. This is actually quite good stuff, why haven't I listened to this and the second demo more? Pick this up if you're into the other related bands, like melodic pagan-tinged black metal or just religiously collect 90's demos.

Einherjum #1

Einherjum, issue 1 (1995)
Interviews:
Satyricon
Isvind
In the Woods...
Sverd Storm / Skogsposten
Ornament 'zine
Manes
Perished
Nattvindens Gråt
Black Funeral
Ragnarok
Esoteric
Ancient
Mortiis
Obtained Enslavement
Bifrost
Zephyrous
Unpure
Theatre of Tragedy
The Helheim Society
Dies Irae
Fleurety
Behemoth
Fenriz
+ a bunch of articles, scribbles and reviews and yet another Irish scene report

Depositfiles

Let's do a 'zine post today. Not too long ago comrade Kurgan sent me the first and only issue of the (in-)famous Norwegian 'zine Einherjum made in 1995 by Aasmund & Oðinn and I scanned it, like I tend to do. And yeah, the 'zine has been mentioned in the blog a few times before and you might've gathered I'm not too fond of it. I actually traded away my own copy back in '96 as I was quite dissappointed with how it turned out to be. Has time healed wounds and put enough water under the bridge to give me a different impression of the magazine? Not really, I still feel pretty salty whenever I leaf through this. Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting interviews too (like Esoteric, The Helheim Society, Black Funeral), though as you see it is a pretty standard list of names for a 'zine of the era, even including the omni-present Mortiis and yet another goddamn Irish scene report! I swear every third 'zine I read seemed to have one of those things, each more half-assed than the previous one!!! Ok, but more than those I was and am bothered by the editors' (well, it's mostly Oðinn really) attempts at humour and being witty. The interviews vary wildly in length, depth and quality and the "articles" tend to be either rants, stupid, or like written doodles. Well, variety is the spice of life? At least they put their personalities on display so it's very bold. Reviews are generally poor, with some exceptions giving a bit better impression of their object. I'm actually getting annoyed writing about this so have a read for yourself, I'm going out for some fresh air.

Interferhon - Ritual Phenomena promo 1999

Interferhon - Ritual Phenomena promo tape 1999
1) Sepulchral Howl
2) Nocturnal Monument
3) Ambassador of Necrosis
4) Wicca of Hayagriva (Hayagriva cover)

Reuploaded

Let us not waste time, there is catching up to do for last month. This is another contribution, this time from comrade Morbid Chanter and it is another obscure-ish Malaysian tape, the 1999 promo by Interferhon. Which again features a really neat, very endearing hand-drawn cover. I love the effort put to these, no computer copy paste there! Music and sound are quite ok too, the rip is a little bit louder than necessary, again, but it's not bad with the band's rehearsal demo-like sound. Don't let that scare you, it sounds quite clean and good with most instruments easily distinguishable and all that warm 'n' fuzzy goodness. Slight tape wear is audible from time to time, but it's slight enough to "add to ambiance" rather than ruin the listening experience.

Four songs, three of which are their own and last one a cover of Hayagriva whom I must admit were totally unknown to me before this recording. A bit surprising actually, seeing how many releases they've churned out since '93 till 2012. I think I should track down their older tapes too. But! Back to this item at hand, it's quite melodic and almost completely midtempo black metal with a certain peculiarily Eastern feel to it which I might just be imagining due knowing their origin. So much for "reviewing" this either. I'll just add that the start to third song "Ambassador of Necrosis" is kinda awesome, with just the drums and then joined by guitar strokes and eventually the rest. Nice groove throughout the rest of the song, too. There's a bit clumsier part later which still manages to have its own crooked charm. Good stuff. Not very grim and most likely not very trve either (see the thanks lists) but amuses me. Recommended for fans of the exotic but not too adventurous metal.

Capri Sancti - The Witches' Sabbath Land demo 1995

Capri Sancti - The Witches' Sabbath Land demo rehearsal IV 1995
1) Welcome to My World
2) Forgotten Song to the Fullmoon
3) Dociledo Vampire
4) Aiwlys Chim (In the Name of Witch)
5) The Black Barrel Organ
6) In the Sign of the Funeral Flower
7) Diabolic Moonlight
8) Call from the Bare Mountain

Mediafire / 4shared

It has been a while but again the signs are favourable for the Coven's return. Without further ado we start with a contribution sent by comrade LKS and while both Capri Sancti (later Vim Patior) and this demo "The Witches' Sabbath Land" might be familiar names to the people interested in Polish scene I decided to seize the opportunity to get a better, full rip of this demo as the ones I've encountered so far have been lacking in various equally dissappointing ways. Including the old dub I had which apparently was missing no less than two of the admittedly short songs at the end. LKS included a very decent cover scan too which was especially welcome. Not perfect but few things are, thank you again for your offering!

I had actually all but forgotten about Capri Sancti but they popped up in a discourse I had with sister Borderline some many months ago and I resolved to gather as much of their more obscure old recordings as possible, while also getting proper versions of the better known demos (this and "Under a Dying Sun..."). So far this project has had very little success but perhaps the old tapes will eventually be excavated from one tomb or another.

That's all very fascinating but what is this like? Well, dark ambient dungeon synth parts mix merrily with raw and crispy lofi melodic black metal served with noteworthy amounts of cheese and really generous helpings of keyboards. I'd say roughly 1/4 metal and 3/4 synths. So if you're not a fan of cheap 90's keysounds you might prefer to avoid this and pick up instead... Hödur maybe? Then again if you're at all into this sort of stuff you'll probably love this. I find it absolutely delightful though some parts overstay their welcome a bit and eventually some of the initial charm wears off or it might be just me today. Anyways, recommended to certain scholars among the flock and I'd really like the three tapes recorded prior to this!