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.