Lord Kaos - Path to My Funeral Light demo 1995

Lord Kaos - Path to My Funeral Light demo 1995
1) Intro / Violet Chamber
2) Abhorrent Funeral
3) Odour of Sanctity
4) Path to My Funeral Light
5) Bestial Whore

RGhost / Yandex

Recently brother Fenrirsson received a flare of infernal inspiration and worked hard to complete this long-standing request to the Coven, the first Lord Kaos demo from 1995. Thank you for your efforts, much appreciated! Unfortunately he had to work with a dub of less than stellar quality and to boot the demo already had a... challenging sound as we hardened, ear-damaged veterans call it. So, he took time to try to fix it to a bit more listenable form and at least I find the end result better than expected. But please bear in mind that this is slightly different from the original. Cover scan would be nice, there doesn't seem to be a better image online.

Lord Kaos was probably best known internationally for being the original band of the ex-Dimmu guitarist and Carpe Tenebrarum co-founder Astennu. Who naturally had other adventures too but let's concentrate on this recording which I believe they did as a three-piece with Jamie "Lord of Night Summoning" Marsh (who was also in the doom band Elysium and later in several other places) on vocals, Incubus on bass and a cold, lifeless drum machine taking care of percussion. Not sure though, what with the lack of proper covers and all. Most people probably associate (at least the older) Australian black metal with black/death hybrids of thrashing war metal, or other chaotic racket and sure, Lord Kaos is fast, chaotic and raw enough but leans towards the more synth-oriented Scandinavian direction rather than Sadistik Exekution/Corpse Molestation/Spear of Longinus traditions.

Fenrirsson kept the intro and first track, which do blend together rather seamlessly, together as one track and I for once didn't see the need to separate them. I am quite proud of my restraint. None of the demo tracks appear on the full-length album "Thorns of Impurity" or if they do, in altered and retitled forms. The music is delightfully hideous with the cheap synths, obvious machine drum ticking away, screeched and howled, possessed vocals and general quasi-symphonic ruckus. Not for the connoisseurs of sophisticated black art and polished soundscapes but definitely recommended to friends of raw black metal, lovers of old Australian stuff and those who delight in lo-fi "symphonic" blackness. A keeper, this one.