Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996

Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996
1) In the Beggining
2) All Was Everlasting
3) To Feel the Inossence Passion
4) Stillness
5) Septentrional Abiss
6) Infinity Sad
7) A Gloomy Remembrance

Yandex / Zippyshare

I thought we might chill today with another contribution, this is Alpheratz who hail from Mexico and released this one demo tape on Sempiternal Sadness before fading away again. Thanks to the contributor, who unfortunately did not have covers to send but I did borrow serviceable ones from Metal Archives and the Demo Archives II. Alpheratz played "black funeral music" (not sure if actual label description) or "ocult & black ambients" (their own words) which would be a mixture of dark ambient and darkwave sounds with slow, atmospheric black metal. A bit like proto-dsbm actually.

This tape was somehow familiar to me before receiving the contribution but I'm no longer sure where I recall this from, some old 'zine most likely or perhaps flyers. I'm positive I hadn't heard it before, though. It's pretty long, more than half an hour, and has a decent enough sound, if a bit sparse. That gives it a nice roomy, almost airy feel though. The first short song serves as an intro and is followed by a longer track that is characterized by a plodding tempo, buzzing distorted guitars, spaced-out keyboards and viciously grating, raspy black metal main vocals. Some clean vocals provide support but are enough in the background as not to disturb me. Next track which also is the longest adds what I'm quite sure are female session vocals or perhaps the guy has a really wide range? It's also slightly more upbeat and has sort of wavey feel to it. I like the buzzing, wavering guitars which sound like they might collapse any moment. The somewhat abrupt switches also amuse me here more than annoy. Not to mention the trippy synths and obvious drum machine. "Stillness" seems to combine animal husbandry with quasi-gregorian moods which is pretty goofy, as is the later part of the song too. "Infinity Sad" features some crazy keyboard sounds that are practically random. There is certain clumsy charm to this again and I find myself enjoying the recording, possibly more than I actually should. It does feel a little longer than necessary, I admit. Recommended to the friends of the curious and exotic.

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997
1) Bedimmed Grey
2) The Soothsayer
3) Of Dream and Reality

RGhost / 4shared / Sendspace

Today's post also has a very, very slight connection with the BFoB festival, it is a request made last June by an anonymous commentor on this post where I was able to provide a little information (with assistance of brother Grev) and kind of left the rest for the future. By chance while we were drinking beer and falling into Mysticum psychosis / Xibalba ("they're the Darkthrone of Mexico!") mania at brother Suuret Muinaiset's place I spotted this in one of his cassette boxes, remembered the discussion about it and borrowed the tape. So thanks to SM, I've now scanned and ripped the '97 demo by Helsinki melodeath band Bleed Me Tears. I suppose I'll return it... next year or so, maybe at Profanatica?

Grev described this, in a rather unenthusiastic manner, as "more melodic death metal" in the Gothony comments and Suuret Muinaiset wasn't exactly thrilled about the demo either so I braced myself for the initial listen. As expected, typical for the era melodeath metal, less all over the place than Gothony was and with longer songs. More straightforward, easier to listen approach and I now find myself thinking this actually sounds a bit Swedic to my ears. Main vocals are a raspy half-roar found often in the genre, ok but not outstanding or very distinct in either way. Unfortunately they also feel necessary to employ half-assed clean vocals which pretty much ruin the second song. Good studio sound, it was recorded with Hiili after all in the M.D. studios. I find myself not coming up with much to say, as I've probably made already clear this is not my field of expertise. Well, the samples (?) in between the songs are mildly amusing and make me want to listen to Karjalan Sissit. Recommended to people into old Nordic melodeath and collectors of somewhat obscure Finnish demo recordings.

Bestial Warlust - Demo 1995

Bestial Warlust - Demo 1995
1) Blood & Valour
2) Death Rides Out
3) Wrath
4) I the Warrior
5) March of Hells Militia (+ Outro)

Sendspace / Mega

I decided to take a little breather after the last Black Flames festival before posting as the Mysticum gig made everything else seem futile and obsolete. Now that I've almost recovered from the impact I thought it'd be a good time to do a sending by brother Fenrirsson, further assisted by Wehrwolf who provided a cover scan, seeing that Deströyer 666 played the song "Bestial Warlust" at the warm up event it is somewhat connected to the festival. Thanks to both gentlemen for their parts, this is Bestial Warlust with the '95 demo, recorded in between their two albums in January '95.

The four songs and outro instrumental are all rather short, savage and speedy so the whole affair lasts eleven minutes. Fenrirsson had originally left "I the Warrior" and "March..." together as one track (they do blend together) but I felt compelled to separate them as the tracklisting demands. That's all meddling I did. All "proper" tracks were re-recorded for the second album, "Wrath" becoming "Legion of Wrath" there. These versions obviously sound different, the guitars are much more dominant here than on the album versions and naturally everything is slightly rougher. Good demo sound still, no rehearsal tape madness here. In case you're not at all familiar with Bestial Warlust and/or Corpse Molestation they played black/death metal in often chaotic and warlike manner though the later material isn't quite as wild as the earlier stuff. Satanic war metal I recall it was called at some point of time. Recommended for the fans of the style or bands mentioned, collectors of OZ underground material and general endorsers of brutality.

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split (bootleg '92)

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split bootleg tape 1992
Blasphemy (live in Vancouver '89):
1) Intro
2) Weltering in Blood
3) Demoniac
4) War Command
5) Blasphemous Attack
6) Fallen Angel of Doom
7) Goddess of Perversity
8) Nocturnal Slayer
9) Darkness Prevails
10) Desecration
11) Ritual
Beherit (live in Finland '91):
12) Intro
13) The Oath of Black Blood
14) War Command (Blasphemy cover)
15) Intro II
16) Hail Sathanas
17) Satanas (Sarcófago cover)
18) Witchcraft
19) Paradise, of Thy Demonic Host
20) Beast of Damnation
21) Demoniac (Blasphemy cover)
Samael (live in Switzerland '90):
22) Messenger of the Light
23) The Dark
24) Into the Pentagram
25) Knowledge of the Ancient Kingdom
26) Morbid Metal
27) Worship Him

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Looks like I didn't have as much time as I thought to post stuff before the festival - I'm leaving for Helsinki Thursday morning - so this'll be last before I return. Might as well make it another big one, here is a three-way split live bootleg tape released back in 1992. I believe most will recognize the performers here? Blasphemy was obviously the headliner for the first Black Flames of Blasphemy back in '09, there's the connection. Their part was recorded in Vancouver '89 and features most of the songs they did on the demo and debut album. Sounds messy but listenable enough, you can tell what's going on relatively easy. "Goddess of Perversity" is incomplete, there's a dropout unfortunately. The recording sounds a little different from there on, perhaps whoever recorded this moved a bit causing the missing bit?

Beherit have sadly not performed live during their apparently short-lived(?) reunion since the release of Engram in 2009. Their part here was recorded in Finland in '91 at unspecified location, most of their live performances took place that year. Sound is pretty abrasive, much noisier than Blasphemy's part and quite challenging to enjoy. Vocals degenerate especially badly, "Hail Sathanas" sounds just ridiculous. I wonder how people who ordered this tape back in the day for Beherit felt? Samael play nowadays forgettable semi-industrial metal and if their performance the other year at Jalometalli was an indicator, I'm happy they haven't been taking up slots at other events I've attended. However, their black metal era was excellent and this set is no exception. "Messenger of the Light" starts somewhere well into the song, missing more than half. That's more or less the only gripe I have about their part, recording sounds decent enough (especially compared to Beherit) and performance is fine. I should really go to bed so I'm not going to write anything else, grab this if you're a fan of the bands AND fond of bootleg tapes with "special" sound.

Mayhemic Truth - Rehearsal tape 2000

Mayhemic Truth - Rehearsal Tape 2000
1) This Bitch Will Burn at Night
2) In Memoriam
3) Straight War
4) Requiem

RGhost / Yandex

This week we're going to do things related to the last Black Flames of Blasphemy festival and start with a contribution by comrade LKS, thank you! Here are Mayhemic Truth and a rehearsal tape from 2000, the year they quit under this banner and took the name Morrigan for the future endeavours. And as you can see from the tracklisting, the songs of this session were later recorded for the debut Morrigan album "Plague, Waste and Death" in 2001. Recently things have turned around once again and we have Morrigan in inactive state, not for the first time, and Mayhemic Truth performing at BFoB. Well, I'm fine with this and I guess after witnessing several gigs where Morrigan play a MT song or few, this time it'll be MT doing a few select Morrigan cuts in their set.

But back to this tape, a rehearsal, sound would be fine if the cassette wasn't, once again, a bit wonky in the beginning. The first track suffers worst of the warping effect, it gets better and by "Straight War" it's completely fine. A shame but what can you do. The versions are obviously rawer takes than the ones that appear on the album but not really different, slightly shorter maybe. Three of the four songs present are on the fast-paced side of their coin and the last one represents the midtempo, epic side with some additional clean vocals which I personally prefer but it's essential to have some of both for a healthy diet. I don't think I have much more to add, I'm very biased as an old fanboy of both bands to write anything sensible anyways. Recommended to the fans, obviously, and also for people looking for decent Bathory substitutes.

Alastaro über alles (bootleg compilation)

Various Artists - Alastaro über alles bootleg compilation "2014" (CD-R 199? / 200?)
M.O.T.U. - Exclusive Tracks:
1) Maxillofacial Ultrabrutalectomy
2) Discodeath
3) Osteoporotic Tissue Fragmentation
4) Jazz Club Saturnus
5) My First Riff
6) Endotracheal Thrombophlebitis
7) Hopeinen kuu
8) Improvisaatio
Orvonton - Demo I 1997:
9) Intro
10) Hyperkrist - Kirkebrannens natt
11) Drep de falske
12) 'S.R.201'
Sacrilegeous - Exclusive Unreleased & Demo Tracks:
13) Haunted Mental Hospital
14) Ereht Tuo Si Hturt Eht
15) Naar skyggene vandrar over Hornafjörður
16) Blaspherious to Evil
17) Sacrilegeous Suicide
18) Into Evigheten
19) Død kalm
20) This Is Who We Are
Evil0 - Exclusive Unreleased Tracks:
21) G.B.H.
22) Scifi
Gothmog [fin] - Exclusive unreleased track:
23) Sathanas der Shoppe Bok Bok

Mediafire / 4shared

It was Father's Day today in Finland as well as in several other northern countries and I decided to commemorate it with another big post... actually originally I was going to do a non-metal item but then thought it was high time I'd post this contribution sent last year by brother Grev, who also happens to be a father so merry Father's Day G and thanks! So, certain portion of my readers love Sacrilegeous and I think we already mentioned this compilation in one of the discussions somewhere in the comment sections, note that it actually has no name: Alastaro über alles is just something Grev decided to call it when he sent the lot to me and I kind of went on with it. To the extent of making a phony cover for it. Yes, the "symbols" around Baphomet are this. Sometimes I really spend my time in dumb ways. Right, so it's sort of a bootleg yet kind of semi-official as it is ripped from a CD-R Grev got from master Necrodesecrator when he ordered a copy of the Nordic Landscapes of Hessdalen EP and asked if older material was available. He did not mention when this was and I've forgotten to ask so we remain uncertain until he eventually tells us. Because just asking him would be too simple.

A note with the tracklisting.

Enough backstory, to the contents. There's a bit over an hour of material, most of time going to M.O.T.U. (21:34) and Sacrilegeous (31:22) parts, while Orvonton and Evil0 both get their roughly six minutes of spotlight and Gothmog the Finnish version represents for 1½ minutes. Not very even division but considering those are his main projects it is to be expected. M.O.T.U. is a mixed bag, starting with an instrumental metal-lish song that wouldn't sound too much out of place on a Sacrilegeous demo, continues with techno-industrial, more almost jazzy and groovy metallic stuff, with and without bizarre robot vox to a schlager classic cover and improvisation. Orvonton starts with an "intro" of static noise, thankfully short, followed by fast and quite harsh (industrial) black metal with obvious and dominant drum machine. It's no Mysticum but interesting nevertheless. Sacrilegeous part here is in the somewhat calmer and more atmospheric vein, with the familiar sound. Mostly instrumental too. Contrary to what one might guess by the song titles, "Blaspherious to Evil" and "Sacrilegeous Suicide" are NOT thinly disguised Deicide covers, first is a synth track and second in the more usual Sacrilegeous metal track style. And so on, you know S. well enough by now. Evil0 is techno/industrial, mostly instrumental if you don't count some quite annoying voice samples. That's enough about that. Gothmog, perhaps surprisingly, is brutal and bestial black metal with unhuman machine drumming and sounds something like Havohej / Profanatica combined with Corneus / Grausamkeit, to make a really crude comparison. Or maybe not. But perhaps that gives some kind of an idea. Recommended obviously to all fans of Necrodesecrator's work as well as those constantly on the look for curiosities of the Finnish underground.

Maldoror - Burn After First Listening! tape '09

Maldoror [fra] - Burn After First Listening! compilation/"jubileum" tape 2009
The Sumptuous Wine of Her Bleeding Majesty demo
1) Intro
2) Crepuscul
3) Zoooooori
4) Sleeping with the Dormant Witch
5) Join Us!
6) Ode to the Rising Moon
7) Funeral March
8) Rumours
9) ortuO
Rehearsal Tape 7 November '93
10) Dawn of the Moribund
11) Carpatsi
12) Black Ocean
From Rehearsal Tape 25/6/7 January '94
13) Sleeping with the Dormant Witch
Improvised Rehearsal Tape February '93
14) Mary, Seize Me by the Horns Pt 1
15) Funeral March / Mary, Seize Me by the Horns Pt 2
From Rehearsal Tape 28 January '94
16) Crepuscul
17) Zoooooori
From Rehearsal Tape 19 May '96
18) Centrum of Cosmos
19) Ode to the Rising Moon
20) Lunar Commands

Depositfiles / Mega

Let's do another big post today, shall we? It's also somewhat an anomaly again as it is a recent release, dating to 2009 but I've an excuse as it was released as a cassette and contains only old stuff by the French Maldoror, whom should not to be confused with the Italian metal band who later changed name to Thee Maldoror Kollective and went avant-nuts. Non-metal, inhuman unmusic for almost 80 minutes is not probably everyone's idea of good time as many of the readers who acquainted themselves with the (notably shorter) Christs Nails compilation may attest to. And to be honest, this is kinda similar as it is mainly piano-driven neoclassical dark ambient with rasping, growling, groaning and croaking vocals, spiced with movie samples, sound effects and some parts borrowed from Chopin (yeah, Funeral March yet again!). However, despite Maldoror's self-labeling of his material as "unmusic" it is generally more accessible and, well, musical than the Dutch duo's musickness and such standout hits like "Sleeping with the Dormant Witch" are actually catchy.

The main course of the tape would probably be "The Sumptuous Wine of Her Bleeding Majesty" demo, which was the main reason I actually bought this, having had that tape on my to-be-heard list for a ridiculously long time. The other material is compiled from rehearsal tapes, most dating to '93 and '94 with the exception of last three songs which date to '96. As you can see from the tracklisting, yes. The November '93 rehearsal tracks are a bit on the wild side, sounding actually somewhat crazed thanks to the mainly shrieking, howling and giggling voices used. They also feature distorted stringed instruments prominently and are much less easy listening than the demo part. '94 rehearsal version of the hit "...Dormant Witch" is quite pleasant again but the vocals sound this time as if he'd stuffed something into his mouth instead of the deathly grunts on the demo version. Being an unmusical lout I'm not 100% sure of his instrumentation here either, is he utilizing a guitar too? The improvised rehearsal parts from February '93 are mostly piano and growled vocals that drag on somewhat (read: much) longer than necessary yet not nearly as bad as one might first think it to be. The next two tracks, again dating to January '94, are two more demo tunes in slightly different versions and then finally the last three tracks from '96 feature two new, longer ones and a re-recording of another demo hit song. Vocals here sound more like sullen, spoken word piece than anything else with less play with effects and styles, though the last track does feature growls too. But that's enough, the rip should be decent enough quality so if you feel this sort of music might appeal to you go ahead and download it.

Rotting Christ - Live Athens 7-5-1994

Rotting Christ - Live in Athens, Greece 7th May 1994
1) Intro
2) The Sign of Evil Existence
3) Transform All Suffering Into Plagues
4) Fgmenth, Thy Gift
5) Visions of the Dead Lovers
6) Exiled Archangels
7) The Forest of N'Gai
8) The Mystical Meeting [incomplete!]

Reuploaded

To celebrate me finally going to see something live after a long break (Uncle Acid & co tomorrow at Tavastia) I decided to do a live tape. And this time it is (yet another) Greek item and when it comes to black metal material it doesn't get much more Greek than vintage Rotting Christ, does it? This was a contribution sent to me as a .wav so I've split it up to tracks and converted into mp3, thanks to the contributor, much appreciated! Unfortunately it's not fully complete as the last track cuts a bit. There's no cover for this, but I felt like making a placeholder as seen above.

This one has a pretty good sound, sure there is audience noise, a brief dropout on the fifth track and so on but the instruments are quite easily heard and it's pleasant to listen to in general instead of a test of fortitude and hearing comprehension like some other live tapes I've had here. The setlist is obviously excellent, assuming you enjoy old school RC (not grind-old-school, mind you!) and the performance enthusiastic and Sakis' voice in good form. Comparing this to the official live released the other year makes me wish time travel at least in observant's form would be possible. That is enough, recommended and has really very little to do with the gig I'm going to see but hey that was a decent enough link to this. As always, bootleg live recordings are very welcome! Especially if you have the '95 Cyprus gig which I had on a tape that broke. How I hate cassettes.