Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla 1992

Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla, Sweden 1992
1) Necro Metal
2) Fullmoon Sodomy
3) Desecration
4) Nocturnal Creation
5) In Remembrance

Mediafire / RGhost

This year is coming to an end. An era ended on the 28th of this month. I'm out of beer. Inspired by these feelings I felt a need to finish some outstanding projects left to lie in my notorious WIP folder and actually have gotten results. Here's one, a live tape by the Swedish (then) black metal band Runemagic, much better known from their second incarnation as Runemagick from '97 onwards. The "k" makes all the difference does it not? Also, going to play full on dark death metal before it got fashionable again was probably a more notable factor. However, first era Runemagic was black metal, with death metal touches sure but black metal still. I guess this was a more or less official live tape, recorded in their hometown. Unfortunately I have no covers and probably whoever did the Metal Archives entry didn't have either as the tracklisting was somewhat off, above should be correct. Would love a full scan if possible.

Why was this lying around unfinished for long, long time? Because of the rather challenging tracklisting and lack of material to compare to. I had misplaced my "Fullmoon Symphony" dub but fortunately identified it as an untitled B-side of a cassette I recently ripped so I got a kick to start sorting this out. If you remember the earlier "Runemagic" post here I'm now quite sure that is not the same band as it sounds almost completely different to other old material and actually everything else the guys involved had recorded (Deathwitch, who reused some old Runemagic material most notably track 3 here on their second album "Dawn of Armageddon" as Desecration of the White Christ which is the proper title anyways, Swordmaster, Sacramentum) or would record (The Funeral Orchestra, Necrocurse, Death Breath, Robert Pehrsson's Humbucker etc etc...). It would be really nice to know if there actually was another band called Runemagic (not very likely but possible), or if it was a band named something different but close enough to cause a mistake (slightly likely) or if it in the end was the same guys' unmentioned and/or -released demo (highly unlikely!).

Back to this item, the first track here was not that hard to identify as they scream the title aloud several times, the erronous Metal Archives listing has it as last track and "Runemagick - Necro Metal" which quite obviously carried over from someone's rip having been in the artist - song title format. Sloppy! The full title on "Alcoholic Rehearsal" of '91 was Dark Necro Metal. That rehearsal's tracklisting makes it seem a long song, over 5 minutes but this version here is just a quick burst not two minutes long so I went with the shortened title (I actually forgot to change the titles). Live versions may differ quite a lot (looking at you Mayhem and too short Pure Fucking Armageddons!) so that is not too surprising. Second track is easy enough if you have the demo of the same name and third one too. Fourth song was a bastard to figure out, especially as it was not on the most (? source? need to verify) versions of the demo. Fortunately he introduces the song in the beginning but unfortunately they somehow mess up or whatever else happens and it extends to an over ten minutes version with an awkward break in the middle. They don't quite restart it either so for a time I was under the impression it would be two separate tracks and tried hard to identify the second part unsuccessfully. After finally noticing their bandcamp had a remastered demo version up I confirmed it to same song. I originally intended to split it into two parts Noctunal Creation I & II but then decided against that. Last song was again a walk in the park. So there, not so easy, especially when I originally ripped it from a tape that had absolutely nothing written on it.

Fascinating tale of first world problems but how about the music? Getting there, this is old schoolish black metal with some death metal influences which I said in the very beginning but you might've already forgotten, has certain groove present that gives it personality, vocals screamy and good. Sound's not very good, elements get quite buried and somewhat messy but it's still listenable for the fearless relic hunter. Obviously not a soundboard recording, perhaps someone shot this on video and this is the audio of it? I still love it, old Runemagic has definite charm to it. I need the rehearsal tapes and you need to download this.

Winter Moon - Into the Dragon's Dark Dominion demo 1995

Winter Moon - Into the Dragon's Dark Dominion demo I 1995
1) Into the Dragon's Dark Dominion (Part I)
2) Into the Dragon's Dark Dominion (Part II)
3) Beyond the Silence of Ancient Winter

Yandex / RGhost

It's been a while since last post that could honestly be called dungeon synth. We remedy that tonight with this contribution sent with a bunch of other things earlier this year, thank you to the sender again! Winter Moon of Sweden, more specific Linköping, was as usual a solo project and apparently on the second demo turned black metal. It was done by one Frederik H. Karlsson whose name I imagine to recognize from somewhere but then again it is sort of a typical Swedish name so I might be mistaken. Unlike the Finnish Wintermoon (who also went black metal on their second demo) whose "dark winter music" was borderline metal this is purely synth stuff. Unfortunately no cover sent nor found so I'd appreciate one!

Three songs over eighteen minutes and running in the order of longest to shortest. First song starts a little abruptly, while the last one ends similarily which makes me wonder if the demo was originally like that or if slight cutting occured somewhere along the chain of trades and dubs. The sound is ok, quite loud and booming. Main instrument sounds like a slightly distorted organ. The music has some sort of archaic simplicity to it and, yet again, brings old Ultima and CRPG soundtracks to my mind. Which I suppose is some sort of sign of bona fide dungeon synth to me. Somewhat repetitive and monotonous, as expected, but quite enjoyably "pure" and fully instrumental as well as devoid of samples and special effects. First and second Lamentation demos come to mind, maybe the promo track too. Will bore many and bring nostalgic feels of pleasure to some.

Eternal Darkness #13 / Canadian Assault #4

Eternal Darkness, issue 13 / Canadian Assault, issue 4 split fanzine (November 1999)
Interviews - Eternal Darkness:
Unpure
Vulpecula / Ares Kingdom
Incubus (old interview)
Nunslaughter
Lust
Order From Chaos (old interview)
+ reviews & Sadistik Exekution live pics
Interviews - Canadian Assault:
Shane's World (porn)
Kaamos
Pagan Records
Immolation
Rites of Thy Degringolade
Damnation Records
+ reviews (including movies & old albums) and assorted filler (rant column, playlists, zine excerpts etc...)

Ulož.to

Here's another scan sent by Pawel, thanks a lot! It's another split 'zine, featuring the 13th issue of the long-runner Eternal Darkness by Keith Dempe and 4th of Canadian Assault made by Dale Roy who had moved to the States circa his 3rd issue. I haven't read that many US 'zines myself, just some black metal ones and a couple of pretty shitty ones I wouldn't really call 'zines the way I understand them, like Grimoire of Exalted Deeds who get a bashing on these pages too. Both editors are old school-enthusiasts and it shows. There aren't that many bands interviewed here if you look at the content above, ED has two re-runs and Chuck Keller is interviewed twice (the second old intie) which sort of makes this feel more like a Order From Chaos / Vulpecula / Ares Kingdom fan club magazine. Well, the editor did run such and released assorted tapes by the bands. Great if you're a fan of the acts. The other interviews are reasonably long too though the Incubus one dating to late 80's wasn't at all my cup of poison. Life metallers to boot. The review section is separate and neat, easy to read like the rest of this side of the 'zine but the high amount of scores over 90 out of 100 really catches my eye. Slightly jarring considering how he writes about other 'zines and the state of the scene in general. From what I gather, his previous issue had been a HUGE two parter which apparently drained him pretty much fully and wasn't that successful in the end.

Canadian Assault side is slightly less tidy and features content I dismiss as filler; playlists taking up a page, rant I didn't bother reading as it was a chunky block of text, a picture collage of Venom, two pages of quotes from 'zines he'd read (though some very quite amusing or interesting, I'll give 'em that!) and so on. There are also loads of reviews which some people don't care about at all and some enjoy, spotting new (well, obviously old) bands to check out so the mileage varies for this content. What irks me is that out of the six interviews here one is the pornstar Shane of "Shane's World" (kids can google it) and two are label interviews which I'm not so keen on. Better still than having other 'zines or distro or such taking the space. Though the Pagan Records one is actually very good and interesting, Tomas being a veteran and relevant. The Damnation Recs one I didn't read. I feel like neither of the editors actually had enough stuff to put up a full issue even together but had agreed on certain amount of pages or something. Despite my bitching, the whole is still above the average and recommendable as 'zines always are to the time travellers, archaeologists and grave-robbers.

 

UPDATE: New upload provided by gratsim, thank you for the assist!

Inkubus Sukkubus - In All Our Names live 2003

Inkubus Sukkubus - In All Our Names (live at Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre, Gloucester UK 10th January 2003)
1) Wytches 2002
2) Smile of Torment
3) The Rape of Maude Bowen
4) I Am the One
5) Take My Hunger
6) Vampyres
7) Away with the Faeries
8) Heart of Lilith
9) We Belong with the Dead
10) Catherine
11) Lucifer Rising
12) Belladonna & Aconite
13) Vampyre Erotica
14) Paint It Black

Mediafire

AUDIO ONLY: Mega

Enough exotics and time for something non-metal as well, this is again Inkubus Sukkubus of UK and an unusual item for the Coven: video of the whole show (separate tracks) shot from the audience by a comrade of brother Emptiness Cycle who kindly contributed this earlier with other related items. Thanks again! The unofficial IS site tells us this was a combined Amnesty / Greenpeace (didn't really foresee typing that split on this blog) benefit gig with unlisted support bands. I felt the urge to make a cover once again so this might look like a proper bootleg.

Like I mentioned right in the start, this is an audience recording and the full set. The fourteen tracks make almost an hour of music and both image and sound quality are decent. Better than average visual I'd say, EC's comrade has positioned himself quite well, slightly to the side but with a good view. I'm not very good at saying much about live videos since I shoot piss poor ones and generally seldom watch them, including the official ones. I do listen to live albums though, but don't often have patience to sit through a live DVD. Thus it might be convenient for others with similar issues that the video is separated unto tracks. I also made an audio-only version which you may download separately if you're so inclined. The main download includes this too. A few words about the gig itself, nice setlist though I am personally most familiar with the oldest albums, instruments sound a little thin but this is goth stuff not metal! And definitely not Mysticum. Candia's voice doesn't really seem to carry through the whole set, not sure if she's feeling a bit under the weather or what but maybe they should've considered having Tony do a song or two. Then again, she manages "Catherine" which is kinda hard, kudos for that but alas, struggles by "Belladonna & Aconite" noticeably which is a bummer. Anyways, I'm hungry and need to stop typing. Recommended for fans of Inkubus Sukkubus and pagan/gothic rock in general.

Impious Might - Demo 2008

Impious Might - Impious Might demo 2008
1) Slaughtering All Life
2) The Horned Fire

RGhost / Sendspace

Remember I said on the last post "one more" exotic item? Well, I lied, here is yet another and I daresay this should definitely count as exotic. This is Impious Might and I was told they hail from Angola - yes, this is the one I mentioned in the comments section of this post. Preciously little information, my contributor put it in as a filler and did not have tracklisting but seems like they have MySpace page, which, while still extremely lacking in details, included a logo and titles for these tracks on the player thingy. Music is black metal, quite raw and with (very) slight death metal touches.

Angola is one of many African countries colonized by European countries (in their case Portugal) until a war for independance which then lead to a long civil war. First elections were actually held in 2008 when this demo was recorded. Quite fertile ground for extreme music do you not agree? Provided the project really is from Angola, that is! Anyways, both of the two tracks run for a little under five minutes so the recording reaches a passable demo (or EP) duration. Raw, generally midpaced black metal with speedy parts, nothing really remarkable to be honest if you don't consider the (alleged) highly exotic origin. I actually expected more black/death bestial warmetallish approach but this sounds like something anyone influenced by the contemporary (north) European black metal scene might have created. Recommended for the fans of raw black metal, seekers of the exotics and would-be adventurer-archaeologists.

Souls Crematorium - Pre-Demo '93

Souls Crematorium - Pre-demo '93
1) Before the Life Over
2) After Day
3) Terror Diminish
4) Impossible Rehabilitation
5) Until the End of Life

Mega / Zippyshare

One more from an exotic locale (from my point of view) and an obscure death metal offering for change, this was sent by brother Baldemar and it is the only release by Mexico's Souls Crematorium. "Pre-demo" suggests this wasn't probably considered a proper demo but rather an advance version or a promo perhaps. Whatever the intention was, this came to be their only demo (unless they recorded something before this that B. did not mention) as the band split up quite soon after its release, Edgar Garcia and Guillermo Garfias teaming up with Antimo Buonnano to form Disgorge. The guitarist Samuel Olvera joined later another local band Piraña, also still active. Besides Disgorge, Edgar is a member of Putrefact and Hell Execution plus has played or plays live with among others Thornspawn, Funereal Moon, Hacavitz, Morbosidad and Impiety. Baldemar included a scan of the xeroxed cover as well, thanks again for your work!

Music is death metal, of the slightly slower variety with long-ish tracks that have enough variation within to remain interesting while still managing to avoid overtly complex wankery. Second song is a shorter instrumental one which further spices things up. The sound is pretty rough, probably recorded at their rehearsal place. Certain elements get somewhat messy but you should still be able to distinguish all instruments and I think it has more character with an unpolished sound like this. That background research/exposition on the first paragraph sort of wore me out so I'm not going to drop names as heavily here, not to mention my very limited death metal expertise preventing more interesting comparisons. Let's just say that if you like rough old death metal and vintage South American sounds you might dig this.

Behemoth - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992

Behemoth (sgp) - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992
1) Remembrance of the Crucification
2) Evil Lord
3) Cursed of God
4) Lord of All Gods
5) Doomsday
6) Church of Ghouls
7) Bastard Christ
8) Bleed Upon the Altars

Depositfiles / Yandex

One more from Asia and going back a bit, this is another Singapore kvlt with a familiar name, Behemoth, with their only(?) demo from 1992. Like several of their countrymen and Malaysian neighbours, Behemoth played pretty raw sort of black/death metal possibly and probably influenced by the likes of Sarcófago, old Mayhem, Hellhammer, Samael, Blasphemy, Beherit etc as well as their senpais Abhorer, Sexfago and Nuctemeron. That was a lot of names. Let's drop another, this was send by comrade Nefarious, thank you! He sent the cover scans as well, I suppose the dirty greyish image on M.A. is a xerox of the original red we have here. Or they might have run out of red paper at some point?

Eight tracks makes this look like it could be a full album but they're all quite short so the total run time is just short of 23 minutes. Almost exactly the opposite of the second Blood Angel demo that has four tracks for almost 47 minutes (you should check that band out too)! The title track is an intro, Nefarious had left it and the second track together as they blend into each other in a tricky manner but I saw fit to meddle again and separated them. Quite good sound, loud and clear enough, though it wavers a little which might be due tape wear. I like the crispy yet heavy sound the guitar has. Songs are mostly fast but have breaks and changes enough to keep them from being too linear and boring yet still remain simple and fluent enough for me to enjoy. Vocals are brutal growls and barks, executed with enough ill will to not sound monotonous. Wild solos flutter all around the park, bass can be heard and some mistakes are easy to spot but that's extra charm points for me. Great stuff, wonder when NWN! or someone is going to rerelease this. Recommended!

Funeral Rites - Promo '97

Funeral Rites - Promo '97
1) Weird Tales
2) Moonlight December
3) At the Warend
4) Crucifix

RGhost / Mediafire

Another Asian item today, this is Funeral Rites from Osaka, Japan and their third tape from 1997 simply called "promo '97" though Metal Archives lists it also under "Weird Tales" name. Hard to say for sure since I don't have covers and haven't seen full scans, but my tape trader had named it promo '97, would not be first time a release gets an additional name later. Maybe someone will eventually provide full cover scan that confirms the actual title. I recall this was also released as a MCD in '98 but don't seem to find confirmation online for this. Perhaps that version was called "Weird Tales" and it stuck for the tape too?

Well, whatever the case maybe I'm 100% sure both '97 entries on MA refer to this same recording. There are four songs here, first one being practically instrumental and third one fully so, both interestingly enough reappearing on their only album "Necroeater" released in 2000 by Nederlands' Painkiller records. I'm sure Hellhammer/Frost have been an influence on the guys, apparent both on their visual aesthetics (judging from the demo covers), song titles and to a degree on the music too which alternates between old schoolish, pounding, thrashing black metal and again oldish more melodic and epic black metal with light and effective touches of keyboards in places. The demo has a loud, noisy sound with a notable amount of distorted bass not so much as bleeding as cumming all over everything. It's a little jarring at first until you get adjusted to it and I recall being initially quite dissappointed with the album which sounded much milder or tame in comparison when it came out. Of course I can't seem to find the damn disc now to compare. I would really like to hear the '96 demos too, I think I had a pretty poor rip of either one somewhere but that also refuses to be found. Anyways, I dig this and you should give it a chance if you enjoy your black metal, uh, metal.

Damaq - Whisper of the Night Winds demo 1998

Damaq - Whisper of the Night Winds demo 1998
1) Whisper of the Night Winds
2) Astaruti Azla Nian
3) The Last Wrath
4) Upon Us Beyond the Red Dawn
5) Outro

REUPLOADED

Enough Finland for now, I have a craving for something more exotic! Enter Damaq, hailing from (West) Malaysia with their sole '98 demo sent to me with various other items by Nefarious. Thanks for your contributions! We're still in need of several old demos of the region, see the side panel, as well as 'zines which I added there. Personally I'm interested in all old 'zines from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and so on so feel free to offer 'em. Written in English, though. A cover scan is enclosed and I have to say it doesn't look very black metal to me. I'm more reminded of a slightly older book cover, perhaps in the genre of romance with just a touch of adventure, enough to titillate a maiden heart?

Despite the feelings evoked it is black metal the guys play here. Their music is moderately fast and melodic and despite being recorded in a studio (that's what the cover says) the sound is quite uneven, with the vocals very high on the mix and due the rip being just a bit too loud they overpower and drown out the rest while sounding broken, especially noticeable on the first track. They're less intrusive on the second song and actually at times drown in the music. Perhaps they recorded it live and the vocalist is inexperienced. The music isn't bad at all but the unevenness makes the experience more troublesome than it should be. As an interesting detail the "outro" here is an instrumental version of the second song. It appears the band has reactivated recently and put out an album in 2014. I should get that. Meanwhile, recommended to people into melodic black metal, fans of Malaysian scene and consumers of romance novels who are probably going to be very surprised if they're gullible enough to fall for this recommendation.

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal 1992

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal tape 1992
1) Cross of Blood
2) Ripped to Pieces
3) Reckoning Day
4) Fall of Man (cuts!)

Sendspace / Yandex

Let's do another Finnish post, inspired by The Nocturnal 'zine I decided to post the '92 rehearsal tape by Oulu's Mehazaer dubbed me last year or so by brother Grev, thank you! Unfortunately his dub was incomplete; the last track cuts and probably quite a lot too unless it was short to begin with. Alas, it appears this tape isn't that easy to come by as I remember seeing Mehazaer hardly ever in tradelists back in the 90's. Of course, that proves nothing about how much it was spread. I think this might be their only release as well, the interview in TNz2 mentions they were going to go to record their debut demo "soon" but no idea if this actually ever happened. They did at least five gigs too and I'm sure someone recorded at least one of them, so that might be a possibility to hear further material. Get in touch if you have a complete version of this or anything else!

My interest in this band back whenever sparked from a mention in some Impaled Nazarene interview, if I remember correctly, and the name was unusual enough to stick to mind. Funny how long it took for me to actually hear them. Yet again. So, was it worth the roughly twenty years wait? Not really to be honest. Five, ten years maybe. This is a rehearsal tape with pretty muddy sound, some hiss and it favours the right channel quite notably which is a bit distracting when listening with headphones (my default mode). It's not really too bad though, I should not complain when I listen to much worse sounds without blinking an eye. Music is pretty much just plain old death metal here but I suppose I can call it black/death metal since they did consider themselves a black metal metal band. The tempo ranges from mid to faster pace and it's mostly quite fluently flowing stuff without too many tricks and gimmicks to distract and bother grumpy folks such as myself. I would still want to hear the full version and the "Madaritza torezodu" demo if it ever got recorded or, well, anything anyone might have since I still find myself oddly fascinated with the band. Recommended for those who enjoy delving into the old catacombs of Finnish underground, Oulu-enthusiasts, old death metal fans or fans of old death metal and naturally those who got curious reading TNz2.

Zines in Finnish

The Nocturnal 'zine, issue 2 (April 1994)
Interviews:
Soulgrind
Misery
Curse
Mehazaer
Decoryah
Denial of God
M.M.I. Records
Black Dawn
Slayer 'zine / Head Not Found
Pax Mortis
Sceptical Schizo
Mystification
Hammer of Damnation
Articles:
Necrospiritual
Cerebrum
Salome
Morningstar
+ reviews, gig report

Mediafire

Apocryphal 'zine, issue 1 (1998)
Interviews:
Thyrane
Warloghe
Alghazanth
Unhola
+ Helwetti article, live review Easter Holocaust '98, demo reviews and news

Mega

Today is again Finnish independence day and this year I decided to use it as an excuse to post a pair of 'zines I've scanned written in Finnish so my apologies to our foreign friends. But at least both have pictures to look at if you are still curious enough to download them!

I was wondering if I should write the blog entry in Finnish too but since I've used English this far let's stick to that. Ok, so first one is the second and last issue of The Nocturnal 'zine made by messieurs Poskiparta (of Necrobiosis fame) and Rouhiainen, featuring cover art by Juha Vuorma and contributions by Ari "Sinister Satyr" Honkonen (Metalion interview & Morningstar article/bio) and Oliver Kraupa (live review of Impaled Nazarene / Ancient Rites gig). I borrowed this one from comrade passetiermes, thanks again! Dating to early '94 it is a more nostalgic and pleasant time capsule of the two for me personally, plus it features some more seldom seen bands. The professionalism and informative level might not be the highest though, but like I always say, amateurish 'zines are the best. Browsing through this reminds me I should get a hold of more Mystification (FF) material.

Second 'zine is the first issue of Apocryphal, also made by two gentlemen Jääskeläinen & Kaakkolahti from Leppävesi and in conspiracy with Volante's Artwork Prod. which explains the much fancier look this one has. I have no idea whether more issues were made as by the end of the century I bought less and less 'zines (and more and more booze - wonder if there's a connection?) but they do claim to have plans made for a second issue in the editorial. Right, this is a black metal 'zine, long interviews all of them which explains the smallish number and it was also released in A5 format which would be the other reason. Plus they botched something with the layout so there's a blank page (both sides even) which I faithfully scanned. Several pages of demo reviews as well. Where The Nocturnal 'zine editors joked and fooled around these lads are very serious all around. Trivia: I attended the '98 Easter Holocaust tour at Kuopio (I'm sure they did it at least twice, if not three times?) where it was held at the much smaller venue Valhalla metal bar. I wonder where else the tour went, I think it was like 3-4 places? As I seem to be starting to digress rather badly I suppose I should quit here. Recommended for the Finnish readers and to those who are learning the language. Not for the grammar though.

Putrefaction #5

Putrefaction 'zine, issue 5 (August 1991)
Interviews:
Bolt Thrower
Torturer
Demigod
Therion
Atomic Aggressor
Carbonized
Morbid Angel
Malaphar
Traumatic
Salem
At the Gates
Interment
Sentenced
Merciless
Shub-Niggurath
Misery
Infested Incarnation (guys who made stickers!?)
Infamy (Florida)
Obscure (Spain)
Dark Tranquillity
Baphomet
Agressor
Sadist
Macabre End
Samael
Sadus
Immortal
Death Courier
Impaler
Unleashed
Articles:
Dissection
Repugnance
Marduk
+ 'zine reviews

Depositfiles

Today's offering is an old 'zine again, a classic from the death metal underground, this is the 5th issue of Sweden's Putrefaction made by Tomas known later for No Fashion records. Thanks to Pawel for scanning this! Pdf-format and very clean & clear work, would be easy to read if not for the slightly messy archaic lay out. Which is naturally 110% cooler than late 90's posh computer stuff.

As you can see, there are loads and loads of interviews and no reviews (apparently Putrefaction didn't do these, this is the only issue I've seen so not sure) except for a page with couple of 'zines plus as exceptions he does review tapes of Sentenced and Shub-Niggurath after their interviews. Speaking of which, there are plenty of them but most are quite short and several are just plain bad and uninteresting or uninformative. Worst offenders here hailing from the States, with absolutely shit interview with Trey of Morbid Angel, short and boring one with Baphomet and much better than the previous but still lackluster Sadus. Misery from Switzerland takes the cake for Euro interviewees. Most interesting ones are probably the ones featuring new and upcoming bands At the Gates, Immortal and Dark Tranquillity. Merciless one is among the longest ones but almost completely gets out of hand with nonsense. Well, at least they had fun. Despite the minor complaining there is a lot to read, especially if you're into old death metal scene but personally most value here is nostalgic.

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.

Lamentation - Prophecies demo 1991

Lamentation [bra] - Prophecies demo 1991
1) Intro
2) Dark Prophecy

RGhost / Mega

Did you come here hoping for something by the Greek Lamentation? Too bad, that's not on the menu today. This is the Brazilian Lamentation, mentioned here and apparently this demo was originally released in December '90 under the Bestial monicker and then again under the new name in '91. Besides this recording in two versions there is a Bestial live demo also dating to '90 and except for possible rehearsal tapes nothing else which is a bit of a bummer as I really dig Luis "Zoca or Apocalyptic Preacher" Fernando's sound. I'd really like to get my hands on that live demo so let me know if you have it. Not to mention the hypothetical rehearsal tapes. Cover scan taken from the Metal Archives.

I got this short demo dubbed with a bunch of other more-or-less exotic black metal items a few years ago and hesitated a long time to upload it as the dub quality was, to put it politely, shit. Low volume and absolutely massive hiss, you know the sort. Then, after finally just deciding to go with it, I discovered I had already picked up a vastly superior rip of this online. It'd appear to be the rip posted originally by user macchipazzi in '08 and re-posted '10 by user name Okkultis on the MetalArea forum. Well, good job wasting a surprisingly large amount of time on a very short tape, me. Idiot. Right, anyhow this might seem like a pointless repost then but since I really wanted to do this one, I've uploaded the MA rip and included for your listening displeasure the extremely poor quality rip I made of the billionth generation dub in my possession. Plus it kinda fits nicely after the Fiendish Nymph demo, they've a lot in common you know! Mainly the whispery vocals and slowish pace. Perhaps the sound too. Slightly. And both are very short. Come from warm climates. Recommended to people who liked the Abygor demo, (old) Black Crucifixion, Fiendish Nymph and "Drawing Down the Moon" ...wait everyone likes that, uh, let's day Darkstyle.

Fiendish Nymph - Demo '94

Fiendish Nymph - Demo I 1994
1) Into the Abyss of Eternity
2) The Blazing Shades of the Distant Moonlight
3) Katara

Sendspace / Yandex

This one has been in the limbo again for much longer than it should have been. Fiendish Nymph of Greece, whose '96 promo tape I posted two years ago here, and their first demo from '94. As became the trend in their later releases, this one has no proper name and is very short - one "real" song in the middle and an intro plus outro. I pondered for a while if I should title this "demo I" (discarded, it does not say so anywhere in the covers) or "demo 1994" (this one won) or yet again just "Fiendish Nymph" (I can't bear having multiple self-titled releases!) and even worse, which rip to use?

You see, initially around the time I posted the promo I had only found a really poor quality dub I had. Then brother Grev sent me a rip he had, decent quality and all, and Fenrirsson offered to scan and rip his copy and of course THEN I did finally stumble upon the better dub I had and didn't think I'd ever find. In the end I decided to use that one and Fenrirsson's scans, due to personal preferences of sound. But this certainly was a team effort, thanks to all involved!

Ok, like I said very short tape again and the proper song is in the vein of later FN stuff, midtempo black metal with whispery main voice and mystical pagan atmospheres. Neither the intro or outro are really that great, they're just there but main course is delish enough. Then again I've always been a fanboy. Recommended if you enjoy their other releases and/or the Daemonia Nymphe stuff!

Black Autumn - Grief demo 1993

Black Autumn - Grief demo 1993
1) Intro
2) Demonic Incantation
3) Gates of Hell
4) Temple of Grief
5) Outro

4shared / Depositfiles

Death metal, from Sweden. So 90's! This is Black Autumn who appear to be quite obscure and seem to have recorded only this demo which was dubbed among tapes I acquired some time ago, thanks to the sender! Metal Archives' limited info includes a sligthly different, possibly incomplete or incorrect, tracklisting than my tape, having the last track "Temple of Grief" and outro together as "Untitled..." and obviously I'm more inclined to trust my version here. No covers I'm afraid and nothing is found online.

The demo has a bit murky demo sound which is still clear enough to hear all instruments very clearly and has this cavernous feel to it. Sounds actually at times quite powerful. Music is old school Swedish death metal with a slower, doomy tempo. Would actually go as far as just call it doom/death. All three proper songs are quite long, over six minutes, while both intro and outro are short. Vocals are exclusively deathly roars bellowed in a rather convincing, powerful manner. Another recording I find myself enjoying more on repeated listens, it appears! Somewhat repetitive, though. Unfortunately the sound quality takes a dip to worse for the last track, a classical case of uneven dub quality on sides A and B, I guess. Despite the repetitiveness and flawed sound quality should go well over in today's retro-friendly death metal-revivalist environment, especially to people who like slower and doomy death metal. I should probably dig up a rip with the MA tracklisting to see if the quality dive occurs on their dub as well.

Confusion Corporation - Purify demo 1995

Confusion Corporation - Purify demo II 1995
1) As the Brass Turns the Wall Green
2) Industrial Intellect
3) World Corruption
4) Contained
5) Forward to Extinction
6) Chains of Simplicity
7) Inorganic Beings

RGhost / Zippyshare

One more UK contribution, this was sent by brother Grev to satify my curiosity sparked by the first Confusion Corporation demo posted here earlier. Thank you and whoever originally ripped this! He did not have cover scans but I found a pretty decent image on the Discogs entry and used that. Decent quality rip at old standard bitrate (192 if you really didn't know).

A piano opens the first track, giving way to strings a bit further in. Intro piece, nice and moody, touch of neoclassical feel here and there. The piano returns to finish and next piece is much heavier then and so seems to be the overall sound, the music continuing quite logically where they left off on the previous demo. Death metal and grindcore elements mix with (sparse) industrial metal tricks and even some punk, resulting in... uh, some sort of cyber punk grind metal? Much of what I wrote last time applies here though there's a bit more of everything, notably Fear Factoryesque clean backing vocals, but it seems somewhat more focused than the previous tape. I recall my initial listen to this after Grev had sent it was somewhat unenthusiastic but hearing it now, side-by-side with the older demo it sounds much better and I'm not sure why I thought the other tape superior and this dissappointing. Now the tables would appear to have been turned. Not that much to add, it'd still fit the old Earache roster, not a big fan of the cover art, slightly better than the first tape (at least right now).

Incubus Succubus / Screaming Dead - Sampler Tape 1992

Incubus Succubus / Screaming Dead - Sampler Tape promo (?) 1992
Incubus Succubus:
1) Samhain
2) Vampyres
3) All the Devil's Men
Screaming Dead:
4) Angel of Death
5) Necroaria
6) Western Front

Mediafire / RGhost

I was initially going to post some more black metal now that we got the old engine running, but then decided to bring it to a crashing, creaking, screaming, screeching halt with a quick turn to something different: this sending picked from the things comrade Emptiness Cycle delivered me the other month. Thank you and other choice morsels will be served later! Anyways, to the British shores again and this is a split sampler tape, possibly a label promo, from '92 featuring some more pagan gothic rock by Incubus Succubus aka Inkubus Sukkubus as they are presently known (and about to release a new album this month, see here), teaming up with the fellow UK group, horror/goth punks Screaming Dead whose heyday was already in the early 80's with a short comeback in the late 90's. They were not active around the time of this tape's release so I suppose it might've been in connection to the compilation released in '93. Or just the fact that this was, after all, Tony McKormack's old band. Duh, obvious connection is obvious. No covers so I felt compelled to whip up a placeholder with band logos from '93 and '83 releases and a bat skeleton image I googled.

First version, which looks "colder" but the second accidental one looks more macabre so it won.

Yeah so if you're an Inkubus Sukkubus devotee these three tracks offer you absolutely nothing new as they're from the debut record. Unless you've managed to miss that one somehow, in case you should really get one of the various re-releases. If you're not familiar with the band, these three tracks are not at all a bad place to start, especially one of them being an old fave of mine ("Vampyres" if you must know). I like the stripped down but very clean sound here. Screaming Dead I hadn't heard earlier but am now quite interested to hear more. They've a very vintage 80's sound here, sorta post punk/wave thing going. I think the third song is a bit older than the first two. Why don't I listen to more stuff like this? I think I'm going to get that compilation from somewhere. Recommended for vampires, witches, pagans and other wave creeps.

Striid - War 2000 demo '00

Striid - War 2000 demo 2000 (original version 1999)
1) Hans siste vinter
2) Episode of Centuries I
3) Episode of Centuries II
4) Episode of Centuries III
5) Episode of Centuries IV
6) Episode of Centuries V
7) ***

Yandex / Mega

Let's get a bit more serious with another black metal contribution, this one by brother Baldemar, thank you! Striid was the solo project of the Lugubre founding member, well, Striid who released three demos under his name and this was the first of them. Metal Archives informs us this was originally titled simply "War" and released in 1999 limited to 66 copies, then re-released by Legion productions again limited to 66 copies which would be the version at hand here. Though the scans B kindly included do not match with M.A. version which looks fake and the tracklisting given there for this version is wrong too. Like the original version, this starts with the Darkthrone cover, continues with the five parts of "Episode of Centuries" and ends with a track not listed for the original version "***" which I guess would be first track "War 2000" on the M.A. listing. Perhaps there were actually two versions released on Legion after all? Or perhaps the information is just incorrect. Whatever, this is correct. The other two Striid demos were re-released on a compilation CD called "Warmageddon" back in 2003. Not sure why this one wasn't included there.

Like the cover song choice possibly indicates, Striid played raw black metal and at this phase was a one-man band. "Hans siste vinter" is performed well enough and sticking to the original formula, voice is a raw rasp, not as deliciously over the top as Nocturno Culto's performance but good enough. The original songs are in similar vein, not quite as repetitive though. Part II of "Episode" adds silly shifted vocals and neat slow parts to contrast the quicker paces. All parts have some individual quirks but still sound uniform enough to be parts of a whole. I'm trying to discern a shift in sound and performance for the last track but it really sounds like being from the same session as the rest so I must again question the entry on the Archives. Anyways, it's a short and fast one, I wonder if it'd be properly titled "War" as that title appears remixed along with the Darkthorne cover on the second demo, yet the running time does not match at all. Must remain a mystery as I do not have the other Striid demos or the compilation at hand to compare. If you enjoy raw and lo-fi sort of demo sound solo black metal (naturally with a lifeless unholy drum machine) you might want to have a listen to this tape.

Succulento Borchia - Pure Hate & Madness demo 1998

Succulento Borchia - Pure Hate & Madness demo 1998
1) March of Sorrow (allegretto ma non troppo)
2) Nuclear Law
3) Cacca Cola
4) Jubileum
5) (Glorification of) Intestinal Torment
6) Immortal Song
7) Magri Notturni
8) Sadistik Ekstermination
9) Pure Hate & Madness
10) (Glorification of) True Italian Forests
11) Godcrusher
12) Impalato Everywhere
13) Liquefatto in un cumulo di merda (Per-Version)
14) Nerchia (Per-Version)
15) Dancing with Folletti (Outro)

Mediafire / Rusfolder

Cover scans (achtung! very large!)

Back to our contributors, here is one I've forgotten to post earlier though to my defense I had to do a little further work and research into the track division, with the convenient aid of the enclosed lyric sheets our contributor comrade Chris had included (once again, huge scans - I've included them as separate download this time). So thanks to Chris again and sorry for the lateness, this was sent over a year ago after all!

Lots of tracks here but all are very short, varying between 00:49 and 2:34 in time. One would probably expect the music to be fast, thrashing or grindy or whatever but surprisingly enough this is not really the case. It ranges between quite typical black metal fare and just down strange numbers. Well, seeing their thanks list include a section where they pay respects to Marduk, Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Impaled Nazarene, Brutal Truth, Satyricon, old Carcass, Bathory, Mayhem, Ildjarn, Desekrator, Gehennah & Infernö might be helpful reference. Overall not very serious stuff, I suppose this is one of those fun projects which I can't count among my favourites. See if you're amused by their antics.

Azag-Thotch - Ritual demo 2002

Azag-Thotch - Ritual demo 2002
1) Прелюдия ночи
2) Cult of Death
3) Порывы холодного ветра
4) Преждевременное погребение
5) Реквием

Reuploaded

Recent posts have been very metal, haven't they? Let's have some belarussian dark ambient to balance that. I bought this tape pretty much on a whim and it does have sort of cool cover drawing too, does it not? Could be a black metal demo! I know little about the performers Belphegor and Sobnack, or label Wauckalack Prod., which seems to have released before this black metal; two demos by the still active Wackhanalija and a split tape of the nsbm bands Totenkopf and Hebrewdead. And a video (!) titled "The Forest" which I admit makes me very curious. At least Belphegor plays also in W and H, Sobnack probably too, under a different alias. I had to do a slight edit to the rip as the third track had a sudden burst of noise which I believe was not supposed to be there, most likely a screw up at some point of dubbing the tape, whatever the case I eliminated it. There are still some brief blippy noises in the last two tracks which I apparently did not prune off. Try to bear with them.

This is a pretty long tape, easily passing into album length. The first three tracks are in the standard 4-5 minute comfort zone while the last two are long and longer. The insert, which also provided most of what I know about Wauckalack prod's roster, describes this as dark ambient and I suppose this is the label I'll put this under. There are plenty of vocals too, as well as elements like percussion that give it a much more active nature than what most might expect from dark ambient releases. Closer to darkwave stuff at times really and some parts come close enough to dungeon synth to justify tagging that too. And to make people look. No but really, the afore-mentioned third track has that vibe aplenty and just listen to the state-of-the-art synth sound! I mentioned vocals, they're mostly whispers and black metal rasps which I find acceptable choices for this sort of music too. I'm not so wild about the first two faster and shorter bits (though the somewhat erratic pounding bits in "Cult of Death" are neat) but the dreary slower ones are more to my liking. It's another of those tapes that's both awful and awesome; terrific and terrible; ...I can't come up with a third similar pair of words... well, you know what I mean, almost equal mix of both components. Should be an interesting listen to at least part of the congregation. By the way, the first Wacky demo has quite similar sound to this, now that I've got it playing.

Bestial Summoning - Jam Session Rehearsal 1990

Bestial Summoning - Jam Session rehearsal 1990
1) Untitled I
2) Untitled II

Reuploaded

Here's a super-quick one, a contribution sent by brother Baldemar, this is the legendary Bestial Summoning of the The Netherlands and a very short two-song rehearsal from '90. They should not really need much of an introduction, just grab one of the re-releases of "The Dark War Has Begun" or "The Dark War Continues" and that should do it. Not sure of the personnel on this early recording, no covers or tracklisting so we settle with untitled unless someone can actually name these songs and a placeholder cover made from the demo cover hastily by me.

First track is a longer one, especially on BS standards while the second short one ends abruptly, possibly cuts. Music is simple and primitive black metal, mostly improvised I suppose. Perhaps a little surprisingly, clear sound with most elements audible. I suppose that really is enough for now.

Satanel - The Dark Triumphator demo 1996

Satanel - The Dark Triumphator demo 1996
1) Ascent Wisdom
2) Their Blood Shall Be Shed as Dust
3) I Am What You Awaits
4) In Evil and Sin
5) Hail to the Night
6) Diabolical Summoning

Rusfolder / Mega

Back to Europe and one of my tapes for change, I bought this demo by the Italians Satanel simply because it features personnel of Evol (Lord of Sorrow, to be specific) which I am somewhat a fanboy of. Top scientists of our day are still trying to figure out why. Well, whatever, I had no unrealistic expectations for this tape as I read quite unflattering reviews for it and obviously it was going to be quite different from Evol's very, very synth-heavy, half-ambient half-black metal style. As it's ripped from an original tape the sound is as good as it'll get, minor wear however present, and I've included the cover scans for your reading pleasure (there is quite a bit of text and it's somewhat entertaining).

The intro sounds actually like something you might encounter on an Evol recording though they tended to add vocals to these and this is instrumental. First proper track makes the point that this is black metal and of the no-nonsense aggressive sort too very quickly. I was actually slightly surprised at how tradionally metal this sounds, with barely any fruit flavour present. The congregation is still slightly divided whether guitar solos are considered fruity or not, personally I vote nay (ref. Bathord, Slayer etc.) but everyone is entitled their opinion. They're present, whatever the verdict. Vocals are mostly angry sort of gravelly barks except for the last track which opens with tolling bells, percussion and shrieks and howls that harken to Evol's "Sorrow of the Witch" to my great delight, this must be the screams Lord of Sorrow is credited on the covers for. Some unclear spoken passages there too. Aside from the first intro song, the rest are quite compact in their running times, with "I Am..." being shortest at less than two minutes and "In Sin..." and "Their Blood..." longest at nearly four minutes. The band released an EP, a split with Lord of Sorrow's other band Death Dies and two albums, none of which I've heard. Must do so, this has some nice bits. Why don't you have a listen too?