Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005

Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005
1) Discipline and the Revisionist
2) Throatsaw
3) The Knife-Chaser Narratives
4) Irrational Hope
5) The Great Hopelessness
6) Promise Keepers' Collapse
7) Depression (Black Flag cover)

Depositfiles / Zippyshare

Another atypical post today, here's another of our comrade Chris's sendings from that bunch sent quite a while ago. The unusualification herein is the relative recentness of this release, dating to 2005 which is mere eleven years ago. This is the first and only demo by Canadian band Nietzschean Reprisal who play raw, noisy sort of black metal that sounds influenced by punk, industrial and, well, noise. Not that sort of straight up white noise several artists have been keen on putting out on tapes in the recent years, mind you. Ok sound though the guitars are kind of subdued in favour of very clear and almost funky (not really, don't get too excited) bass. Vocals are sort of strangled sounding shriek ran through some filter or effect. The music's not full steam ahead rush, tempo shifts abound and there are calmer bits in the ruckus strewn aboot. Again it seems my opinion about this varies greatly depending when I'm listening to it. Presently, coming to it already somewhat angry and irritated it surprisingly sounds better than on the last listen a few months ago. There's a slight resemblance to Diamatregon, which I'm very much into, in places. Not as good as D, no sir, but a few acres of common ground at least.

There have been other rips on the nets and I haven't compared Chris's version to them, but if nothing else sets this apart at least the supermassive cover scans do. I didn't bother separating them to a different download this time so be forewarned the .rar is large and almost half of it would be the scans. The seven tracks of music run for a bit over twenty six minutes, ranging from very short (less than two minutes) to surprisingly long opener (almost seven). That's enough from me, being as distracted as I am now I should not tarry. Grab this if you got curious or have a thing for Canadian sounds.

Burning Northshore #3

Burning Northshore information booklet, volume 3 (autumn 1996)
Article on Bloodsword, some reviews, addresses and info on editor's other projects

Mega

Ok, today we're doing another of these newsletter posts and this is the third volume of the Burning Northshore information booklet, which translates to a six-page newsletter, plus covers. I haven't seen the other volumes and this one too got passed to me from a trader I think... or did I get it from somewhere with an order of something or other? Not sure, but it was anyways one of those random things people used to add besides flyers, biosheets, logo stickers and whathaveyou.

The content here deals pretty exclusively with the editor's stuff; Den, Superior, Bloodsword, Galdrastafur 305 and The Meniscus Plains. As far as I've understood, it's mostly odinistic ambient sort of music, except for Superior whose '96 demo was recently... well, not very long ago, re-released and who sound very much like old Polish black metal. I heard a sample of Den somewhere and it was quite interesting too, I believe at least some of that material was going to be released again as well. Or has been, I haven't checked. Must do so after I'm done here. Right, let's wrap this up: it's curious stuff and probably not of interest to many, but maybe it will have some audience.

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo '96

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo 1996
1) As the Waters Darken
2) Embers of Light Dying

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Today's contribution by master Fenrirsson, thanks for the rip, takes us to United Kingdom which is not really too well known for black metal despite spawning the band that named the whole genre. In the mid 90's you basically had Cradle of Filth, Thus Defiled and Bal-Sagoth, COF starting as death metal and TD black/death, then if you dug a bit deeper you might encounter the likes of Dead Christ, Megiddo, The Fallen, Witchclan, Silence (which I still need to hear for myself, provided they even recorded anything!), Ewigkeit, Ordog and Xaztur. Oh yeah and Hecate Enthroned, never forget! They were really much better known for death and doom metal plus combinations of those. Hmm, where was I? Oh yeah, today's thingy, the only demo from Shadowlore, side project by Thus Defiled Pauls Carter and Foster-Dent. We have featured Thus Defiled extensively enough earlier so let's not go biographing this time. No cover as F was working with a dub so there's just the small image I looted from a crypt somewhere online.

This is the original two song version of the demo, there was also a later re-release by Dark Trinity Productions with two more recent songs on the B-side (which I'd be curious to hear), probably had a different cover too but that's pretty much all I know about that. Both songs are decent length so it lasts a bit over ten minutes. If you're familiar with the first two Thus Defiled albums, between which this was done, you'll recall they were black/death metal with increasing emphasis on melody on the second one as well as keyboards taking more prominence while the demo material was pretty much death metal tinged with black. This recording by the two Pauls is straight up synth black metal with black metal rasps, screams and whispers for vocals and machine percussion support. The sound is not too far away from the TD releases of the era really, the sparse instrumentation just makes it thinner and obviously less heavy. Both songs are divided into intro parts and "song proper" with the rest of the elements (vocals and percussion that is) joining the keyboards. I seem to enjoy this today more than on the previous listen, so perhaps it is again one of those things that grow on you? Can't help wondering how it'd sound with some guitar buzz thrown in. Is that a bass on the second track that I hear? I was under the impression it was just vox and synth, though it could be more keyboards shenanigans. Also, I'd really like to hear the two later bonus tracks so if you have that version please get in touch!

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo '91

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo I 1991
1) Never Ending Terror
2) Mask Over the Sun
3) Excretion Feast
4) Eye Among the Blind
5) One by One

Rusfolder / Yandex

Isn't it about time to do some death metal again? We move another year into the past, to 1991 and travel down under with this sending by our brother Wehrwolf, further meddled with by yours truly. Hecatomb, one of the dozen or so to use the name, but only one to feature Shane Rout of Abyssic Hate fame on drums. And Brad Johnston on bass (and vocals) whom you might've encountered with Blood Duster, Samsara or Mindsnare. No? How about Mysterium I posted back in '13? That was his solo project. Anyways, this is the first demo from '91, apparently by consensus self-titled. Cover scans are also included, thanks to W.

Two... no actually three, Excretion Feast just shortened to Feast, reappear on the second demo "Deep Sleep Therapy" and as I'm just listening to it I can say they're not too different from the original versions. Sound is somewhat (not that much but the rip I'm listening is partly to blame) more refined and consistent which leads to my meddling with Wehrwolf's rip. It's not drastic, really, I just hit normalize on it and another time for the last two tracks which had disturbingly lower volume. The sound quality also changes a bit, I guess the tracks were recorded at different sessions. Doesn't say on the covers. Other than that, which has been sort of fixed, I've no issue with the quality, sound- or rip-wise. Metal Archives has this marked as Death/Black/Thrash Metal which seems a bit overkill to me, I'd just call it death metal and that's it. Tempo varies from the almost doomy opener to the short and grindy Excretion Feast, thrashy parts pop up here and there but overall it sounds heavy and cavernous. At times smothering even. I'm not really picking up much black metal emanations here and lyrics seem to range from medical horror to more abstract dark fare. Recommended for folks into good ol' fashion death metal, explorers on southern(most) voyages and archaeologists not frightened by huge spiders, crocs, bushfires, nasty heat, traps and other poisonous things.

Bonehill Blues - Risin' Thunder demo '92

Bonehill Blues - Risin' Thunder demo I 1992
1) Son of a Gun
2) In My Heart
3) Born to Raise a Hell
4) Risin' Thunder

Sendspace / Mega

And now, something completely different. Very much so and way outside our usual line of Necromancy, I've exhumed a bit more personal skeleton from the tombs. No, it's not my old band, not THAT personal. It was my schoolmates' band and I felt this sort of stuff kinda fits summer don't you think? Bunch of kids playing a (slightly confusing/-sed) mess mixture of hard rock, grunge (hell forbid!), alternative and other influences, generally falling under the rock umbrella. This was their first demo tape recorded in the late fall/early winter of 1992. I don't remember when exactly but the date on my dub says 20.11.92 and I think I got it pretty soon after it was finished. See below for a scan. There wasn't a real cover for the demo either, just a pencil doodle my younger self did on a notepad. The image above is a slightly cropped and edited version I whipped up to decorate the post. Just had to use Comic Sans for the text.

Whoa! It's a TDK, amazing! So kvlt.

Four tracks of... ugh, let's call it hard rock for now, I suppose? First one is an uptempo affair, second almost falls to ballad/slow song department and is the longest of the litter, third one is more uptempo again and actually reminds me a touch of old Alice Cooper (the band era-old) stuff, at least in the beginning, the chorus is more 90's... I'm actually thinking Rolling Stones too now when the verse kicked in again. Rock music is really not my expertise I suppose. As for the title track, first thing that comes to mind is AC/DC meets CCR. Sound is pretty good, all instruments easily audible. Playing is on the expected level. Cool vocals. There's some tape wear which is unfortunate but can't be helped. I had a tape somewhere with a full live gig which I can't seem to be able to locate. Haven't actually seen it for a long time, wonder if I've loaned it to someone... That's enough for now, next time we'll welter in nostalgy, obviously, but probably with something more in line with the Coven's usual focus.

Sorg - Demo I 1995

Sorg - Demo I 1995 (?)
1) Necronomicon
2) Subtle Punishment
3) Chalice of Sin
4) Initiation
5) Für Dich
6) Chaos

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's stick to Germania a while longer. This is again a collaboration between me and comrade LKS. Well, to be honest LKS did most of the work ripping the tape and scanning the covers, I just divided it into tracks, which was quite a bit of work too! Alright, Sorg of Germany was somewhat a mystery to both of us, despite having access to the covers as they're not very informative. According to another demo, to which we return later, a man who calls himself Astaroth is apparently behind all the music and most likely instrumentation too. Looks like Metal Archives has been updated recently to mark him as the same fellow who handled bass and vocals in Fjell, we speculated this earlier but were not certain. Good to see user Uglur knew this for sure. As you see from the question mark up there the release year is uncertain, '95 is just a guess but could be '94 as well. Please confirm if you know.

Music on this demo is what I suppose should be called ambient black metal as it has enough metal elements on it to merit that sort of a monicker. Pushing it, maybe, but very gently. More like nudging or perhaps poking. Mostly slow tempo and moody material, black metal voices croaking, crooning and occasionally growling over funereal keyboards and strings (sounds like bass to me), plodding percussion, you get the idea. Lofi but clean sound, atmospheric and quite mellow on the slow long opening numbers, gets a bit silly on faster bits like Initiation. Very interesting for sure and I would need the second demo, third one we already have.

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo '95

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo 1995
1) The Belief - The Lie
2) Heirs of Fire
3) Niemals geboren
4) Intrude into Immortality
5) Worm of Sin

Sendspace / Depositfiles

Cover by LKS

Let's head to Germany today for change, this is a contribution by master Fenrirsson and it is the '95 demo of Tsatthoggua, formerly known as Dissection and later signed to Osmose. Thanks to F for the rip, it was a tape traded item so he did not have covers to scan, I used what I could scavenge online. UPDATE: LKS provided me with a scan of the cover xerox he had, upload link added above. Thank you!

I used to think of Tsatthoggua as kind of German version of Impaled Nazarene back in the day. I was thinking old ImpNaz, obviously. All the songs here were re-recorded for the debut album too but the demo versions sound quite different. If you're not familiar with Tsatthoggua, it's fast & ferocious black metal with a few scarce death metal touches and a bit of synth here and there. This is sounding good today, really good. Must dig up "Hosanna Bizarre" and compare to that, I've a nagging suspicion this might be superior. Did it have those background synths used here? Anyways, recommended if you enjoy this sort of racket!

Adversary - Promo '94

Adversary - Promo 1994
1) Intro: Into the Fog
2) Slave to Eternity

Yandex / Zippyshare

No-one seemed to have much to say as to what direction the next post(s) should head so I decided to slap here another old, short Israeli black metal item. Remember Dalmerot's Kingdom I posted a few years ago? Oh, actually six years ago. Time flies. Anyways, this is the pre-DK band Adversary with their very short '94 promo tape, just an intro and one song. I haven't heard the '94 demo which appears to feature versions of this material so can't make comparisons. This was, as you probably guessed already, another tape traded item and I've no idea if there was some form of cover made. Most likely not, this seems an item just dubbed to some folks they were in touch with.

The intro is a brief atmospheric synth piece, possibly (read: most likely) borrowed from some soundtrack or other, considering how different it sounds to synth on the proper recording. The main course is black metal with very, apparently typically to several other bm bands of the time and region, prominent and slightly distracting percussion, quite tastefully executed moodful synth-driven breaks and crunchy-sounding guitars. Pretty much a more primitive version of the Dalmerot's Kingdom material. The vocals are also kind of lost among other ruckus but seem your usual raspy screeches with decent enough execution. Some of the shifts feel a bit jarring and the song ends kind of... soon? Like if it was an abbreviated version. Well, at least they don't overstay their welcome. The part near the end with whispered vocals brings something to my mind but what, can't quite put my finger on it! Recommended to those dedicated to exploration of the more exotic scenes, fans of old proto-sympho black metal and obviously those who enjoy Dalmerot's Kingdom.

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo '94

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo October 1994
1) Conjuration
2) Beyond Eternal Nights

Mega / Rusfolder

The weather has taken a pleasant turn to slightly cooler but I still wanted to keep up with the southern summer campaign for at least a bit longer. Today we have, to counterbalance some of the recent posts, some Israeli material from my vaults. Grimoire from Herzelia was active for a few years around the mid-90's, releasing a demo, an album and this promo tape here. Their name popped up with slightly surprising frequency in fanzines and tape trader lists, considering the rather limited discography. Most of that was probably due novelty factor and I guess they were quite active with correspondence and such. I didn't have covers for this but fortunately there were pretty good scans on Discogs, thanks to user ateshu.

There are two quite long songs here and the first one was also featured on their demo "In the Darkwoods Sovreignity" which as an aside I'm not very fond of. I disliked the sound on it, guitars are way too subdued. The sound here is rougher than on the demo but also more to my liking, the instruments are in better balance and guitar more prominent, percussion less in your face. Bass is notably audible here (on the demo also). Okay, I admit the faster sections do get messy but that's a minor issue, of course your mileage may vary here. Songwriting is quite elaborate for a debut release, there are no synths here yet but several atmospheric passages which do well enough without them. Things do not always flow very fluently but that is to be expected, a few errors give demo and rehearsal recordings character. Some slightly oriental tones can be heard on the second song, but not to the extent of the album which was pretty much sympho black with Middle East melodies.

That's enough for this time, should next post continue with the theme of summer heat and southern sounds or is it time to cool down with some freezing northern noise? Or perhaps as a more neutral option something from Central(-ish) Europe? Cast your vote and it might actually matter!

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo '98

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo 12/97 (1998)
1) Winds of Battle
2) In the Forest of the Nightwolfs
3) Southern Holocaust
4) Pagan Blood
5) Ancient War Spirit

RGhost / Mediafire

Our usual Sunday chill turns south with even more Southern material bringing the heat, courtesy of comrade unholydeath again. Thanks for the rip & scan! Continuing fluently where we left off at the end of last month this is Wolfhord, another side project by Herr Wolf, here known as Warlord von Ravenclaw. Non-metal material this time, "battle stuff" as the cover says seems a neatly vague description. This is the first demo, strangely referred to as demo tape 12/97 when it was partially recorded in January '98.

Five parts, roughly 18 minutes and this "battle stuff" of his is basically somewhat lofi, but very loud and messy mind you, ambient reminiscent of LLN projects (not that much really but got your attention now) and more importantly the various folk/pagan/etc/ambient projects hailing from Poland. The first long track is basically wind samples, synth and a voice groaning/croaking a few passages over it, all in noisy, gritty texture. Second one is more winds but this time dominated by electric guitar which is joined by percussion at times, very folky or should we say volkisch melodies. This pattern repeats for the rest of the demo, all tied together by the slightly over-the-top wind noises. I must dash off now so let's wrap this up quickly; if you dig the old Polish material in similar vein or are in general a lofi dark/pagan ambient enthusiast, dungeon synth connoisseurs included, you might want to give this a shot. Be cautious of the sound though!

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal '89

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal 1989
1) Holyness Lamentation
2) Feast of the Grand Whore
3) Fortress of Cremation
4) De Vermis Mysteriis
5) Outro

Yandex / Sendspace

The voices tell me to continue the Southern Summer Heat Special and we move back to the end of 80's with this sending of master Fenrirsson. Certainly closer in sound and spirit to FNI than R88, this is the rehearal promo for studio demo by Rotting Christ, sent around by master Sakis in the summer of '89. In the end that demo was scrapped/re-envisioned and the result was "Satanas Tedeum" released in the fall same year. There were no proper covers for this one, just dubbed tapes with handwritten tracklistings and I didn't feel like whipping up a mock one so we're devoid of decorations today.

I've seen other rip(s) of this float around the inter nets but since Fenrirsson's rip is of decent quality and has the track divisions made unlike the other versions (which are only three tracks, lumping 1+2 and 4+5 together) I wanted to feature it. Not to mention his tape perished soon after the rip was made. Curse the frailty of cassettes! Spite! Wrath! Dissatisfaction! Right, back to music. This is a short tape, eight minutes roughly, and highly similar to how "Satanas Tedeum" turned out. Plodding abyssic black/death metal. Except when they speed up to grind speeds, for old times sakes I suppose, like on Fortress of Cremation. If you enjoy old school blackened metal of death with rehearsal sound be sure to pick this up. However, if you're only familiar with RC's more recent, bombastic output (like "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" the other year or the latest album "Rituals") or the melodic, quasi-gothic late mid-90's phase you might not be very pleased with the primitiveness here.

PS: Looks like they're touring quite a bit this year. Go have a look if you're nearby, I've always enjoyed seeing them perform live.